Hello everyone! Where should I even start? Well, in short, we adopted 2 more cats into our little family… The nearly 6 months old kittens, Lisa and Hero!
The exact date of their birth is not known. It was Ralph, my husband, who came up with the name Hero for the sweet little boy. They already had temporary names, Nero and Lisa. Ralph had no idea at first that they had these names already, and came up with Hero for the little boy. When you read their story below, and what he had to endure, you understand the name. He’s our little Hero, for surviving it all with Lisa. I’ll keep Nero in his full name, but we’ll call him Hero for short, so it’s Nero the little Hero and Lisa.
The whole story…
This is the picture from the foster home Lisa and Hero were taken care of. It's the picture I saw when I first heard about them. I added the names for this post.
On Saturday, November 2, 2019, I read about the two kitten siblings, who had it very rough until they were found and nursed back to health. Like it happens all the time, and every time is one time to many, everywhere, someone “got rid” of their kittens by simply setting them out by the street. They had to fend for themselves for who knows how long.
About two months ago, they were found in the midst of the rubbish of a construction site. In all, there were 4 kittens, each of them in a very bad state. Dehydrated, starving and the little boy Hero was extremely close to death. He was found with his right back leg severely injured. He was probably hit by a car, or some other horrible thing happened while they’ve been out there by themselves. Hero must have been in so much pain from that badly injured leg, and that for who knows how many days. Thank God these sweet kittens were found in time, as they surely would not have been able to stay alive, in the state they were in, for much longer.
It was Helga, who owns her own rescue and does it all by herself with the help of donations and foster homes, who brought the kittens to the first available Vet right away. That Vet then wanted to put sweet Hero down right away! But Helga wasn’t going to allow that and wanted him saved. So, Hero’s back right leg was amputated and everything else was done to treat all the kittens medically. Then they all were nursed back to full health in a foster home. They cared for them wonderfully, as all the kittens are now perfectly healthy and full of life. Hero’s amputation site healed without an issue and the fur has almost completely grown back by now as well.
Two of the four kittens have found a home already, but Lisa and Hero were still waiting for a loving home. Helga expected that little Lisa would have maybe found a home after a while, but Hero would have likely been left behind. Not one person was even interested in Hero, or both of them in the two months since they were rescued. Even when she mentioned the two kittens to people that were looking to take cats, declined. I ended up being the first and only person to be interested and sweet Hero and Lisa.
When I read about Hero and Lisa on November 2nd, I didn’t even have to think twice. In an instant, I knew deep in my heart that I wanted both of them to have a forever home with us. On that same day, Helga and I had a phone call and agreed that she would visit us the next day (Sunday, November 3rd) to get to know Ralph and myself and see our home, to make sure that the kittens would have a good home with us.
While we were waiting to hear if we would be approved to take in the kittens, I was all over the place. I messed up that Sunday’s dinner and 3 of Ralph’s coffees. Ralph has his coffee black with two sugar cubes. I put milk in one coffee, put 6 sugar cubes in another, and no sugar in the 3rd and had it go cold as well. It was funny.
Soon after we knew, we would be able to take Hero and Lisa. The big day was on Tuesday, November 5, 2019 the kittens were brought to us at around 6pm by the awesome Helga!
That whole day I was so excited, messed up coffee, and did some shopping for the kittens and Murli, Samantha and Sonic. It was awfully rainy that day, so when I went back home from the shop with two cat toilets and a big bag of food, toys and kitty litter, I had no arm free from an umbrella. Even though I only had to walk from the tram stop to our home, I was soaking wet when I got home…
I just put everything down in the hallway. These are the two new kitty toilets I bought that day.
Murli knew something was up anyway…
Murli in the hallway
I got everything ready for the new family members and then, finally, Helga came with Hero in Lisa in a carrier. We had them come out in our living room, where I had prepared an area where they would find everything they need close to them. We knew from Helga that Hero and Lisa were still very shy and afraid of humans. I knew that they would just hide and feel scared, not knowing what’s going on. But at least they would be able to see/smell the food right there, see a kitty toilet nearby and have places to hide and toys to play with, should they feel like it.
The area where Hero and Lisa were let out of their carrier.
You can faintly see the little tabby boy Hero in that photo. Lisa was near Hero, but underneath that footstool. They stayed like that well into the night, and we left them, not wanting to bother them.
Ralph stayed up until about 3am, while I had gone to bed at midnight, feeling really tired. Of course, I could hardly sleep anyway, always listening for what the cats are up to, all of them. So in the early morning, about 5am, I got up to see what the kittens have been up to.
How Samantha, Murli and Sonic are reacting to Hero and Lisa
Lisa on the cat tree by the window. Samantha had just come in too and saw Lisa for the first time.
Lisa is hardly visible, but she’s on the kitty tree, at the second level from the top. Samantha had previously smelled them already, but that morning was the first time she saw one of the kittens. Lisa wasn’t really worried over there. Samantha was stunned, like she could not believe what she saw and wondered about what these kittens were doing in her home all of a sudden.
Samantha was very curious about them though, and she wasn’t too upset, behaving normally and doing everything she always does. She’s still coming to terms with new cats being in her home and getting used to it. It’s very similar to how it was when Murli and Samantha came together in this apartment the first time. Back then it took a few weeks for everything to become normal for her and Murli.
Murli is also very curious about the kittens, but she’s not upset one bit. She’s behaving exactly as she always does. She leaves them alone, and only watches them from, and sneaks after them, to peek around the corner at them.
Sonic is the way he is, a boy who doesn’t get upset easily. He also LOVES other cats and is always friendly to them, even if they hiss. So Sonic made friends with Hero right away, the first time they met nose to nose, they became brothers. He’s trying to get closer to Lisa as well, but she’s still a bit worried, but it’s getting much less every day. By now Sonic, Hero and Lisa hang out together on the bed with me in it!
In all, there haven’t been any big problems with Murli, Samantha and Sonic accepting the new family members. It’s all pretty like I expected it to be, knowing them.
Very late on the evening Hero and Lisa arrived, I decided I feel better with the balcony door secured. So in the dark, cold and pouring rain, I started putting a cat safety net onto the frame of the balcony door. I can easily put it up and remove it, but it’s safe, not even a kitten can squeeze past it. I just became too worried about the little ones suddenly running on the balcony and trying to climb the fencing and falling off the balcony. I will soon secure the whole balcony with a cat safety net, so that they can go out on the balcony safely. Up until now, the fencing I put on the balcony railing was enough, as we didn’t have to worry about Murli, Samantha and Sonic jumping onto the railing.
The first morning after their arrival, we hear them running around and playing in the living room for a while, before hiding under the footstool again for most of the day. But the next evening, about 24 hours after their arrival, they were starting to explore the apartment and played with all the cat toys along their way.
So I sat down on the floor in the hallway, and got them curious with a toy. They came closer and I was able to play with them for the first time!
Playing with Hero (left) and Lisa (right) for the first time!
Otherwise, the kittens were very shy and very afraid of humans. But we’re able to gain their trust slowly, every day a little bit more. During the first 4 days, they would run away as soon as we walked nearby. But that distance before they would run was getting shorter and shorter. Hero and Lisa were also starting to follow us, peeking around the corner to watch what we were doing.
Sonic started joining in when I was playing with the kittens, which is so awesome. The picture on the left is Sonic and Hero. The one on the right is Hero and Lisa.
And so the days went by, until it’s now more than a week since their arrival! These last two nights, Hero and Lisa even came up on our bed for a while. Last night, after going to bed, Hero and Lisa both cuddled up against my legs, which were under the blanket. It was so cute. Sonic was there as well, to the right of me, as he usually is.
Lisa, Hero and Sonic on the bed
Samantha and Murli usually prefer their baskets, so it’s perfectly normal for them not to be on the bed anyway.
Hero and Lisa had lost their frightened expressions after the first two days pretty much. By now they are feeling so much more at home and enjoy watching Kitty-TV from the bedroom window. We’ve had constant rain, so the window looks awful again even though I cleaned it not even two weeks ago.
Lisa and Hero on the bedroom window sill
Hero
Lisa
Hero is running just as fast as Lisa, despite having only 3 legs. He’s getting around so well! But I tried to help him out and make it a bit easier for him to get up on things, by putting in-between steps to higher up places, with chairs, cat ladders and footstools etc.
I also have a video of them playing around the kitty tree on Monday morning. It is a bit dark, as it was another awful dark day and I had only opened one side of the curtain, because the babies were sitting behind the other half at first, watching the street from the living room window. Later I sat down at my desk and these two started playing. So I just got the camera out and started filming anyway.
Here's the link to the video:
https://d.tube/v/catlady.natascha/QmcL9rZaP6B1bxQwHaKJGcCiCrmiisFPQ1osDQLxsA7bZk
There is still more that I could write and post, but I will just put it in my next post. Every day is exciting now, with something new happening!
Like Hero and Lisa coming up to our hands most of the time now and sniffing. I’m really looking forward to them trusting us enough to give them a nice brush and cuddle.
Murli, Samantha and Sonic are getting just as much love as they always do. I love all of them so much! I’m now spoiling 5 cats and loving it! Ralph adores Hero and Lisa so much as well!
Love to all of you! Thank you so much for reading!