RAY CHARLES BREAKTHROUGH!

Meowlo, Peeps!

See, here I am this morning in Pink Bed, all safe and happy and no longer scared.  THANK YOU ALL for your purrs and thoughts for me yesterday.  I feel so grateful to have so many nice people concerned for me when something is wrong.  You can bet I got BEAUCOUP (that's French for "a butt load") of lap time and lovins last night from MomKatt.  DadKatt was anxiously texting MomKatt throughout the day yesterday, wanting to know if she'd heard anything from Dr. B.  He was very worried, too, and was so happy to see me on the sofa with MomKatt when he came home from work.

So, on the "vet adventure score", we all hope that "all's well that ends well".

But wait!  There's MORE drama!!

As if Friday could not get any BETTER (being Friday is good enough, with me being OK and home and happy on top of it), we have big news concerning a certain semi-blind foster kitten, Mr. Ray Charles:

This morning, after his treat time, MomKatt did her usual "put her hand on his back while he sat in her office chair and picked him up for his cuddle time while walking around the room" thing.  She's been trying to do this at least once a day, and twice if she can manage it.  She is trying to get him accustomed to being picked up, handled and held and petted and loved on and he's been OK about it so far.  The time she can hold him is slowly lenghtening from just a few seconds to 2-3 minutes.  When she does this, she holds him on her upper chest with her left hand snugly curved around his body and her right hand/arm curved around his head, petting his shoulder area and his head, and/or running her right hand down his body.

Well, this morning, as they were taking very slow perambulations around the room, MomKatt was talking to him softly, as she usually does, while Rachel bounced around on the floor around them & wound around and through her feet.  (She's a traffic hazard, that kitten.)  The fingers of her left hand were under Ray's chin and, for a brief second, she thought she felt a flutter there.  Half-feeling/half-scritching his chin, she felt again to make sure, but didn't feel anything.

Oh well, she thought, it was my imagination and, while slightly disappointed, she kept walking around the room with him and talking to him.

A few seconds later, she felt something again and this time she KNEW it wasn't her imagination.  Doing the feel/scritch again made her realize what she was feeling, and she said, "Oh, Ray!" and broke out into a big smile.

Why?

Because ... 

RAY CHARLES PURRED - PURRED, KITTIES! - FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER THIS MORNING!

You have to understand this is big - HUGE - for this little kitten.  Tomorrow, we'll have had them as guests in our home for nine weeks and, while Rachel purrs & meows her head off constantly, Ray hasn't made one single peep, purr or meow in all that time.  One evening, recently, MomKatt was playing with them and she *thought* she heard him make a little "chirp", but that has been it.  He hasn't wanted to be touched or held, and he's expressed neither pleasure nor displeasure at most things that have happened - I mean, you KNOW when Rachel is happy (which is nearly all of the time).  But MomKatt has never run into a cat that didn't/couldn't/wouldn't purr or meow or make SOME sort of noise.  It's broken her heart for him, and she's wondered if he'd ever eventually learn to express ... some sort of emotion or contentedness.

She's sitting here typing for me now, feeling proud and humbled all at once.  You push and push and hope and hope with kittens like him, who've suffered a trauma of some sort and have to "learn" what kitties like us do and take for granted:  how to purr, how to meow, how to trust.  And just when you're tired or exhausted or think, "Oh well, he's never going to purr/meow but that's OK I love him anyway" ... he proves you wrong and makes a HUMONGOUS breakthrough when you least expect it to happen.

The rest of the day is going to be a TOTAL comedown - unless, of course, he meows tonight.  ;-)

MomKatt is SO proud of her little boy!  He's taken one more step forward.  She says she can feel his trust like a little gem in her hand - precious, sparkling, a pearl beyond price, something into which she, each day, invests time and energy and, as a result, each day appreciates, gains in value, and becomes stronger and yet more fragile, because she doesn't want to do anything at all that would damage or destroy it.  Something so hard-earned you don't just treat casually.  You protect it, and guard it from all harm.

Ray Charles has come so far in nine weeks, and MomKatt & I are just so happy today.

SO ... I hope EVERYPURR has a happy Friday today and a happy weekend.  I know we will! 

As Nerissa would say, "MOUSES!"

PURRZ!
Selina