# Here We Go Again: Choco-kitty!



## dt8thd

This is the as-of-yet unnamed (I've been calling her Choco-cat for lack of a better name) kitty that I will be bringing home tomorrow. I'm assuming the cat's female because I was told so by the person who brought her in to the centre, but I haven't had an opportunity to verify that yet. She's a semi-feral cat that was trapped on Monday night by another trapper, but, as it turns out, she was already TNRed about 2 months ago--the trapper didn't notice her eartip. I remember noticing her when she came in the first time and thinking that it was a shame that she wasn't adoptable because she was such a beautiful and unique kitty.

Choco-cat was going to be returned to the colony today, but I've been thinking about her since she came in on Monday, and I couldn't let her go back knowing that she'd been returned to the colony previously and had managed to find her way back to the centre--almost like she was asking to be given a second chance. She's semi-feral, but less so than other cats I've socialized in the past, including Miss Autumn. Choco-cat was meowing when she was brought in, and, from the few minutes I spent getting her settled in her trap, it's obvious that she has the potential to be a pet again. It's sad, but we often have to return socialize-able cats to their colonies due to lack of resources. We had three consecutive feral spay/neuter clinic dates on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday this week, so most of us trappers were out catching cats; most of the cats we trapped were kittens, which is good in the sense that they'll be socialized and hopefully found homes for, but it means that anyone who had the space, ability, and patience to rehabilitate an adult semi-feral is waaaay too busy with kittens to try, especially since kittens are so much easier to socialize and get adopted. I had to at least try with Choco-cat though; the way she looked at me, I felt like she was asking me to help her. 

And, considering her unusual colouration, I think I'll be easier to find her a forever home than it might otherwise be. Nope, it's not just a trick of the light, Choco-cat really is _chocolate brown_ and white! I'll post more pictures once I get her home and settled, the photo above was taken with my phone camera while she was still in the trap.


----------



## cat owner again

I think she is beautiful and doesn't even look as scared to death as the ones I trapped.


----------



## 10cats2dogs

Look at those Big Huge Eyes!!
Poor baby!
Good on you for giving her a chance!!


----------



## Carmel

Wow! Gorgeous! Send her my way.  I'm the self proclaimed chocolate-obsessed cat and dog person, but I've never owned one... and likely never will since they're so rare outside of purebreds, especially for cats.

At the sanctuary of 700+ I can only think of one chocolate kitty, and they also have some white, although they're long haired with white feet, a bib, and a little white spot on their nose.


----------



## dt8thd

Yes, she's very unusual. I've never seen a kitty her colour in person before. And, hey, I could always ship her to you. ;-)


----------



## Mitts & Tess

She a beauty. She looks amazing calm in the trap!!!!!!

Thanks dt8thd for taking a chance on her. Must have been fate shes back again. 

Looking forward to hearing about her.


----------



## wallycat

What a sweet face.
I am sure she will repay you in lots of purrs and cuddles!


----------



## dt8thd

wallycat said:


> What a sweet face.
> I am sure she will repay you in lots of purrs and cuddles!


I certainly hope so. 

Choco-cat is in her trap in my garage right now. She has a vet appointment tomorrow at noon, and, provided she gets a clean bill of health, I'll be moving her into a big crate in my room tomorrow afternoon. She is definitely not a feral cat, she meowed at me for food when I opened a can of wet at the Recovery Centre, tolerates brief light touches, and responds in kind to long slow blinks.

I'm pretty excited about her.


----------



## TinyPaws

Oh she is utterly stunning! Thank you for giving this baby a second chance. It is amazing how things like this work out! I've never actually seen a choco and white kitty before either - she is very unique!


----------



## Marcia

What a pretty face! I think Choco or Cocoa are great names! Or Sepia or Henna. Those are synonym for chocolate. I'm looking forward to the updates already!!


----------



## JungliBillis

She is so pretty! It's so kind of you to try and help her.


----------



## dt8thd

So, I took Choco-cat to the vet today, and $300 dollars later, she's been given a clean bill of health. The vet thinks she's a few years old. She's pretty small and is quite skinny, but weighs more than I thought she would at about 7 lbs. She didn't want to come out of the trap at first, so I had to wrangle her out, but I was able to do so with my bare hands, and she wasn't at all aggressive; although I did get pooped on, so maybe she was a bit passive-aggressive, lol. Once I got her out of the trap, she sat in my arms and buried her face in my neck. Obviously a big bad feral.  I knew she was pretty tame, but I didn't realize that she was _that_ tame! I'm so glad I made the decision to bring her home. I don't know that she'll want me to pick her up right away, but knowing that I can with very little drama is awesome because it gives me an idea of where she's at, and having access to physical touch will really accellerate the socialization process.

Choco-cat has enjoyed every kind of food I've given her so far, but, wow, she _demolished_ the can of Natural Balance - Duck and Pea I hand fed to her this afternoon! I'm going to continue to give her a variety of foods, so that she doesn't become a picky eater like Dinah (my previous foster) is, but I'll definitely be picking up some more NB tomorrow.


----------



## 10cats2dogs

Choco kitty!! Yea, good for you!!
Its so wonderful she's going to have a chance because of you!! :thumbup:
Looking forward to the further adventures of...Choco and you!


----------



## dt8thd

Thanks for the well-wishes everyone! I made sure to tell Choco-cat what you all thought of her, and she sends her thanks in the form of long, slow blinks of contentment. 

And, thanks for the name suggestions Marcia! I haven't settled on anything yet, I have a bad habit of agonizing over cat names, but I love to hear everyone's ideas!


----------



## TinyPaws

dt8thd said:


> she sends her thanks in the form of long, slow blinks of contentment.


Lots of slow blinks back from me and the gang! So glad to hear she is doing well and great news she is letting you pick her up already !


----------



## dt8thd

Choco-cat, despite trashing her crate the first night she spent in my room, is apparently quite fastidious. I was awoken at 4AM this morning to the sound of her using her litter box. I probably wouldn't have even really registered the sound, just rolled over and gone back to sleep... had she not then meowed every 5 seconds for the next half hour. And, Choco-cat does not have a quiet meow; nope, she has a loud, whiny Siamese meow. So, after about 20 minutes of listening to litter scraping and whining, I finally leaned down off the end of my bed to see her standing beside her litter box and staring at me, one paw inside, gesturing at the little pile of poop like _"Well? Aren't you going to do something about that?!"_. Lol!

I did a bit of research on the genetics of chocolate-colored cats. Choco-cat's unique colour is unique because the gene responsible for chocolate-coloured cats is recessive and is only prevalent in a couple of breeds, such as the Oriental Shorthair, Burmese, and Havana Brown. So, for Choco-cat, whom I can only assume is a moggie, to be chocolate brown, both of her parents would have had to be carriers of the chocolate-colour gene, which would have given Choco-cat a 25% chance of being born with chocolate brown fur. I strongly suspect that Choco-cat had a purebred parent or grandparent(s) because of her colour, but also because of her shape, which is very much like that of a Siamese or Oriental. 

One of the trappers who has been TNR-ing the colony where Choco-cat was caught said that they had trapped a litter of Choco-cat's kittens 3-4 months ago, and that 2 were brown/brown & white like Choco-cat, and the other 2 were seal or chocolate pointed, which was interesting to learn, since it would indicate that there's at least one other cat in the colony who's a carrier of the chocolate gene; perhaps a male sibling?

Anyway, I'll try to have pictures for you tonight.


----------



## 10cats2dogs

Thanks for sharing the interesting background of genetics for 'Brown' coloured cats!!


----------



## Fran

She's lovely, and it's fun to hear her story unfold! 

How about calling her Coco Chanel  because she's elegant? Coco for short, of course...

Fran


----------



## dt8thd

Fran said:


> She's lovely, and it's fun to hear her story unfold!
> 
> How about calling her Coco Chanel  because she's elegant? Coco for short, of course...
> 
> Fran


Thanks, I'll be sure to pass your compliment on. 

Coco is a cute name. I'll have to take a look at her to see if she looks like a Coco. I enjoy the naming process, but it takes me a while sometimes to settle on a name. Ramona was really hard to name; none of the names we came up with seemed to really suit her. She was known as "kitten" for about 4 months before I finally settled on Ramona. :roll:


----------



## dt8thd

Choco-cat spent her first day in my room in her crate, but I decided to let her out the following day, as she was interested in exploring, and I needed to clean up the mess she had made of the crate's interior anyway. She was fine all day on Monday and on Monday night, and she was happy to eat her food out of my hand on Tuesday morning, but when I got home from work on Tuesday, she seemed quite scared and had peed on my bed. I tried to reassure her, sprayed some Feliway on the sheet over top of her crate, scooped her pan (which did have pee in it), and pulled off my sheets and mattress cover, only to realize that the pee had soaked in all the way down to the mattress! So, I pretreated the sheets and threw them in the wash; I also used laundry soap, plus a pet stain and odour eliminator on the mattress, which seems to have worked. I ran downstairs to the laundry room to put the sheets in the machine, come back upstairs, and walked in on Choco-cat peeing smack dab in the centre of the mattress!

Choco-cat is back in her crate for a while. I'll try letting her out again when she's had a bit more time to get used to the smells and sounds of her new environment. It's entirely possible that Choco-cat smells my last foster, Dinah, on the bed, but I can't really wash the mattress to get rid of the smell if that's the case. I did vacuum the whole room, including the mattress, really thoroughly right before I moved Choco-cat in, but I'm not a cat, so I can't tell if the bed still smells like Dinah or not.

Anyway, here's a picture of Miss Choco-cat hanging out behind my curtains, before she violated her probation.


----------



## 10cats2dogs

Ah....I just Love her little Face! 
Poor girl, her eyes are Huge!
She probably does need to 'Stabilize' for a bit!
I think she's in good hands!


----------



## dt8thd

7cats2dogs said:


> Ah....I just Love her little Face!
> Poor girl, her eyes are Huge!
> She probably does need to 'Stabilize' for a bit!
> I think she's in good hands!


Thanks, I certainly hope so. I'm a bit worried about how she'll be when I get home tonight; we have cleaners who come and do the dusting, vacuuming, bathrooms, etc. every other Thursday. I've closed my door, so they won't be going in my room, but they'll be vacuuming in the hallway and the adjacent bedroom. I asked my mother to let them know that Choco-cat is in my room and to please try not to make too much noise, so that's all I can really do, I guess. I'm sure the cleaners will do their best to be quiet, they're also big-time cat lovers.


----------



## Mitts & Tess

I bet shell be fine with the noise. She has to get use to it if she is going to be an indoor cat in a new home. That will get her ready for it!


----------



## dt8thd

Mitts & Tess said:


> I bet shell be fine with the noise. She has to get use to it if she is going to be an indoor cat in a new home. That will get her ready for it!


Yeah, I know you're right that she'll have to get used to household noises. I guess I'm just a little apprehensive because of the setback she had on Tuesday. _Something_ spooked her while I was at work, but I have no idea what. I know Choco-cat is hyper-sensitive right now, which, of course, makes perfect sense having gone from living in a feral colony to living in a bedroom in the space of a week; it'll just take time, and a few freak-outs for her to realize that she's safe now. I do worry about her a little when I'm at work though.


----------



## 10cats2dogs

You know you'll have to post what you find after you get home!!!
Was she quiet as a church mouse or...more like a white tornado!!! :jump


----------



## Mitts & Tess

Maybe a feliway dispenser plug in would calm her???


----------



## dt8thd

7cats2dogs said:


> You know you'll have to post what you find after you get home!!!
> Was she quiet as a church mouse or...more like a white tornado!!!


Choco-cat was ok when I got home, a bit scared, but ok. She seems to alleviate her anxiety by destroying her living quarters, and she's completely shredded all of her newspaper over the last couple of days, so I decided to clean all of the paper out and replace it with a towel and sweep the inside of the crate (or as much of it as I could get at with her sitting in there). It was kind of funny though because, while Choco-cat was unhappy with me for removing her newspaper, she was actually quite curious about the little hand broom; she kept stretching forward, trying to smell it, as I was sweeping. 

I scoop Choco-cat's pan 3 times a day, and I make sure there's no old food left in her crate (there never is, Choco-cat has demolished any and every food I've given her so far), but the smell is still pretty bad, even after cleaning out the paper and sweeping--and I'm used to the smell of feral cats. I think I'm going to have to move Choco-cat into a carrier and take the crate outside and hose it down.



Mitts & Tess said:


> Maybe a feliway dispenser plug in would calm her???


I have the spray, and I've been using it on the sheet I have draped over Choco-cat's crate, but it might be helpful for her to have a plug-in as well; I don't know how long the smell from the spray persists. I will pick up a dispenser next time I stop by the vet's office. I do think the Feliway calms her down a bit.


----------



## dt8thd

My mother went out and purchased a waterproof sheet for my bed today while I was at work, so I can try letting Choco-cat out of her crate again. I'm concerned that she's just going to pee on the bed again, considering that she peed on the actual mattress, but I have no idea what the heck to do about it. I've scrubbed the stupid thing with laundry soap and enzyme cleaner twice now, and it smells a lot better, but I can still smell pee if I stick my nose right up to the spot, and if _I_ can smell it, Choco-cat can sure as heck smell it. There's no flipping way I can afford a new mattress, and it seems incredibly wasteful to throw out an expensive mattress just because _the cat_ can smell pee on it! I don't know what I'll do if she can't help herself from doing it again. I plan to leave the plastic sheet on, but I can't be washing all of my sheets every single day! I'm thinking I may have to resort to putting some sort of deterrent on top of the bed when I'm not in the room.


----------



## dt8thd

My mother emailed me at work yesterday to let me know that Choco-cat had been very vocal all day, so I decided to let her out of her crate for a few hours last night. She didn't pee on the bed, but I was in the room the whole time, so she didn't venture on to the bed at all. She mostly sat on the window sill and meowed, and meowed, and meowed, and meowed, and meowed, ad infinitum, in her loud, obnoxious, Siamese-style meezer. Mostly, I think she just really wants to go outside. The first thing she always does when I let her out of her crate is climb the window screens. Hopefully the crying and screen climbing will get better once she begins to feel more comfortable with people and the environment. Lol, I'm also hoping that her poop will start smelling better soon. I went upstairs after breakfast to give Choco-cat her food and to scoop, and the smell when I opened the door just about bowled me over! I ended up having to toss all of the litter and wash the box out with disinfectant. I think I'm going to let her loose again tonight, so I can hose down her crate again.

I took some pictures of Choco-cat sitting on my windowsill, but I can't upload them at work, so I may post them tonight, depending on what time it is when I get back from the seminar I'm attending downtown at the Toronto Humane Society after work.


----------



## camskyw

dt8thd said:


> My mother went out and purchased a waterproof sheet for my bed today while I was at work, so I can try letting Choco-cat out of her crate again. I'm concerned that she's just going to pee on the bed again, considering that she peed on the actual mattress, but I have no idea what the heck to do about it. I've scrubbed the stupid thing with laundry soap and enzyme cleaner twice now, and it smells a lot better, but I can still smell pee if I stick my nose right up to the spot, and if _I_ can smell it, Choco-cat can sure as heck smell it. There's no flipping way I can afford a new mattress, and it seems incredibly wasteful to throw out an expensive mattress just because _the cat_ can smell pee on it! I don't know what I'll do if she can't help herself from doing it again. I plan to leave the plastic sheet on, but I can't be washing all of my sheets every single day! I'm thinking I may have to resort to putting some sort of deterrent on top of the bed when I'm not in the room.


Is there anyway that you can flip the mattress and then the smell might be more disguised being on the bottom and then put on the plastic sheet and see how she does. Just a thought


----------



## dt8thd

camskyw said:


> Is there anyway that you can flip the mattress and then the smell might be more disguised being on the bottom and then put on the plastic sheet and see how she does. Just a thought


It's a good idea, but unfortunately it won't work in this particular case because I have a pillow-top mattress. I appreciate the suggestion though!


----------



## 10cats2dogs

I think it was Marcia (?) Who had suggested literally, to soak the pee spots on the mattress with a good odor out product and let it dry in the sun...
Pillow tops are expensive!
I know when my big dog had a few accidents in my den, I had to use enough of the cleaning/odor out stuff, so it would soak all the way through the carpet, the pad, and into the flooring!
Good Luck with your Big Eyed Girl!


----------



## dt8thd

7cats2dogs said:


> I think it was Marcia (?) Who had suggested literally, to soak the pee spots on the mattress with a good odor out product and let it dry in the sun...
> Pillow tops are expensive!
> I know when my big dog had a few accidents in my den, I had to use enough of the cleaning/odor out stuff, so it would soak all the way through the carpet, the pad, and into the flooring!
> Good Luck with your Big Eyed Girl!


Yeah, I may have to try buying a new bottle of enzyme cleaner and just completely soaking the whole thing. Lol. It's so exasperating when cats go outside the litterbox, but it's not exactly unexpected when the perpetrator is a new foster kitty. I've been scooping her pan everytime I see clumps--I don't want to give her any excuse not to use it.


----------



## 10cats2dogs

I don't know if she had to share litter pan, with others before...
She still may trying to understand that she's got her own toilet now!
Reason my big dog (Lady) had pee accidents was she was at a shelter and got used to going indoors...before them, she may have been kept as mostly outdoors...
A big dog has big pees! Argh, like Niagra Falls!!
I am very lucky with my cats! No toilet issues. So Far...!


----------



## dt8thd

7cats2dogs said:


> I don't know if she had to share litter pan, with others before...
> She still may trying to understand that she's got her own toilet now!
> Reason my big dog (Lady) had pee accidents was she was at a shelter and got used to going indoors...before them, she may have been kept as mostly outdoors...
> A big dog has big pees! Argh, like Niagra Falls!!
> I am very lucky with my cats! No toilet issues. So Far...!


Could be. She's been living outside with a feral colony for the last few months, but I belive she was relocated to that colony after being TNRed by another trapper who removed her from a woman who was hoarding unfixed feral cats in her appartment...:???:.

Choco-cat has been very good about using her litterbox, with the exception of the bed peeing incident(s), but I think she might have done it because my mattress probably smells like other cats. ...Ugh, that sounds really gross. I mean that Choco-cat may be able to smell something on the mattress that a person couldn't. I do vacuum the mattress when I wash my sheets! My own cats always want to "help" when I'm taking the sheets off or putting them back on, so they end up rolling around on the mattress itself--maybe Choco-cat was reacting to that? Or maybe she's just expressing her displeasure about the new accomodations.

I can imagine that dog pee would also be pretty bad. I feel like cat pee smells worse because it's more concentrated, but the sheer volume of pee produced by a large-breed dog would probably make dog urine stains on the carpet more difficult to conceal.


----------



## 10cats2dogs

Dt8, If Choco-cat came from a hoarding environment, that could explain a lot of things...poor girl...
Just continue being patient with her and try to get her involved in some kind of play!
Continue to show her, that You, can be trusted!
Keep Her litter box very clean, But I know this is going to sound weird, leave her the most recent poo in the box, just lightly cover it...
This may help to point out to her, This is Her Box!! (Territory Marker!)
And definitely SOAK your mattress with a good enzyme cleaner!
And believe me, even dog pee if not taken care of immediately will smell!
We did win the battle tho, and now she even tells us that she needs outside!!
Choco-cat deserves a chance...
And I'm so happy that you're the one to give it to her!!


----------



## JungliBillis

Sounds like Choco-cat has a long way to go, but I'm very impressed with how you are handling her and the whole thing with her peeing on your mattress. You don't sound impatient or angry at her, and from that, I can tell that she is in a very good hand. I think anyone would be frustrated, but it sounds like you understand Choco-cat's situation and sympathize with her. Kudos to you!


----------



## dt8thd

JungliBillis said:


> Sounds like Choco-cat has a long way to go, but I'm very impressed with how you are handling her and the whole thing with her peeing on your mattress. You don't sound impatient or angry at her, and from that, I can tell that she is in a very good hand. I think anyone would be frustrated, but it sounds like you understand Choco-cat's situation and sympathize with her. Kudos to you!


Lol, yes, Choco-cat needs a bit of work, but she's really quite good for a semi-feral cat that I've only had for a week and a half. I immediately singled her out from the 40 or so cats that were in the Recovery Centre two weeks ago because of how obviously tameable she was.

Inappropriate toileting habits aren't a lot of fun to deal with and are often cited as the reason why an owner chooses to surrender their pet to a shelter, but they can be overcome. As exasperating as coming home to pee on your bed is, it's not something I feel I _can_ be mad about. Getting upset doesn't do anything to solve the problem, but it could certainly make it worse. When it comes down to it, I'm the one who chose to foster Choco-cat, and I owe it to her to make an effort to understand what she's trying to tell me.

I definitely get the impression that Choco-cat is bored, since I'm at work during the day, and she seems to favour destructiveness as a means of alleviating her boredom. It's possible that the bed wetting is related. It's tricky though because I can't allow Choco-cat out of my room at this point, both because she's still unsure of people, and because my cats would have a fit. I'll have to think up activities to occupy Choco-cat while I'm away. Maybe a Turbo Scratcher? My cats all really like and use the one we have on the floor in the livingroom.


----------



## Carmel

From your description of her she's the tamest semi-feral I've heard of from right off the bat.  I hope everything keeps improving... especially in regards to that bed peeing, a cat peeing on your bed isn't acceptable, so I really really hope this isn't going to be a continued problem. I remember with Jasper that's the exact type of behavior I was paranoid about experiencing from him, because I wouldn't have had time to deal with it on top of dealing with a semi-feral, but even when he wasn't neutered he was fastidious about the litter box.


----------



## dt8thd

Carmel said:


> From your description of her she's the tamest semi-feral I've heard of from right off the bat.  I hope everything keeps improving... especially in regards to that bed peeing, a cat peeing on your bed isn't acceptable, so I really really hope this isn't going to be a continued problem. I remember with Jasper that's the exact type of behavior I was paranoid about experiencing from him, because I wouldn't have had time to deal with it on top of dealing with a semi-feral, but even when he wasn't neutered he was fastidious about the litter box.


Yeah, it might be more accurate to call her semi-tame, instead of semi-feral. She's not as tame as a stray cat, but it's clear that she's more curious about than afraid of people. She hisses and "angry meows" sometimes when I approach her crate, but I'm sure she'll give that up soon, since she stops as soon as I let her smell my hand and then usually switches to her whining-for-food meow. :roll: She lets me pet her back, although she doesn't always want the contact, and _occasionally_ she allows me to scratch her cheeks or chin, but usually only when she's distracted by something else (food). And, I was really encouraged to wake up yesterday morning to see Choco-cat sleeping on her back with her little paws tucked up to her chest--she wouldn't sleep in such a vulnerable position if she wasn't making progress.

I took a Da Bird upstairs last night and waved it around to see what Choco-cat's reaction would be. She was definitely interested, so I think I'll let her out of her crate when I get home from work today and see if she'll play.

I really am hoping that Choco-cat doesn't pee on the bed again. I have a couple of ideas as to why she might have done it in the first place, but if she does it again now I'll have no way of knowing if she actually has a behavioural issue or if it's because my bed still stinks like pee to her.

You're lucky that Jasper didn't have any problems transitioning to the litterbox. I've found that a lot of semi-ferals do actually know how to use a box, but some of them manage to make a big mess anyway by kicking litter and poo everywhere afterwards.


----------



## dt8thd

I've been letting Choco-cat out of her crate every few days to stretch her legs--while I'm in the room, lest we have a repeat performance of the bed peeing incident. I took this photo last week when I let her out for a few hours. She spent the entire time sitting on the windowsill and meowing to be "let out". Sorry Choco-cat, no can do. Having you run away would be pretty detrimental to the whole socialization process, not to mention my bedroom's on the second floor.

The last time I let Choco-cat out was on Friday. She was a lot calmer, didn't meow the whole time, or much at all, but she did pee in her cardboard cat bed while I was petting her. So, I'm starting to think that she might just lose control over her bladder when she's scared. Choco-cat hasn't ever peed while I've been petting her before, but I've previously only really petted her while she was in her crate or distracted by food. I think the combination of being "out in the open" and being petted was probably just a bit too much for her to handle at once.

I am encouraged to see that she has started to leave her crate and come straight to me when I open the crate door and dish out her food. Food is a big motivator for Choco-cat, which is a trait that I look for when evaluating a potential foster "feral" for socializeability. An interest in food that outweighs a cat's fear of people is a really great way to encourage contact and establish trust. Choco-cat gives me plenty of opportunities, she eats a ton!


----------



## TinyPaws

What a stunning girl. I wonder what shes seen in those beautiful eyes. Everything must be so new to her. So heart warming to hear the patience and love you have and desire you have to help this baby! God bless you


----------



## dt8thd

TinyPaws said:


> What a stunning girl. I wonder what shes seen in those beautiful eyes. Everything must be so new to her. So heart warming to hear the patience and love you have and desire you have to help this baby! God bless you


Thanks.  I hope I can get her to a point where she's adoptable; she's making progress, but we're going to have to work on her inappropriate toileting habits before anyone else is going to want her. Not that I'd blame them, litterbox issues are a pain in the you-know-what.

Choco-cat is quite enjoying cheek and chin scratches now. She doesn't rub her face up against my hand or anything, but she definitely leans into the scratches, and she juts her chin out as soon as I start to scratch around her jawline. She's also started to give me much more expressive looks because she's becoming more interested in actually communicating with me.

On a not so positive note, Choco-cat peed on the bed again last night, and she pooped in her cardboard cat bed. Both are places where she's peed before, so it doesn't necessarily mean anything--she could just be smelling her previous pees, but it's not a lot of fun for me to deal with, and it does concern me that she may have ongoing issues with improper toileting. Luckily, I had the waterproof sheet on the bed at the time. I'm prepared to work with Choco-cat to resolve the peeing issue, but I don't think that it's likely to stop or even be something that I can correct until Choco-cat becomes more socialized, which means allowing her out of her crate to interact with me and become familiar and comfortable with her surroundings. She knows how to use her box just fine, and she always uses it when she's in her crate.


----------



## Mitts & Tess

You have the patience of Job! She is with the right person! Have you tried adding feliway to the mix yet to see if that helps? Next stop calling Jackson Gallaxy so we can all watch you on next seasons episodes! Just kidding. You have a heart of gold for this little incorrigible girl.


----------



## dt8thd

Mitts & Tess said:


> You have the patience of Job! She is with the right person! Have you tried adding feliway to the mix yet to see if that helps? Next stop calling Jackson Gallaxy so we can all watch you on next seasons episodes! Just kidding. You have a heart of gold for this little incorrigible girl.


Lol, I don't know about that. I'm patient with animals because I understand that having behavioural expectations that are based on the ability to reason and act in a way that goes against their instincts is completely unrealistic. I actually have a scar from a dog bite on the back of my hand that I got because I tried to take a rotting rabbit carcass away from a friend's dog. At the time, I was so worried about him getting sick from eating it that I stupidly tried to grab it away from him. It was entirely my own fault that I got bitten because of the way I took his "prize" from him; most people wouldn't see it that way though. Now aggravating people or situations, those I have less patience for. :roll:

I do have Feliway spray and a plug-in for Choco-cat, and I really do think they help. My own cats don't really seem to care one way or the other about Feliway, and it doesn't have any discernable affect on their behaviour, but it has an immediately obvious calming affect on Choco-cat.

Oh, _I wish_ I could get Jackson to come and solve my problems for me! I could leave all the hard stuff to him, and I'll just play with her and give her cuddles. Hey, and he could catify my basement while he's at it!


----------



## Marcia

You are doing wonderful work. She is beautiful and if you can only get a handle on that peeing (I agree it may be fear), she will make a beautiful pet.


----------



## dt8thd

She purrs! Choco-cat purrs!! 

I was scratching Choco-cat's cheeks, and she was really enjoying it, and she flopped on her side and started to purr! She didn't start kneeding, but I could see that her front paws were twitching alternately too! Choco-cat has also started to reach through the bars of her crate and tug on my mattress when I'm sitting on the bed if she wants to get my attention. These are such good signs; she's decided I'm trustworthy!


----------



## pkbshrew

Hurrah!!!!


----------



## 10cats2dogs

Its like winning Gold at the Olympics...
When a Cat decides you are "Cat Worthy" and Trusts you!!!


----------



## dt8thd

My mother bought Choco-cat a new enclosed cat bed. Here she is trying it out. It's pretty cute; like a little cat teepee.


----------



## 10cats2dogs

Cho-co Cat seems to like her new House and the color is very complementary! !


----------



## Mitts & Tess

Awww Sweet picture!


----------



## Sylvie'smom

I've just read this thread from the beginning (new here) and can see the slow but sure progress of Choco Cat! She definitely has started to claim you as her own and I'm hoping the peeing on the bed phase will right itself as she accustoms herself to being a house kitty. You are the perfect mommy for this beautiful girl, being so patient and caring! The person who adopts her when she is ready will have a well adjusted cat thanks to you!


----------



## dt8thd

Sylvie'smom said:


> I've just read this thread from the beginning (new here) and can see the slow but sure progress of Choco Cat! She definitely has started to claim you as her own and I'm hoping the peeing on the bed phase will right itself as she accustoms herself to being a house kitty. You are the perfect mommy for this beautiful girl, being so patient and caring! The person who adopts her when she is ready will have a well adjusted cat thanks to you!


Thank you.  I'm hopeful that Choco-cat will make someone a very happy cat owner, once she's ready for adoption; she's a wonderful girl. The toileting issues are going to be my main difficulty with getting her adopted, especially if it's an anxiety related behaviour because going to a new home is inherently stressful for a cat. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it though.


----------



## dt8thd

Arrgh! We were doing _so_ well! 

Choco-cat has had free rein of my bedroom for the past month. She's come a long way, and she's now very affectionate, always asking to be petted or to have her cheeks scratched. She sleeps on the bed when she's alone, and has started to sleep there sometimes at night. Choco-cat is still unsure about being on the bed when I'm up there moving around or watching her because she feels a bit exposed, but she relaxes a bit more everyday, and this morning I woke up to find her beside me on the bed and was able to pet her for a couple of minutes before she got up to campaign for breakfast. Choco-cat has a ton of toys, which I bought in an effort to stave off her destructive boredom during the day while I'm at work. She arranges them into piles, usually a pile for balls and a pile for everything else. She likes to play fetch with the bouncy foam golf balls. I can't pick her up without getting scratched yet, but I haven't really worked on that because I worry that she'll pee if she gets anxious. My brother tried to pick her up the other night and got gored for his efforts.

I don't really know why she decided to pee all over my clothes yesterday after going so long without having any accidents, but, oh my God, she peed on half my wardrobe! The clothes that she peed on have all been in the same spot since she first started coming out of her crate, and none of them should smell like other cats--anything I wear to the centre goes straight into the wash as soon as I get home.

The only connection I can make is that my psycho territorial cat, Dante, peed on my purse this past weekend. (We've been watching him very closely for signs of a UTI, but he's not exhibiting any symptoms.) I have been feeding a stray in the bushes in our front yard for the past month - month and a half, and he always gets very upset and temperamental when this other cat has been hanging around. I'm sure my purse probably smelled a little bit like the centre cats, simply because it's with me when I'm there. It's never set any of my cats off before, but it's possible that, coupled with his anger about the cat outside , my purse was a logical target. Dante also peed on the floor twice a couple of weeks ago, also because of the cat outside, we surmise. I'm wondering if Dante might be setting Choco-cat off. He hasn't peed upstairs at all, but he's been--how shall I say this? Musky? recently, and he does sometimes hang out in the upstairs hallway. My mother says she didn't really see him up there much at all yesterday, but nothing else has changed recently.

Honestly, I was disappointed because I thought the peeing issue was behind us. I told Choco-cat that I was disappointed, but she just asked to be petted and brought me a foam golf ball to throw. I'm convinced that she knows exactly how cute she is.


----------



## dt8thd

UPDATE:

Choco-cat is doing great! She's very affectionate with me and sleeps right up against my legs every night. She now happily excepts petting and even head kisses on the bed.  I fell asleep on the living room couch last week, and Choco-cat, who always sleeps upstairs on my bed, was asleep in the armchair right next to me when I woke up the next morning, which was pretty darn cute.

About a month and a half ago I began letting Choco-cat out of my room to roam--or rather, Choco-cat began letting _herself_ out of my room without permission a couple of months ago, and I finally just decided to go with it and leave the door open. Choco-cat is completely fine with other cats--I don't think I've ever heard her so much as hiss, and my cats are kind of used to random cats appearing on their turf now. Dante isn't keen on Choco-cat, but then his reaction to her is the same as his reaction to my other cats when he's feeling disgruntled and grumpy. Dante's not a fan of other cats in general though, so growling, hissing, and leaving the room when Choco-cat gets a bit too close is a reasonably good reaction from him. Galileo just sort of looks at me like "Seriously? Another one?!" If he could roll his eyes, I'm sure he'd be rolling them at me. Lol, I think my _cat_ is beginning to think of me as a 'crazy cat lady'. Cosette and Choco-cat get along just fine, but don't really interact with each other beyond the occasional "who are you again?" sniff. Ramona and Choco-cat play tag/hide-and-seek, which is pretty cute, until Autumn gets involved. Autumn is the only cat who has a problem with Choco-cat. Autumn isn't really aggressive so much as territorial, which she can occasionally be with the other cats too, but she tends to chase Choco-cat back upstairs if she feels like Choco is overstepping her boundaries. Choco-cat is a little bit wary of Autumn, but she's definitely not fearful; she's always back downstairs 30 seconds after Autumn runs her up there.

Now that Choco-cat has free-run of the house, she brings me all sorts of interesting things!  Some of the things she's presented me with so far include: the other cats' toys, the pink spa gloves from the bathroom, q-tips, my brother's socks, a tube of toothpaste, a tape measure, a snowman ornament off the Christmas tree, rubber bands, and a candle.

Here are some more recent photos of Choco-cat roaming around the house.


----------



## 10cats2dogs

She is looking Marvelous!! It's so cute she wants to share her 'finds' with you!!


----------



## howsefrau32

Yay! What a happy update on Choco-cat! She looks so happy  

My sister has a little 7 month old calico kitten that plays fetch too. She brings her all sorts of things too. I think this is such a cool thing when cats do this. 

Glad things are going well with Choco-cat.


----------



## Marcia

One thing I really don't like about these posts is there is no date/time stamp. How long was it between your post about the peeing on your wardrobe and the next post?? She is a beautiful cat!!!


----------



## Tiliqua

She's gorgeous! One of my fosters loved brining me presents too - especially my razors. They were never in the shower when I wanted one but often somewhere in the bed...


----------



## pkbshrew

Marcia said:


> One thing I really don't like about these posts is there is no date/time stamp. How long was it between your post about the peeing on your wardrobe and the next post?? She is a beautiful cat!!!


The peeing post was on Nov 7th. The date/time is on the left hand side of the grey strip that is at the top of each post :wink


----------



## dt8thd

Tiliqua said:


> She's gorgeous! One of my fosters loved brining me presents too - especially my razors. They were never in the shower when I wanted one but often somewhere in the bed...


Lol, that sounds slightly hazardous. Hopefully they were meant as presents, rather than... booby traps! 8-O


----------



## dt8thd

This is the image I posted to Instagram yesterday morning. Choco-cat is such a sweetheart! I took this during our evening cuddle time.

I don't want to speak too soon, in case I jinx it, but I suspect that I may soon be the proud people-mommy of 6 cats.


----------



## pkbshrew

NAAAAAAAAW Choco-cat FTW!!!


----------



## 10cats2dogs

Ahhhh Choco-cat....You've been busy weaving your magic spell around dt8!!!
(I thought you might!)


----------



## emilyatl

Ack, that's a hilarious, smoochable smile! She's such a cutie.


----------

