::runs in thread, steals kitten, runs out::
Very cute baby! 
Oh, he is a pretty baby! So fuzzy and bright-eyed. I just love orange cats, they’re the best ones! I was going to suggest Nibbler until I saw his pics, and he doesn’t look a darn thing like a Nibbler. I have to second WVmom’s suggestion of “Weasley”. Trust me on this, it just feels right.
“Weeeeeeeeeeeeeezzzleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Heere, Kitty kitty kitty!” Rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?
I’m gonna third the suggestion of Weasley. Imagine the wonderful faux-Snape moments you can have.
After being woken up at 5 AM:
<verbal sneer>
“Oh, it’s you, Weasley…”
</verbal sneer>
Heh. Get him a black kitty companion and name him Snape! Cute kitty!
This is not only a cute idea, but it is a great way to cut down on the hand biting and other attacks. Nothing is better at teaching a kitten manners than another cat, including another kitten. Plus, two kittens are less destructive in your house than one, since they can wrestle with each other instead of spending their energy finding things to destroy.
Kudos to you for taking a hard-to-adopt kitten. He’s a beauty.
I think you should name him Oscar, since the first thing he did was jump into a trash can.
What a cute kitten!
That’s puuuuurrrrfect!
What a cutie!
Our cat Nomar is a biter too … he doesn’t do the hide-and-attack trick though … we’ve had him for almost a year (he was 5-6 months old when we adopted him).
He would bite when we petted him (he’s sociable but not cuddly) - someone suggested perhaps he was getting overstimulated and just wanted to be left alone - so I would just pet him for a few seconds, nice & slow, and then stop BEFORE he bit or tried to grab onto my hand with his claws. I have gradually extended the petting time, which seems to have helped a little.
When he DOES bite, I grab his scruff with my other hand and give him a little shake (trust me, it’s VERY little, especially considering he’s about 16 pounds!) and say no.
So to summarize, the combination of maturity, less expectations on my part, and shaking him the way a momma cat would, seem to have helped a bit.
He’s still kind of a cranky little bastard, but I love him!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/leicestershire/4185904.stm
GF’s one year old cat thinks biting hard, attacking legs and arms, is great fun. Then she (the cat) will be all friendly and sociable. Then she’ll bits again. She (GF) has tried the “withdraw attention,” shouting, shunning, and shoving her hand into the cat’s jaw (sort of trying to pre-empt the bite) all to no effect. The cat strikes me as pretty stupid, as she (the cat) loves petting but seems to make no association between biting and cessation of petting.
Don’t know the answer, and it’s pretty demoralizing for her (GF – cat is having a grand old time biting the crap out of her, to all appearances, and she (GF) looks like some sort of goth teenage “cutter” or DV victim or something with her lacerated limbs).
My cat was a biter when he was little. He did it as a response to petting: he’d started licking, then nibbling, then biting. I cured him of it buy sticking my finger in his mouth every time he started biting. I wouldn’t try to shove it down his throat, just enough to hit the roof of his mouth. It seemed to get through to him a lot better than a whack on the head, since it broke him out of his bliss-state (and he has a hard head and doesn’t seem to notice when things hit it).
Also, my cats really, really hate it when I blow a puff of air in their faces. It’s a far better punishment than nose flicks or whatever. One reason is you don’t have to be close to them, and I think that they associate head-whacks with play, since they play-fight with each other all the time.
Ohhh, interesting…! in six weeks since adoption he has toned it down a little but not that much. From my last post in September, he has got stuck up a tree (chasing squirrels)… he fell/jumped from maybe 30 feet onto the grass, and took off like a bullet after hitting the ground… also started pooping in the bathtub and is growing seemingly exponentially. I’m afraid he’ll need to diet by the time he’s an adult! My gf and I both look like cutters.
On preview – Giant_S, that’s one method I have not tried… will give it a shot.