Kitten!, continued
Hi all! So I thought I should give an update on the kitten situation, after I was raving and all in my last post. I now have a kitten, and have named her Josephine (partly because I like the name and partly because it sounds nice with the name Finny and partly because it makes me laugh for certain nerdy associations) I brought her home after church last Sunday, so she has been terrorizing my home for one week now :D Currently she's taking a nap in my lap (awwww!!!) but this isn't exactly typical behaviour for her-she's much more the type to curl up in some out of the way corner to sleep, when she sleeps at all (she doesn't much, that I can tell). I've been relearning things about kittens this past week, like how much energy they have (SO MUCH), and how they don't really sleep a whole lot at night, and how much it hurts when they jump on your foot and dig in with teeth and claws, and how easy it then is to swing your foot away and carry them off with it... (I try to do this carefully, and it hasn't deterred the kitten yet, so... ). Actually, Josie's behaviour reminds me of Finny when I first took him in, and I'm realizing this is because he was probably like 8 months old at the time and only just out of kittenhood himself. Suddenly all that tearing up and down stairs with a crazed look in his eyes makes so much more sense...
Getting the cats to get along is still a work in progress. I started out keeping them separated (a fun adventure in my house where several doors don't actually close all the way) with the kitten confined to my room and Finny still allowed to come and go as he pleased through the rest of the house. After a couple days he stopped bothering to go upstairs at all, which made me feel a little bad. Now Josie's got the run of the house (though I'm keeping her in my room at night still: I feel better knowing approximately where she is, because if someone had to get up in the middle of the night, she'd be really hard to see and really easy to step on with her habit of chasing feet) and Finny can still come and go as he pleases, but he seems to please less when he knows she's around. Poor thing. There haven't been any fights (yet?), just growling and hissing and staredowns and then Finny eventually gets tired of the little one's sass and decides to escape outdoors. I was worried he might be more physically aggressive, being the big bad hunter of the neighbourhood and all, but so far he hasn't done anything but grumble. However, he caught a few animals for me last week and has gained a couple scratches and this morning I noticed him limping a little (I felt all his legs and none seemed to be noticeably injured; I'll keep observing but it seems like he'll be okay) so maybe he's taking out his aggression elsewhere. Sigh... I feel like such a betrayer. I'm trying to make it up to him with fresh chicken and by keeping Josie in my room part of the time so he can fully relax in his own home.
I just met with success feeding them both chicken, about a foot apart from each other. Hurray for progress!! (a couple nights ago Finny would only eat his chicken when I set it on top of the stairs banister with him where the kitten couldn't get to, and he'd stop to glare at Josephine between every bite. this time he ate with his back turned to her!)
Also, pictures! This is Josephine in a rare moment of sleep...
...exploring one of my bookcases (she climbed behind those books herself)...
...and this picture is from today, after several laps between the kitchen and the front door (a straight line running the length of the apartment). She was panting like a dog. And still she kept going!
In summary, Josephine the kitten is adorable, she has way too much energy, the cats aren't getting along perfectly yet but they're not trying to kill each other either, so I think we're all doing well.
Getting the cats to get along is still a work in progress. I started out keeping them separated (a fun adventure in my house where several doors don't actually close all the way) with the kitten confined to my room and Finny still allowed to come and go as he pleased through the rest of the house. After a couple days he stopped bothering to go upstairs at all, which made me feel a little bad. Now Josie's got the run of the house (though I'm keeping her in my room at night still: I feel better knowing approximately where she is, because if someone had to get up in the middle of the night, she'd be really hard to see and really easy to step on with her habit of chasing feet) and Finny can still come and go as he pleases, but he seems to please less when he knows she's around. Poor thing. There haven't been any fights (yet?), just growling and hissing and staredowns and then Finny eventually gets tired of the little one's sass and decides to escape outdoors. I was worried he might be more physically aggressive, being the big bad hunter of the neighbourhood and all, but so far he hasn't done anything but grumble. However, he caught a few animals for me last week and has gained a couple scratches and this morning I noticed him limping a little (I felt all his legs and none seemed to be noticeably injured; I'll keep observing but it seems like he'll be okay) so maybe he's taking out his aggression elsewhere. Sigh... I feel like such a betrayer. I'm trying to make it up to him with fresh chicken and by keeping Josie in my room part of the time so he can fully relax in his own home.
I just met with success feeding them both chicken, about a foot apart from each other. Hurray for progress!! (a couple nights ago Finny would only eat his chicken when I set it on top of the stairs banister with him where the kitten couldn't get to, and he'd stop to glare at Josephine between every bite. this time he ate with his back turned to her!)
Also, pictures! This is Josephine in a rare moment of sleep...
...exploring one of my bookcases (she climbed behind those books herself)...
...and this picture is from today, after several laps between the kitchen and the front door (a straight line running the length of the apartment). She was panting like a dog. And still she kept going!
In summary, Josephine the kitten is adorable, she has way too much energy, the cats aren't getting along perfectly yet but they're not trying to kill each other either, so I think we're all doing well.