A to Z Challenge: Gorgeous Gracie Gets Gregarious

Gracie is one of only two, out of the six kittens and one mama kitty I rescued, that I was not able to tame before having her spayed. But as she recovered from the surgery, she became fairly tame within just a few days.

Gracie recovers from surgery

Before, she would run when she saw me. Now, she allows me to walk right up to her and pet her. The trick was simply to get my hand up to the side of her face. As she rested in the cushy covered bed I had created for her in the heated bathroom, I decided to just start scratching her behind the ear. All the kitties love that!

So, after over 24 hours of not eating or drinking anything, I just reached my hand up and began scratching her behind the ear. She loved it more than I ever could have imagined. In fact, she loved it more than any of the other kitties, actually leaning against my hand so hard that she fell over on her side.

Gracie looks like a pointer as she spots my dog

Soon after that, I was able to feed her. She would not eat out of her dish, however. She would only eat the food if I fed it to her directly out of my hand. I had to resist the urge to throw up in my mouth as she licked the wet food -- which looked a bit like poop as she slobbered it all over the place -- from my hand.

Luckily, the fact that she ate the food also meant that she was getting her pain medication. I had felt like such a bad kitty mom when I couldn't get her to eat the food that I had injected with the medication for a little more than a day. The poor baby must have been in so much pain! My only consolation was that she slept off most of those 24 hours.

Gracie tries to catch a birdie toy

I originally thought that Gracie was actually Grayson, because she seemed like she may grow a little larger. She is the largest of the female kittens, although she does not seem as heavy as Cheetah. I think Cheetah must have more muscle in her teeny, quick-moving body, while Gracie's small frame has a little more fat.

She had actually just gone into heat when I took her to be spayed. That really surprised me, because she was so young. As the largest female, I guess she just matured faster than the others.

Gracie looks camouflaged
in the pear tree

Unfortunately, the tom cats had just started hanging around about two days before I was going to try to catch little Gracie, so I had to get through the weekend by bringing all seven cats inside. That was a really tough weekend, but I got through it. I was able to catch Gracie in the trap on my first try on the Monday after.

Gracie plays with mama kitty by shoving her
in the face with her foot

It's too bad that she was feral at the time, because it means that they notch the ear, as you can see in her photos. There was just no way to know ahead of time that I would be able to tame her so easily. Now that she's tame, however, I'm considering taking her in to be micro-chipped.

She's really a darling, sweet cat. I'm just glad we never have to go through the spaying process again. She can just run around and play with her brothers and sisters and mama kitty in the backyard, free as a bird.

"Is that a doggy in my yard?!"