Day 1 - 100611

I picked Ralphy up at 2pm in Wolverhampton, so we had a delightful stop start journey back up the M6 before we finally arrived home. Ralph wasn't too keen on being taken out of his pen at the breeders, and then even less pleased about being put in the cat-carrier... he jumped round inside there for a good five minutes like a pissed off wasp in a beer glass. He finally settled down once he realised it was all to no avail, and then opted to hide beneath the blanket inside the box.

After arriving home, I at first chose to 'release' him into the bedroom - I put his food and litter at opposite sides of the bed and opened the carrier, and... nothing. Peering into the box revealed a little miserable looking face, attached to a quivering little body, huddled into the furthest corner. He was not best pleased at being taken away from his home to this new place, and he had no intention of making an appearance whilst I was in the room, so I left him to it.

Every few hours I went in and cooed and talked softly about rubbish to try and relax him, but he just hid in various locations around the room, shaking like a little butterfly if i ever looked at him. He had a cunning way of changing his hiding place as soon as you looked away, which was kind of cute and obviously smart, but with all the hiding he wasn't eating or using the litter tray - although I suppose if he doesn't eat there will be no need for him to go to the loo!

I slept in the room with him overnight, in the vain hope that it might help him get used to me. When I went to bed he was on the window sill behind the curtains, looking out of the window - no doubt dreaming about making his escape. I popped my head round to say goodnight and he just panicked and starting trying to climb up the window, so I backed off and decided to just go to sleep and let him chill. Next morning though he was still on the window sill in exactly the same spot - I'm sure he just froze there all night, too scared to get down or move in case the giant man woke up and squished him!

He's clearly not comfortable around me just yet - I never anticipated that a kitten from a breeder would be so much more difficult to acclimatize than a family raised kitten. Though in retrospect; he's not really had much contact with people; he grew up in a pen and was never allowed to roam around; he was surrounded by his brothers and sisters plus another 3 litters in separate pens. It's just going to take a few weeks for him to adjust and settle down, I hope, but that is what this blog is for - to help with my sanity, because right now... I don't think he likes me.