Dear all

Thanks again for all your comments and support.

Merkel (the new kitten) is still very skittish, but is now happy to play, if not to get touched (she mauled the poor vet this morning). The hissing has almost totally absent as well.

Luckily we got the go ahead to get the two kittens together today, and that seems to be really helping both Merkel and Winston as they are now bounding around, sorting out who is boss and taking no notice of either of us.

What seemed to help the most was just leaving Merkel be, but allowing her to investigate us both as and when she wanted. Resisting the urge to try and pick her up to comfort her, when she clearly didn't want us near. Playing music also definatly reduced the crying in the early stages and the hot water also worked, but was a little traumatic for her if I tried to place it near her (lots of hissing etc).

Once again, thanks again everyone. It was great to find somewere with lots of friendly people happy to pass on advice, I'm sure I'll be back online often.

Cheers!