Break Through With The Kitten

[Midnight_Echo]

Kinda housebound at the moment from the snow... but I saw this last night.

I know it’ll take time for them to adjust to each other, but seeing this truly made my day. Gives me hope.

Since the last time I posted, vet was able to catch Echo up on her shots with no problems (hasn’t attacked anyone). Vet seemed to think that she wasn’t feeling well the last time (or was pissed off at me for taking her to get shots in the first place).

One unusual thing I’ve noticed ~ Echo has an extreme hatred (scared?) of strawberries as well as red bell peppers. Her eyes get small (squinting) then goes into full blown panic mode (hair stands on end; frizzy tail; nails come out; etc). Is this an allergy of some kind? I’ve always had a cat..thru the years. This is the first time I’ve ever had a cat with a severe adversion.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

GOOD NEWS! We progress.

As for the strawberries and red bell peppers...dang. Two items similar only in the fact that they are food items and are red. Does she react to other red items of similar size and shape? A ball, maybe? I'm wondering if something red and roundish frightened her at some point, and since cats do see color to some degree, she is making an association there.

 

[Midnight_Echo]

It’s too weird, ‘red’ doesn’t bother Midnight.

I’ve worn red scrubs before ~ Echo seemed a bit ‘iffy’ but not fully frightened. She’s got a quite a few red balls (the ones that jingle) ~ doesn’t faze her —- now the rest of us on the other hand....lol (..she manages to get the balls into the bath tub and bats it around. It’s her favorite activity at 3:00am). I have a red bag that I use for work; she loves to curl up on it at night. Meatballs (with red sauce), she gets stand offish.

I’ve never seen a cat get so uptight the way Echo did. She seemed to be fighting for her life - got extremely tense; stiff; squinty eyes (death stare); and the painful biting (when she attacks the victim who has ‘red’). The vet techs have never heard of such a thing. My vet has no answer either.

The SPCA couldn’t tell me much about her history. She was one of five in the litter. Minus the love at first sight when I first saw her.... she wouldn’t let her litter mates near me (if they would come to the bars, she’d ‘smack’ them to the side or use her body to bump them out of the way). As far as I could see, the litter was realatively normal behavioral wise. Medical aspect, they all had some degree of third eye lid issues, and some even had umbilical hernias. SPCA paperwork said she was 3 months as of 07/2017. I’m wondering if she’s actually younger than what they originally said. Wish I knew what happened in this poor kitten’s history that has her opposed to ‘red’.

 

[Yanaka]

It's the smell/component. I've only experienced that reaction from cats with citrus fruits (oranges, lemons...); they squint and run away.