A Little Progress Every Day

Max is still a loving but spooky kitty. He's brave in his own way-- as I said, he doesn't seem put out by my other cats distaste for him. If you open up the Kitten Hatchery and let him have the run of the place, he'll eventually ninja kitty his way out and under the futon. (I've never seen him do this, but I have several times thought he was in the bathroom but found him under the futon. Hence 'ninja'.) He even took a nap with me today on the futon for a while before he decided to hide under it.

He's playing a little with me, but more by himself. I can hear and later see the evidence of this. When I'm home, he's only stuck in the Kitten Hatchery at night, and I can hear him playing with the jingle ball sometimes. Also, I found one of his toys in his litter box this morning.

Not just in the litter box, but, y'know, buried. Very strange. I'm fairly certain that Max is playing in the litter box. He definitely spends a lot of time in it-- he scratches everything up. (Because this includes the "clumps", I've had to change his litter box many times 'cause there was no other way to get it clean.) Unfortunately I didn't think ahead, and was using ordinary clay clumping cat litter and he's been getting himself dirty with it. While I've only ever seen him clean himself after a bath, I have to imagine he's cleaning himself other times, too, and getting all that cat litter into his tummy is a *bad* thing. Today we began the process of switching him to Swheat Scoop, (which is what I ought to have started with anyway, that or Yesterday's News, but I wasn't thinking) at least until he stops playing in said litter box.

I had a heck of a time getting the clumped clay litter out from between his claws. He doesn't mind me touching his feet at all which is good, but it still wasn't easy. In the end Max got his second bath today. I'd not say he enjoyed it but he seemed to mind it even less than the first time. And again he liked the post-bath snuggle in the towel, at which point he started to groom himself, as well as enjoying the brushing I gave him.






His thin patches are starting to fill in. They're still noticeable, but it's coming in as quite soft fur. The rest of his coat is becoming shiny, too. Now if we could just keep his paws clean... :)

He's starting to grow into his round belly, which is good. His ears and feet, though... well, he still has a lot of growing to do before he'll fit those!