The Real Hello Kitty

on november 1, 2007, i adopted a 3 month old solid white kitten from the houston SPCA, where i now volunteer.  i named her "hello" after my favorite cartoon character "hello kitty" whose birthday happened to be on the very same day. 

coming home and getting acquainted.  hello developed an upper respiratory infection the 6th day home and we had just been to the vet the previous day for a full checkup.  i took her in again and another few times in the following days as it got worse before it got better.  so we had a lot of visits to the vet during her first 2 weeks and she hated being in her carrier.  it broke my heart to hear her crying in there.  when i took her out, she relaxed and let me hold her w/o jumping out of my arms while in the waiting room at the vet.  everyone commented on how well-behaved she was.  i decide to see how she would do in the car if allowed to roam freely and after driving her around my neighborhood a few times, i noticed she was mellow, wasn't skittish of street noises, and generally just wanted to be close and lay down in my lap.  i stopped using a pet carrier all together on car rides after a few more short car trips together where she demonstrated the same behavior.  after another couple weeks of being acquainted, i noticed that she was friendly with all people and was eager to please.  i started leash training her so i could leave her carrier at home when we went to kitten kindergarten and she was completely comfortable being on a leash after just a couple times out in public.  being leash trained opened up a lot of possibilities for me to take her outside the house with me; we go to petsmart, petco, or neighborhood coffee houses and cafes, sometimes with friends, but at least once a week.  hello gets to socialize with her adoring public which she loves.   

hello's habits.  hello wakes me up every morning by meowing and licking my face to tell me she is hungry.  she is quite spoiled and is used to getting her way.  she is not a hyper or energetic kitten, she sleeps 80% of the day and i usually feel the need to exercise her daily by bringing out her favorite toy to chase.  you can usually find her on top of the kitty tree in her room, or on/under my bed.  what a life!  hello never runs away from me when i approach her (and i love her for that).  at night, she likes to cuddle with me by laying down on my right shoulder and putting her face next to mine with one paw across my chest.  she has a very soft and silky coat like a bunny rabbit.  i think she is a turkish angora mix. 

clicker training.  hello has 10-15 minute clicker session once or twice a day.  her favorite food is canned tuna but i limit her intake because of the harmful mercury in it.  she doesn't have much interest in kibble or treats, so during training sessions i give her canned kitten food on a spoon or occasionally, canned tuna.  hello learned targeting in kitten kindergarten when she was 4 months old.  i used my thumb as the target and was able to teach her the come and beg (sit up) cues very quickly.  once we started clicker training, i used a chopstick to target which she adapted to very quickly.  since then, i purchased a retractable target with a yellow ball at the end of it from clickertraining.com.  she figured out what it was right away.  hello can generally learn a new trick in 2-4 days.  cats have amazing minds and memory.  usually, after 1 session of shaping a new trick, she will offer the same trick to me 2-3 times in a row at the beginning of the next session.  it takes awhile longer to get them to associate visual and verbal cues to get the action whenever you ask for it.  hello's repertoire of tricks include:  come, beg (sit pretty), sit, jump up, jump down, go to mat, high-five, dance (spin around), and lay down.  i taught them to her in that order.