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According to Love Meow, when the kittens were rescued, they were about six weeks old and were completely feral. Immediately, they were placed in foster care because they were in serious need of socialization. The cat mom didn't take well to being captured and was ready to retire from being a mom. She was spayed, vaccinated, microchipped, and carefully returned to her colony where she wanted to be.
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"Management will continue to feed and provide shelter, while she will keep the rats at bay," Chris Glazier of Bushwick Street Cats said. One of the kittens, an orange tabby named Toby, was the shyest of the kittens. He attempted to hide from every single human and wanted nothing to do with them… for a while.
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"He was scared and feral when he first came to my place. I put him in the bathroom at first, so I could gradually introduce him to apartment life," Jen Williamson, an experienced foster mom, explained. Toby was given a kitty condo so that he could have a safe place to relax, decompress, hide and sleep. In the beginning, he completely refused to come out of his cave, hissing and growling every time Jen came into the room.
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His very first purr came the next day - after plenty of treats and a lot of coaxing. It was a slow process, but eventually, he warmed up to his human. Later in the week, Toby came down with sickness and was in need of TLC. "He was very lethargic and didn't like being left alone, so he cried and cried if I wasn't in the bathroom with him," Jen recalled. "I picked him up and held him in my lap throughout the day, where he slept and purred. We got him some meds and by that evening he was back to his normal self."
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Toby got a true taste of love then. And after that, he started to seek affection and work up his courage. Suddenly, he became very cuddly with his foster mom and clearly felt more confident and at peace in her presence." It wasn't long before he was out and playing in the apartment like he'd lived here his whole life."
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Toby discovered his love for hugs and started wrapping himself around his foster mom and snuggle right next to her during his naps. "He may be shy at first, but he's extremely affectionate once you earn his trust," Jen shared. "He'll climb right in your lap and curl up and purr. He loves to be held up close to your face so he can nuzzle. He's very sweet and loving."
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Now, Toby is seriously reveling in his cushy new life and all the attention. "He's perfected the art of the 'attack cuddle'—he'll stalk and pounce on you while you're watching TV on the couch, and then cuddle and purr."
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"I have a ceiling-height cat tree in my apartment and he's climbed all the way to the top. He's always up for hunting a feather toy on a string, and sometimes he gets adorably growly." He's still the shyest of all his siblings, but he seems to be ready for the next chapter in his life, waiting for a forever home and a family that could see his true personality under the shy exterior. "Once he's comfortable, he's the biggest mush."
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