The kittens have been here for over two weeks now. Addie has gone from being a true “scaredy cat” to head-bumping my ankles when I come into her room. Turtle, on the other hand, he is still in full play/prey mode most of the time. He is acting like a typical kitten who should still be with mom, she is his best instructor.

His favorite things to attack are my ankles and my hands. God forbid I should wear my fuzzy slippers into the bedroom when he is out and about. He will attack my slippers with a vengeance.

It can be difficult in these circumstances to be the teacher for such a little guy. His best teacher is occupying the cat room, and that would be Addie. Although she has not had kittens (and she will not.) She goes in for a spay on the 29th of this month, she still possesses all the Queen’s instincts when it comes to dealing with rambunctious kittens.

That being said, a few days ago, we put the two kittens together for some interactive playtime. In order for this to work, we needed to introduced Turtle into Addie’s environment. This will lessen the chance that she would hurt Turtle unintentionally, because she is on her home turf.

Addie is staying in the cat room, while Turtle has full range of the bedroom during the day. At night, he sleeps in his cage in the bedroom.

We are using the best cat/kitten toy on the market today; Nekoflies during their meet-and-greet. If you haven’t yet discovered this unique toy, I urge you to do a search for it. I believe since Covid hit, she shut down her website, however, her toys are still being produced. You can find them all over the web; from Amazon to Etsy.

During these interactions between the two of them, I often see Addie smacking Turtle when he starts to bite her. Although he is play mode this is their first introduction into how to stalk prey. His bites, when not corrected, can really cause a lot of damage. He needs to know where to draw the line on how hard he bites. As stated above the best teacher, for that is Addie.

We will continue these short introductions slowly, until the day arrives when both kittens can share the same space peacefully. It’s always good when you have kittens, to have two kittens that actually play together and sleep together. However, due to the extreme age between the two of them, Turtle believes that Addie is mom and keeps trying to nurse on her. She is not allowing that. this is another lesson he needs to learn.

Here they are stalking the cat toy instead of each other

Turtle, looking up at me with his favorite new  toy a stuffless rabbit. Mr. monkey did not survive very long. His stuffing turned out to be flying all over the bedroom. He’s in my sewing basket, waiting to be sewn back together.

Addie, It really is a relief to see her on the bed instead of underneath it. Slowly and steadily, we are running the race toward true socialization.