The Fun of (Kitten) Fostering: All about Audrey (with some others too)

I think this pace of a post every few weeks seems to be working. At least I can document how Audrey is growing! I was gone for a week for work, and she basically turned into a big cat (in my mind). In reality, she just stopped eating formula and began to use the litter box all the time!

Audrey does have two quirks to discuss. First, let's talk about play aggression.

There has been a lot of information on this online. Basically, it is well known that kittens that are bottle fed singletons (without other litter mates or mom) are.... ornery. I also call it "psycatic". She gets this gleam in her eye and attacks whatever is nearby, and plays inappropriately with what she considered "mom", ie. me. She can be fine one second, and the next second, decide that my hand is typing too quickly and should be caught.

There's a few ways to help her learn how to play in a way that will actually be fun for other humans. I've been using two main methods- making a large noise, or re-directing with a toy. For the first one, if she runs over and attaches herself to my arm/hand, I clap loudly and remove her. She then is ignored for at least 15 seconds. I prefer that my arm isn't used as a scratching board, so I try to make sure I have MULTIPLE toys nearby to distract her with when I can sense that she's going to attack mode. Her favorite is a green mouse on a string, and that bug toy in the picture above that she's had since we got her. The biggest problem with re-directing is that Pepper the dog's favorite toy is also the green string mouse, even though she is not allowed to play with it.

I mentioned in the last post that Audrey still seemed very wobbly at times. She is uncoordinated, but still jumps, plays, eats, everything fairly normally. Before I left, I videotaped her eating. I'm not sure if it's because she has to stand still to do it, or if she gets really excited, but her wobbles are VERY evident here. (First video on the blog! Fun! I can't figure out how to make these bigger on here, and I'm not sure maximizing will work. I do have them on YouTube, so if you would like a bigger version, let me know!)

This video was sent to two vets that we work closely with. Both agreed: Audrey is a special cat. She has some kind of neurological problem that causes her wobbles. Based on the lack of other symptoms, it is likely that she has a mild form of something called cerebellar hypoplasia. It's not super common, but it effects how the cat walks and stands. Some videos you can find of CH cats show a crazy stance that makes it seem like they are trying to walk on their tip-toes. Audrey just has a bit of that. CH does not effect quality of life or life expectancy. She won't feel any different than another cat.

The only way to really confirm CH is for an MRI. There are no pet MRI options in South Dakota, and it would also likely cost close to $2,000! Since we can't confirm that she has it, we decided that we will likely see if we can find someone with experience with neuro-challenged (probably not a term, but it fits), and see if they are interested.

For now, we treat her normally, and she continues to grow and thrive. I can't believe it's been six weeks. We're expecting some more kittens this weekend. I'm sure they'll be a great influence (fingers crossed) for Audrey, and I'll be showing them all on the blog soon!

Here's another video. You can see that she is quite capable, but isn't quite steady and is very uncoordinated (note the flip at the end).