Getting a kitten for the first time.

Well, I brought little Raymond home today, and it turns out that he’s a she. There was a labeling error at the shelter.

So I’m taking name suggestions.

My advice for all cat owners: get the biggest scoop you can find for your litter box.

I learned this when catsitting for people who had huge scoops for their litter boxen. Kinda silly, I thought at first, but then I saw the wisdom of it!

I dumped my teensy weensy scoop, got a huge one, and now I clean the litter box every day, 'cause it just takes three scoops, and I’m done.

Kitty update:

She’s a little bundle of playfulness. I gave her an old waiters’ apron to play with, and she’s successfully stalked and dismembered it at least 50 times. She’s supposed to be relaxing because of her spaying, but short of putting her back into the cat carrier I can’t imagine she’ll relax until she’s tired herself out.

She’s acclimated very quickly, and is already comfortable enough to curl up on my lap for brief periods. My only worry is that she hasn’t eaten much, if anything, all day. I figure she’ll eat when she gets hungry, right?

I’m so glad that you’re both happy with each other! :slight_smile:

Don’t worry too much about her not eating yet. Your kitty will eat when she’s both hungry and completely at home. Since it’s new, she might be a little too curious and/or nervous to be comfortable enough to eat. Also, do you have any idea what they fed her at the facility where you got her? The reason I ask is that if you switch foods on her all of a sudden, it could cause some gastrointestinal problems that might make her a little hesitant to eat until she gets used to her new food. If you’re feeding her something different, you might get a small container of the stuff she was eating at the facility and mix it into whatever you’re feeding her, then gradually, over a week or so, completely replace the food with the new stuff.

Another thing to watch out for, especially when you get a kitten from a shelter, is worms. I know they probably de-wormed her before you brought her home, but it’s very possible that, if she had a flea problem before they cleaned her up, she might still have some tapeworms. So, it’s gross, but when she curls up on your lap, you might take a look around the underside of her tail and on the backs of her hind legs. Keep an eye out for little things that look like white rice kernels or pieces of lint. If she’s got them near her tail, take a closer look and make sure they’re not moving. If they are, or more keep appearing on her fur over a couple of days, take her back to the vet and get her de-wormed again. It’s terribly nasty, but I got both my kittens from the Humane Society and both had a horrible case of worms - I had to take each back and have them de-wormed again. Thank God I knew what to expect with the second. I was horrified the first time, and wish I had known about it beforehand!

And make sure she’s not gnawing at her stitches, too. Oh, one more thing, just based on personal experience, a lot of kittens from shelters have upper-respiratory infections. Since they’re kept fairly close together, infections spread very rapidly, so if one in her cage was sick, she’s like to have gotten it, too. So, keep an eye and ear out for sneezing. If she sneezes a lot, take her back to the vet. They’ll give you antibiotics and she’ll get better really fast, I promise.

She has sneezed two or three times since I got her, actually. I’ll mention it to the vet when I take her in on Friday (where they’ll check for worms, too).

She can still be a Ray…just spell it Rae.

And she looks just like our Macy.

I was going to suggest Rae, also. Beats my other suggestion which was taken from her shelter name: Henrietta!

Plus, then you have your own 1920s-style Death Rae.

Hey, somebody had to say it…