Ginger Kitty learns how to cat

Ginger Kitty is slowly gaining more common cat behaviors.

Like lying down on furniture. Just the bed for now, and not for very long, but maybe one day she'll hang out with us on the couch. Or on laps.

I don't pick her up often, but I'm making it a point to try putting her on my lap every couple days. So far she stands for a moment and lets me pet her, then jumps down. But she's standing there a bit longer now than she did the first time I tried, so I'm optimistic.


It took her a long time to understand what the scratching post was for (for a good while, she insisted on picking at the desk drawers instead, even when the post was right there). Now sometimes she'll hang out in that top shelf portion, between myself and my husband when we're both at our computers.

Incidentally, sometimes she prefers the string part of the toy-on-a-string to the actual toy. I feel like this is missing the point, but she likes what she likes.



She sits like this when she grooms her belly (Husband thinks this is hilarious). There's a small patch that still looks bare, but it has some light-colored fur growing in.

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Ginger Kitty is fostered in Cambridge, MA through the Gifford Cat Shelter in Brighton. Please contact them if you are interested in her!

Ginger Kitty continues to improve

At time of writing, she's been in foster care for a little over 2 months. It looks like all her fur is coming back!

Working on the theory that her skin might be itchy because of her FHS and that could be contributing to her overgrooming and scratching her ears so often, I've started giving her omega 3 oil in addition to her regular food. It could be helping, but it's hard to say if it's because of the oil or if she's continuing to get better because she's in a home environment.

As far as episodes go, it doesn't seem as though they've gone away completely, but they're so minimal that it's almost impossible to identify them and definitely impossible to capture on video.

In the shelter environment, an episode involved growling and tail-chasing.

Now, an episode consists of looking startled, maybe running a few steps away, and maybe a 1-second meow that sounds a little more upset than a regular meow. The whole thing is over in about 2 seconds. I've seen maybe three instances that I was pretty sure were FHS episodes.


She's still mostly sweet and a little bit sassy. She's also continuing to gain confidence, and she's starting to experiment with previously unthinkable things like jumping up on furniture. (Still not a lap cat, but that could happen someday!)

She still hasn't met a human she didn't like. She hasn't met any kids, but she has assisted more than one repair contractor by sniffing tool boxes and brushing up against legs. She makes friends easily.

She's also warming up to the idea of eating treats. She won't come running when she hears the bag, but she's no longer turning her nose up at every flavor.

Sometimes she plays with a small toy and gets it stuck somewhere out of reach, like in the heating vent or between the laundry basket and the wall. I think that might be what happened here, except there was no toy. I checked twice, but she was so sure something was behind that trash can that she spent several minutes waiting for it to come out. And then forgot completely and has not done this since.

This little goober is somebody's perfect pet, I look forward to meeting them!

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Ginger Kitty is fostered in Cambridge, MA through the Gifford Cat Shelter in Brighton. Please contact them if you are interested in her!