Meet My Pet: Bram

After losing Saar, it got really quiet at home. Saar was very talkative, which what I liked the most about her, and Mathilda felt really lonely. She wanted to play, but Wijn doesn’t want to anymore, so Mathilda felt horrible. We decided it was time to get a kitten in our home. Not an older cat, to avoid heartache, but a playful little kitten. We wanted to sign up at our local shelter to be a foster home for kittens and cats and we met Bram and his sisters. And he chose us.

Bram was born on the 6th of December 2018, arrived at the shelter at the 10th of May (Mathilda’s birthday!!!), and he got home on the 1st of June. He’s currently 6 whole months! He’s from a very sad home situation, he and his two sisters were born in a hoarding house. According to the shelter it was a horrible way to live so they were glad to have rescued them. They all had giardia, which was incredibly sad to see. His sisters were so incredibly skinny and it sounded like water when they went on the litterbox. We went to see them to play with them, and Bram was already climbing all over us and decided that we were his parents now. And we are!

Don’t be fooled by his cute appearance though, because he’s an absolute little shit and I love him for it! I’ve been an au pair to many kids, I’ve taken care of a LOT more kids, but Bram is the most tiring thing ever! I get that he’s a kitten, don’t worry, but he’s hyperactive as heck. Zooming around the place, sitting on top of things he’s not supposed to (which he finally doesn’t do anymore, hoozah!) and bullying his sisters. He’s also obsessed with me, he can’t be without me for even 3 seconds! Where ever I am, there’s Bram. He will even SIT on the toilet with me. Yes, on the actual toilet. When I’m brushing my teeth, he will jump as high as possible to see what’s happening in the sink. He will run after his sisters to keep them away from me and when I’m petting his sisters, he will run in, because God forbid he would get any less pets than them!

He has the tendency to give love bites. Now, cats tend to bite when they are playing, which you can tell by the fact that they will use their back paw like a bunny. This is completely normal and fine! We don’t want our cats to do this as I don’t want them to see hands as something to play with. Don’t want to traumatize a young child when he just wants to play! They also tend to do this when they are losing their baby teeth, yes cats have this as well! These are different to his love bites though. Yes, sometimes he does it for playtime, but some cats, and I suspect Bram is one of them, start biting their caregivers because that’s what their mum used to do. When cats get taken from their mothers too soon, they might have this behaviour. It’s literally to show affection.

This CAN get really painful, but luckily, cats are incredibly clever and after some dramatic acting by me (by saying OW and NO when he bites too hard!) he realised that biting too hard isn’t fun for me. He bites really carefully now, but sometimes gets a little bit overexcited and bites a little hard. Nothing what some drama can’t solve. He will even lick to make up for it. He will literally grab my fingers between his two paws and put them in his mouth. It’s the cutest thing and I just !!!!!! it’s adorable.

At night he will explore the bedroom and has jumped on top of my head many times. He also decided that my ear was a great way to show his affection by biting me there. That’s all fine and normal kitten behaviour, but as someone with a chronic illness that’s focused around sleep, I’d be much happier if he just left it for the mornings, haha!

Now, we tend to get the cats that have some little issues, but we discovered after only a week that Bram has breathing difficulties AND a heart murmur. His breathing is really shallow and fast, which scared the heck out of me as Mathilda had the same issue when she was a kitten and the vet wasn’t very subtle with the :”Well, she either his this thing or she will die in like 2 weeks, good luck!”. We got him on some meds but unfortunately they didn’t work. We are currently still making visits to the vets and hopefully we can sort this out! He’s happy and healthy otherwise, so I’m not too worried yet… As for his heart murmur, apparently a lot of kittens have this issue, it’s really common. Some grow out of it, and others don’t, so we are keeping watch on it with his vet as well. Luckily for us, the shelter where we got him from are taking care of these things free of charge, bless them, what a difference compared to Saar’s shitty shelter!

He’s mischievous, funny, hyperactive but the sweetest little thing. He loves his sisters, Wijn is still a bit weary about him, but Mathilda and Bram play a lot together. He loves attention, loves food, and he’s so incredibly happy to be here, his tail is up almost the entire day! Though he makes me so tired by always being with me (yep even I get tired of my cats from time to time! When you are in the bath you want to relax, not be worried that your tiny kitten jumps in the water with you, haha!) and running around, I’m so happy he’s home with us. The funny thing is, with him being so active, he has really helped me with my sleeping, which in turn makes me feel a little bit better in my body! Cats are truly a blessing, haha.

Bram is a special little thing, and with his medical issues he fits in even more with us than he already did! ♥