Wookie came to my home at around 5:30 yesterday. He was not happy, having been separated from his mother, popped into a basket and taken on a car ride and was hissing up a storm. I worried that all the socialisation gains of the last two weeks would be lost so I covered his basket with a blanket to shut out external stimuli and allow him to relax. Some hours later, I had him under my jersey and he seemed calmer although he wasn't interested in food. It's good to put very young kittens close to your chest, the sound of your heartbeat soothes them.
He got a bit squirmy and moved to my shoulder. I smelled a little kitten fart and got up to take him to his sandbox. I had him in my hands and was about to put him in the box when he let rip with some awful liquid diarrhoea so that he and my hands were covered in poop and he became frantic, trying to climb down the front of my jersey, smearing diarrhoea all over my chin. Of course I wasn't keen on that and managed to put him down and he ran off to hide. Cue some cleaning of the face, floor and hands. It's normal for kittens to have diarrhoea from stressful situations, it wasn't a sign that he had become ill.
I went hunting around in all the corners of my workroom and eventually found him cowering inside a crate. Time to clean kitten butt, tail and legs with a warm cloth. Experience has taught me that if you let that stuff dry on the fur, the poor kitten stinks awfully and poop is hell to get out of the fur when it dries. I got him clean, ascertained that he is indeed male and wrapped him in a blanket to stay warm while his fur dried and he calmed down.
Around midnight, I wanted to sleep and I took him to my bedroom and placed him in the litter tray while I got his bed ready. He darted off and went to hide in the passage. I've been doing some renovations and there was spare brandering wood from the roof and some kitchen cupboards in the passage and so I proceeded to unpack all the wood and move the kitchen cupboards around but.... No Wookie?!?
I had some moments of panic as I wondered whether he had managed to squeeze through the hole in the wall where I had taken out a plumbing pipe but decided it wasn't possible. So: Where's Wookie?
I moved all the wood again and then a little head popped out from under a cupboard. I hadn't realised that there was a space under that particular cupboard and I finally extricated a terrified kitten covered in cobwebs. Time to clean him up and figure out where to put him. I settled on a large cardboard box, as it would be warmer, put him in with food and water and a hot water bottle and covered most of it with a blanket and got to bed at 2am. What a night!
This morning, he was still unhappy and hissy and hadn't eaten anything overnight. It was time to bribe him with food and luckily he liked my cat food sachets and I fed him from my hands, to teach him to associate them with good things. He's calmed down a lot and was even playing a little this evening so I'm relieved to say that he seems to be settling in. It will take a while to teach him to be unafraid but patience, food and play will work their magic.
If you are wondering what all of this is about, the first part of Wookie's story is here: @nikv/oops-i-did-it-again-wookies-story-so-far