As I’ve noted in a previous blog post, my wife and I have been fostering a brother/sister pair of cats, named Mandarin and Mango, for the past several weeks. Some more recent pictures, first of Mandarin at play:
and of Mango, out in the open:
The fostering has been a slow process; unlike our first two foster kitties, Mango and Mandarin were unaccustomed to human companionship and very guarded. At first, both of them would spend their time hiding under a bed or dresser, and only come out when dragged out!
We’ve been making gradual progress in getting them more comfortable, but relatively slow progress up until today. Mandarin would enjoy being petted but not want to be petted, and he would move away at the first convenient opportunity. Mango liked the petting a bit more, but she would spend her time almost exclusively in the tube of the “kitty condo” in the room. Neither cat showed any interest in the attentions of our other cats, who are constantly sticking paws under the door.
Tonight we had multiple major breakthroughs, though we have no idea what tipped the scale! Mandarin suddenly decided he likes being pet, and actually approached the wife and I and sat between us. Furthermore, when our cat Sophie decided to mess around near the door, for the very first time Mandarin went over and reciprocated! He also felt comfortable enough between us to roll over and show us his belly, a real sign of trust!
That would have been quite enough for one night, but without warning Mango decided to come out from the tube! She first circled the exterior of the room before sitting down to groom herself on the opposite side of the kitty condo from us. We thought that was impressive enough, but then she circled the room again, laid down out in the open and basically went to sleep!
We’re at a loss as to explain why the twins decided to adopt a new attitude tonight. The best guess is that our persistent efforts and kindness finally started to convince them of our good intentions! Hopefully the trend will continue and the kitties will become even more loving.
If you know anyone in the vicinity of Charlotte interested in adopting these two, please point them towards Terry at F.U.R.R.! You can also donate to F.U.R.R. here.
“Dr. SkySkull” selects several notable posts each week from a miscellany of ResearchBlogging.org categories. He blogs at 
Skulls in the Stars 