Kinsey – a tale of the unexpected
We adopted Kinsey (aka black kitten from cage #3) as a 14 week old kitten on the 9th of March 2012. My partner and I had come in to CPS that morning to ‘have a look’ as we were planning on adopting a cat later in the year, and wanted to see what the layout was like, and what we could expect when we were going to adopt. We wanted to adopt an older cat or a black cat as we knew they were less likely to be adopted.
Kinsey was the second kitten we saw. He had been found in Cabramatta with his brother and sister and had just been separated off from them to help with his anxiety and shyness. As soon as we patted him he began to purr – we fell in love with him immediately.
We made our way through the whole adoption centre, and as we were leaving to have some lunch, we stopped in and saw him again. All throughout lunch, we couldn’t stop talking about him, so we went back to CPS and adopted him that day! We arranged to pick him up the next morning as we had to prepare his new forever home.
When we brought him home and showed him to his room, he was scared and he hid under the bed and hissed. He didn’t let us near him for the rest of the day or night. We spent most of that day just sitting quietly in his room with him, letting him get used to us.
The next morning, he ventured out from under the bed and let us pat him, and that’s when what we call ‘Pat Therapy’ began. Every day we’d spend hours with him, patting him and playing and talking to him and after a week or two he began to venture out into the rest of the house, exploring and becoming more comfortable. He claimed the best spot on the couch pretty quickly!
He made friends with a red wastepaper basket and spent hours rolling it all around the house and climbing into it to watch us with his big yellow owl eyes. But still didn’t like to sit on laps or be picked up for any length of time.
Every day over since we brought him home, he has done something new and amazing. A few months ago he began experimenting with walking across our laps and now, he happily sits on our laps for hours while we are working on our computers or watching television, and complains when there isn’t a lap to sprawl out on to get belly rubs!
He’s gone from being a scared, shy little kitten to a handsome, affectionate and loving boy. From the moment we wake up in the morning, to the last thing at night before bed he demands kisses and pats and playful attention and we love it!
We love our Kinsey (or Chicken/Nugget/Nugget-head/Kinseysaurus-Rex) so much, and we are so happy and thankful that the Cat Protection Society exists. We can’t say enough about the wonderful staff and the amazing work you do.
Here’s a photo of Kinsey with his friend the wastepaper bin.
