Feline phobia...

You may remember Hannah's sudden fear of Monkey a few months ago. It spread to KC and all things furry. For months, we've been avoiding the cat, but that was getting us nowhere, so I finally decided to try working with Hannah. After a nap and lunch (full and rested), I held Hannah on my lap while I pet KC. I just kept saying "sweet kitty...nice kitty...soft kitty"...and Hannah whimpered the whole time. All the whining was stressing KC out, so she finally jumped to the floor. I said "Kitty's going bye bye"...and Hannah frantically waved bye bye...evidently relieved! :) That seemed like a good first step...no real crying...so we called it a success and planned to try again another day. We went to the living room to play and KC stayed in the family room.
We really thought that would be the end of it, but Hannah had other ideas. She kept crawling to a spot where she could see KC, whining all the time. She totally surprised us by pursuing her...She clearly wanted to touch her! Now mind you, she was whining hysterically the whole time. As you can see, KC had no interest in baby fingers and kept walking away. Hannah followed her through 4 rooms! Finally, Jenny put out a few pieces of cat food so KC would stay still. Hannah actually pet (slapper) her a couple times! We were totally amazed and amused by the whole scene. Hannah really seemed to want to push past her fear, but obviously had mixed emotions!
BTW...every time Hannah comes over, we're working on this. She's making good progress!! Stay tuned...