Chappie the Cat

Meet the newest addition to our family, this is Chappie.

She is a shorthaired calico/tortoiseshell kitten, 1 of 3 kittens in a litter and the only girl. When we met her she was 4 weeks old and now she has been home with us for about 3 weeks.

What is she like?

She is 11 weeks old, we got her at 8/9 weeks, and is one of the sweetest natured kittens ever. Her habits are pretty similar to most kittens her age, like chasing feet, eating shoelaces, finding tiny spots to squeeze into and sleeping about 10 hours a day so that she’s up all night… but she also has some unique add-ons like licking eyelashes and pawing your nose very, very gently at 6 am to get fed. We really did luck out with her personality though.

She loves cuddles more than anything else. We have to spend a large amount of time moving her off our lap, shoulders or face (!!) when we have to actually do stuff and that kills me because I just love how affectionate she is. Even with kids, she’s perfect, we even have a theory she is being gentler with my boyfriend’s young children compared to us!

Where does her name come from?

When my boyfriend and I first talked about getting a pet, we didn’t have a clue what to name he/she. However, he introduced me to one of his favourite films called Chappie (you can find this on Netflix by the way – trailer link below!) and I fell in love with the adorable main character of a child-like robot that says his name a lot, like “Chappie got a book, Chappie got stories?” and it just stuck! Convincing his four-year-old to not call the kitten ‘poopy’ was slightly harder but we got there.

If you are interested here is the Chappie trailer.

How is training going?

We have had zero problems getting her settled, she uses her litter box perfectly from her original owner and the transfer to our place was seamless. She really did take to it instantly. One thing we did do is keep the litter box within her view. When she spent the first (sleepless) night in our bedroom, the litterbox was moved in order for her to use it quickly, but now it’s in its permanent position in the living room and she now knows where to go.

She also eats about 3 huge portions of food a day, we kept the same brand of food as her original owner, to begin with, to make this transition smoother but she now enjoys most wet food brands and one particular type of dry kitten food.

In terms of any other training, she’s still a naughty kitten! She’s just about learning to come to her name especially if you have treats (funny that) but otherwise the wallpaper is taking a bashing and she’s still jumping up on the dining table, so we have some work to do! The other thing we are trying to teach her is not to play with hands/feet. At first, it’s cute, but over time she’s got a stronger bite and even though we know it’s only playful behaviour, it’s something we would like to change and get her used to play with toys, not hands!

Lastly, we already have a pet rabbit, so we are going to try and introduce them at some stage. So far, the kitten is interested but the rabbit is not at all. We’ll see how it goes!

Does anyone have any advice on stopping kittens drink from glasses?

What did you buy ahead of getting her?

This is just my own suggestions, so you don’t have to follow what we did, but if this helps we bought the following items:

1. Cat litter (we went for a kitten brand, to begin with, that is apparently softer?) but it works so far, so I’m not questioning it.
2. Food! Kittens eat about 3 meals a day. We started her on kitten wet pouches of chicken in gravy and fish and then have been introducing her to dry kitten food to try and get this as her main source of food in the future. We also have a small bag of “dreamies” cat treats for training purposes! The brands we have opted for so far are shown below.
3. You are going to need a lot of toys! She practically needs a toy in every room to stop her attacking things like glasses, wallpaper, furniture… oh and us. We bought a few wicker balls/mice (they are a huge hit), feathers on a wire are fun to play with her, a scratch post, a laser pen (although we currently cannot find this!) and a random pets at home find which are two balls in the cardboard ring that she can push around. She was not a fan of an electronic moving bag that was given to my boyfriend, as she doesn’t quite understand it yet, plus catnip has zero effect on her currently. However, she has found most items you DON’T want her playing with as fascinating, like shoelaces, pants (!!), phone chargers, mirrors (this one is particularly funny as she keeps peaking behind it in case there is another cat there?) and anything she finds on the floor.
4. We bought her a brand new litter tray which was open (not hooded) and with a slight rim so her litter stay in slightly more than an alternative. So far, it’s worked a treat and it was cheap compared to others!
5. A great food/water bowl that has an inbuilt mat so it captures all the mess but the bowls are removable if you needed. It’s from Amazon and I really highly recommend it.
6. A pretty large cat carrier (for when she gets bigger) and some fleece blankets to put in so she’s comfy on journeys. The first car journey she took was an hour long and she was perfect until we got home and then she puked everywhere, so we are hoping she’s just got to get used to it! Poor little sausage.
7. We also bought a shark cat bed which has about a 10% success rate so far, most of the time she goes in it and then rapidly out.

Are you now one of those annoying pet cat owners?

Hell yes. Prepare for hundreds of photos.

P.s. I did not realise it’s been about a year since I’ve last posted! I’ll change that.