Three Things I Learned About Raising a Kitten

Being a cat owner was something I wanted for as long as I could remember. I did not grow up with cats, and barely interacted with them. The only time I saw cats was through the internet, and boy did I spend hours watching cat videos! There was a time where I knew all of the viral cat videos by heart, I was truly obsessed. With their playful demeanour and cheeky antics, what's not to love? So when 2023 came, me and my partner found ourselves in a situation where we could get our very first pet. I've grown up with a dog, and spent nearly all of my childhood riding my horse, so I am not a stranger to caring for animals. But it is certainly different having your own pet after leaving home.

After careful consideration and research, me and my partner finally decided to get ourselves a kitten. I wanted to adopt an older cat myself, as even I know how much work kittens are, but my partner had already found the perfect kitten, and so just two weeks later, on my birthday, we picked up Nyxie, the adorable calico kitten.

Kittens are tiny.

The first thing that was a complete shock was just how tiny Nyxie was. She was nine weeks old when we brought her home, and my goodness, she was impossibly small, as small as a guinea pig, if not smaller! No amount of photos taken during her kitten months truly does her size justice. I was utterly terrified of losing her around the flat.

However, what she lacked in size she certainly made up for with sass! The moment we brought her home, she walked straight our of her carrier with her tiny tail up, already confident that this new place, whatever it was, belonged completely to her. We wanted to keep her quiet in the spare bedroom for her to adjust, but she sat by the door demanding us to let her out and allow her to explore her surroundings. One thing you will learn fast about cats is you will do whatever it is they want, regardless if it's you want. So, with heavy supervision, we allowed her to walk around a bit. We had already spent the weeks kitten-proofing the flat, covering all the cables and getting rid of anything that may not be kitten-friendly, but there was no way we would let her wander around the flat unsupervised when she was so, so small.

Kittens are like babies.

The first few weeks of living with kitten Nyxie were honestly so incredibly stressful. We couldn't let her sleep in our bedroom at night as we were scared she would jump up on the bed while we were sleeping and we'd move and accidentally crush her. So, she had the spare bedroom with a cat tree and cat beds. But, we still feared that she would figure a way to get herself into trouble, so we took it in shifts sleeping in the night so that one of us could be with her, keeping her company. I've never had any children before, but I imagine this is similar to how it feels - the tiredness, the constant worrying.

Another thing, which isn't necessarily for kittens only, is that anything that falls to the floor is fair game for eating. Whether it is food, a random piece of fluff or plastic. This kitten wanted to eat anything apart from her own kitten food. The amount of times we found her eating something she shouldn't have, took it off her and then rang our vets to ask them if she'd be okay... You cannot look away from a kitten even for a second!

Kittens need kittens.

The older Nyxie got, the more destructive she became. We spent lots of time playing with her, trying to wear down that energy of hers, but that didn't stop her from jumping onto our bed and trying to bite us every time our hands or feet moved. It was time to give her a friend, a feline shaped one. While she might have grown out of that behaviour, I think it would be better for everyone involved that she got someone her own size to pick on. I didn't want another tiny kitten to worry over, so I hit up the local cat rescue to look for cats around the same age as Nyxie (at this point she was about three months old). There were so many adorable cats I wanted to take home there, but one stood out to us.

His name was Preston, and he was one of three males. Apparently his mother was feral, and someone had found her and the three kittens on a street somewhere and brought them in, Neither of them were used to humans, and were all clearly nervous. However, upon reaching into the cage to see if we could convince one of them to let us pet one of them, Preston immediately started purring and rubbing his head on us. The volunteers at the sanctuary were shocked, for he had never purred for any of them before. We just knew he was the one.

We took him home, and immediately changed his name to Apollo (sorry Prestons!). He is only a month older than Nyxie, despite being a lot larger than she is. And, while Nyxie is a quiet kitten, only squeaking in protest whenever we pick her up, Apollo is quite the opposite. He has a proper meow on him, and loves to run around making funny little sounds. The introduction process for him and Nyxie took a couple of weeks, due to Nyxie being a diva and hissing and swatting whenever we'd scent swap and allow them to see each other through a barrier, but she got there. They now live happily together, and Nyxie no longer bites or scratches us!