kitty needs a loving home

Panda was a rescue kitten - she and her 7 littermates were born in a storm drain late august 2008, to a grey feral momma cat. The momma cat, smart enough to get out of the traps placed for her, was little more than a bag of bones when we realized she had a litter, and was covered in sores. When we realized one of the biggest rainstorms of the season was about to hit, and the storm drain was at the bottom of a hill where rain collects, we acted fast, opened up both ends of the storm drain and pulled out all of the kittens. Their eyes had just opened; one or two of them were still shut. We bottle fed the entire litter.

All but one of the kittens were tuxedos, and Panda (who no longer looks like a panda but did as a baby) was one that stood out from day one, and not only from her little baby bear appearance. She did not like the bottle, and by the time she did, it was time to go to lapping up the formula, which she did not like! The little princess had to have her own separate plate from her siblings, and if her dainty little paws got wet, that was the end of her little world! We had the same problem when we adjusted the formula from a liquid to a gruel, and it took her an extra week to get used to it. Once we moved them to wet food, we had a fight on our hands: her siblings were eating 100% canned very quickly, but she had a mix for almost 2 weeks longer. The only thing she didn't mind was the dry kitten food, providing she did not have to share a plate with her litter mates - she was above all the pushing!

Beyond her delicate palate, she was the explorer and one of the cuddliest of the kittens. If it was new, Panda was bound to be the first to see it!  And she was one of the first to figure out how to crawl out of the box; and then later, one of the first to use her siblings as a ladder to get out of the child's playpen we kept them in!

At about 10 weeks old we found a home for her, a family with younger children. Multiple meet ups with the family had us convinced it was a good match. When she was about 6 months old, we got a call begging us to take her back:  the family claimed she beat up the other cat and she was wild and mean. We took her back. We got back a trembling, underweight terrified little girl. Before, she was acclimated to all of our older cats and played with them. Now, if any cat came up to her she would hiss and try to hide, trembling the entire time. She was hand shy, and would hide at the slightest sound. This wasn't just readjustment blues like we thought - it didn't go away once she had the layout of the place again and had put back on a healthy weight. Our biggest indication was when something had dropped and scared her, and my husband went to pick her up - she mewled like a baby kitten and huddled like she was afraid she was going to be beaten. Several months of intensive one on one with her, and we finally got her close to her former cuddly personality. She only tolerates the presence of her two sisters, which are about her size, any of our larger cats go near and she disappears. A loud or unfamiliar sound will still scare her, but happily it doesn't reduce her to a black and white pile of kitty jello anymore.  Now she is only hand shy to strangers; and can be EXTREMELY cuddly when she's in the mood. She does not give up once she has decided a particular human will pet her, and goes out of her way to make 'cute' poses to earn more attention. She is very clever, loves large bed comforters, which she will knead until she's got a nice mound, and then curl up on top of like she is the princess and ruler of the bed. We have not attempted to get her used to younger children; to this day the sound of a child's voice on TV will make her hide. She doesn't seem to mind older kids or teenagers.

All in all, Panda is a very smart, affectionate, and loving cat who is quick to startle and is shy to those she doesn't know. She would be happiest in a home that has only one or two other cats around her size or none at all, and likely no younger children. She 'demands' large piles of fluffy blankets, plenty of mouse toys, a laser pointer and a secure place to hide when she is frightened. And a human who knows she is a princess and must be petted at the appointed times, to be determined by her.