Every day is a new day for babies. They are growing so quickly, absorbing their environment, learning. It doesn’t matter which species, babies are all alike — growing, learning, exploring, developing. As an adult, we tend to get in a rut, doing the same thing day after day. I can’t let that happen with the kitty play time. Today, I’m introducing new places and temptations. Then we had some unexpected outside noises!

Morning Time

Good morning Little Boy! Good Morning Little Girl! This morning, I just want to see how they felt about this human. So, I started play time by sitting on the floor at the foot of the bed, same as last night. Monroe and Walker played vigrously on the bed. Monroe is coming out of her shell. Walker is becoming a bit more aloof. Now that Monroe is playing like her normal self, he is content to play with her. As long as I don’t invade his space, he’s fine with ignoring me. Walker may think he’s going to get away with that.

Then the unusal happened

Prior to getting Monroe and Walker, I’d set appointments for my electrical and plumbing inspections for this morning. Both showed up not long after their morning play time. The inspections were noisy. They heard things going on in the house that I’m sure they had not heard before. I was unable to get away for a mid-morning playtime. What will be their reaction in the Afternoon?

Afternoon

Afternoon play time started with Monroe and Walker lounging in the hutch. They didn’t immediately run under the hutch or under the bed. I entered quietly and spooke softly. No kitties skittering away. Slowly, I peeked into the hutch with the camera and snapped a pic. I moved moved back and spoke softly again. They moved to the side, one more pick. A bit more soft coaxing and Walker ventured to the kitty tree. Considering the mid-morning ruckus, I see their actions as a positive note.

Time for a littel coaxing to get them out …. to play

Continuing with this morning’s play location, I sat on the floor at the foot of the bed. Treat time! I put a treat by each knee Monroe was on one side and Walker on the other. Monroe came up and got her treat right away. Even let me reach out to pet her.

Walker is not as forth coming. When I started videoing he moved a bit farther away from me. So I pushed his treat a bit closer to him. I’m not sure if these treats are not to his taste or if he is not motivated by treats. This boy is going to be a bit harder to psych out!

The videos are not very good, I’m not a professional photographer, plus, I’m trying to play with the kitties as I video on my phone. It’s a bit of a multitask issue. Still, it gives you an idea of their behavior. I’ve tried a few different treats thus far, but it appears the Walker is not excited about treats. But I’ll keep trying until I find the right thing. Since Walker is getting closer to me and exhibiting trust behavior, I want a treat he likes for when I pick him up. That’s the Classical Conditioning, or positive reinforcement (more on Pavlov later!). My plan is to get him to associated being picked up with something he likes.

Kitty Hearing

The other sense I experimented a bit with different music on Spotify. The hearing range of a cat spans from 48Hz to 85 Hz — one of the broadest hearing ranges among mammals. They also have 32 muscles in their outer ears and can move their ears up to 180 degrees. Their hearing has evolved to help them pinpoint sounds. Again, their hearing is a hunting adaptation. Cats do not chase their prey long distances. They wait, listen, and POUCNE!

Quite honestly, I have no idea what 48HZ or 85HZ means. The following is supposed to be something we can hear .. maybe my computer’s audio won’t pick it up or I’m deaf in this range!

They seem to ignore the music for cats and play normally. They do not like Bach and Birds. The jury is out on pure nature sounds. It seems that Spotify stops playing when I record a video. I never realized how quiet that room is. Maybe that’s why the room was Hoshi and Lilly’s favorite escape room. Kitties often seek out quite places to de-stress. I’m hoping they can pick up the noises from the house as I putter around and are getting used to the sounds.