#thistlesthicket

Sorry for the low quality! These are the pictures her foster took while she was there; the second was to celebrate her leaving their spare room for the first time after a little over a month being there. Have I mentioned she’s shy? 

The licking problem started after her foster brought her back to the center, so it might be a bit of a shock when I get a current one of her. Her legs are almost entirely bald, and she’s balding some on her chest/tummy as well. But hopefully that will stop once she settles down with us. :)

(It’s also impossible to tell in these images, but irl she looks like a toasted marshmallow! Her fur is actually kinda “smokey” in that the hairs pale as they get closer to her body - which makes her look even balder than she is!)

Day 30

Roommate brought in a self-scooping box a few weeks ago. We left it off at first so it wouldn’t scare Thistle, but turned it on the other day. Today she was actually down here when it turned on...so she spent the next 20 minutes staring at it from various places around the room.

Anyway, this is the end of our first month! It’s gone so much better than I hoped. Thistle’s a perfect angel whose only bad habit is the overgrooming stuff. We’re still hoping that’ll clear up - we started her on a hypoallergenic diet a few weeks ago, and it’s cleared up a lot of her scabs. Hopefully once she stops itching, the grooming will wind down. If not, we’ll try something else. But, other than that, she’s a peach. I’m ecstatic with how much she’s settled down in such a short time, and I’m eager to see how far she’ll go in the coming months.

Day 29

Roommate took this one last night. Thistle thought she was hiding from spooky noises from our other roommate upstairs.

Day 25

Day 22

Day 14

By this point I’d kinda given up on the day-to-day (there’s only so many pics you can take of a cat sleeping in random locations), but this was another big milestone! These were taken downstairs in our living room, an area she was previously very nervous to go into, especially when people were around. But that day, she hopped up on my recliner (with a bit of pleading) and snuggled right up.

TBH I wasn’t sure we’d ever get here, let alone in the first few weeks, so I was really happy. And in the latter pic, she even relaxed enough to take a nap next to me!

Since then, it’s become a regular thing in the evenings. She likes to sit on the stairs and look at me until I give her the “all-clear” (two kissy noises; for some reason she likes them) and then she runs over and hops on up. Might get a video of that some time if I can, it’s pretty cute.

Day 10

Day 9

I got lazy with taking pictures and posting them (sorry, future me), but since we’re at the end of the month, I might as well put ‘em all up.