Colonel Crumpet has arrived, and he is SCARED. The first day he was home, all he did was sit in a corner and shake. I've got him set up in a big dog crate with food, water, litter, and a cozy blanket. He eats, drinks, and uses the litterbox fime.

I've been taking him out to handle several times a day. At first, I would have called him semi-feral. He hissed and poofed up at me whenever I reached for him, and tried to slink away whenever an opportunity presented itself. Now, I'd simply call him shy. He wants to hide all the time, I can't get him to play with anything, and he's just...not the bouncy, outgoing kitten he should be at his age. He lets me handle him now, though he still does hiss occasionally, and he doesn't run away immediately, though he does try to slink off after a few minutes.

I'm not sure how hard I should be pushing him, so I've been handling him on short bursts and kind of....using his loneliness against him to try and tame him....I hope that doesn't sound mean because I don't mean it to be...he wants to meet Admiral Applesauce, but they're still in separate quarantine right now, so I'll take Applesauce out to eat, and when he hears the meowing Crumpet comes to the front of his crate and tries to climb out. Once Applesauce is fed, I'll take out Crumpet and play with him for awhile. I talk quietly or sing to him a lot too. Lather, rinse, repeat every 3-4 hours.

If anyone who has more experience with feral/super shy kittens wants to chime in, I'm all ears! I'm reading up on other people's experiences taming feral kittens right now hoping for some good nuggets of wisdom.

And of course, this thread would not be complete without pics!

I snapped this one during his nail trim, he was not thrilled but he kept snagging his claws on the blanket and getting stuck!!


So scared.


He likes Jasper though!!


Also, Admiral wanted a picture in here too.