Back by popular demand
(Insert the usual astonished/embarrassed sentence about how long it has been since my last post, here.)
So, a lot to post about, but let's start with: We got a new kitty. It was my big Hanukkah present to the kids (and myself).
There was much drama at the animal shelter; the first day we went, we didn't find a kitty who seemed just perfect, but my mom, who had said she was just coming along with us to look, actually ended up taking home a new kitty herself. We went back again the next day, and this time found a sweet little girl kitty hiding in the back of her cage, and when they put her in the "visitation room" with us, I just fell in love with her right away. The kids did too -- though to be honest, Ruthie fell in love with every single kitty they had there ;) and would happily have taken them all home. But we stuck with one. ;) Then we couldn't take her home that day because she hadn't been spayed yet, and because of the holiday they couldn't do it for several more days. So it was almost a week before we finally got her home, but we survived the wait. ;)
The shelter had unoriginally named her Midnight, because she's all black except for a cute little white patch right on her breast. We renamed her Tribble, because we had just seen (for the first time, in the kids' case) the "Trouble with Tribbles" episode of the original Star Trek. She is 4 years old but very tiny; people who visit us always seem to think she's a kitten. She makes a pretty funny contrast with our other cat, Grover, who is also 4 but is big and fat.
When we first brought Tribble home, I kept her closed up in the living room, to get used to it without Grover's interference. I never dreamed that two months later she would STILL be exclusively in the living room! After the first few days, I started leaving the door open, and Grover would go in (to be fearsomely hissed at by Tribble, who despite the size difference is making it quite clear that she's the boss) but Tribble wouldn't come out. At all. For several weeks she stayed in the living room exclusively, even though the door was open. She was perfectly happy to hang out with us when we go in to watch TV or play Wii or whatever; she would come over to us on the couch and purr and demand petting (but never go on our laps) but she wouldn't come out. Still, she seemed happy enough, and was managing to coexist with Grover except when he came too close, so I started leaving the door open even when we weren't home.
Then, at some point, Tribble started to poop on the floor next to her litterbox, instead of in the box. She also peed in a couple of non-approved locations. I was tearing out my hair over this. I ended up changing several things at once: I moved the box to a different part of the living room, changed her to a different kind of litter, and went back to keeping the door closed most of the time, because I suspected that Tribble wasn't happy about Grover using her box. I couldn't think of a way to keep Grover out of her box, so for the interim, keeping the door closed was the solution. I left it this way while we went on our vacation (about which I will post later) and all was well.
We got back from vacation and now, finally, Tribble is showing much more interest in coming out of the living room. At first she would just come out into the kitchen when it was feeding time, but now she will actually sit next to the living-room door, and sometimes even scratch on it to be let out, and as soon as I get up in the morning (or home from work in the evening) I open the door and she comes right out. She has finally started to explore the kitchen, hallways, and the kids' bedroom, and my bedroom a little bit as well. At night when I put the kids to bed she comes into their room and will even come onto Ruthie's bed (which is a mattress on the floor) and meow and purr at us. In the past week I also caught her going onto the kitchen table to lick milk out of a bowl of cereal, so clearly she is getting bolder by the minute. She also continues to hiss at Grover if he gets close, and he clearly is well aware that she's the boss of him.
Last night for the first time, I left the living-room door open when I went to bed. Barely a minute or two after I turned off the light and got into bed, Tribble jumped up onto my bed. She sniffed around a bit and then went away. I don't know what else might have happened overnight, but in the morning Grover was lying on my legs and Tribble was hanging out in the hallway.
So, I hope this is the beginning of Tribble being ready to inhabit the whole apartment, and hopefully learn to coexist more nicely with Grover. But the big question is what's going to happen with the litterboxes. I REALLY don't want to have a litterbox in the living room long-term. Nor, of course, do I want to be dealing with cat poop on the floor again! So it remains to be seen whether Grover will continue trying to use Tribble's box and if so how she'll react. I'm thinking of getting an enclosed box for Tribble, and getting one with a really small opening, so that she can get in but Grover can't. I would love something like this but yikes is it pricey.
Anyway, so aside from those minor, uh "logistical" issues, we just love our new kitty. Oh, and this would be where I post pictures, right? Well, if you're my Facebook friend and you somehow managed to miss them, some of the pix are here. And here are a couple more -
(In that first one you can see a bit of her belly which was still naked from being spayed. It has taken a long time for that fur to grow back!)
So, a lot to post about, but let's start with: We got a new kitty. It was my big Hanukkah present to the kids (and myself).
There was much drama at the animal shelter; the first day we went, we didn't find a kitty who seemed just perfect, but my mom, who had said she was just coming along with us to look, actually ended up taking home a new kitty herself. We went back again the next day, and this time found a sweet little girl kitty hiding in the back of her cage, and when they put her in the "visitation room" with us, I just fell in love with her right away. The kids did too -- though to be honest, Ruthie fell in love with every single kitty they had there ;) and would happily have taken them all home. But we stuck with one. ;) Then we couldn't take her home that day because she hadn't been spayed yet, and because of the holiday they couldn't do it for several more days. So it was almost a week before we finally got her home, but we survived the wait. ;)
The shelter had unoriginally named her Midnight, because she's all black except for a cute little white patch right on her breast. We renamed her Tribble, because we had just seen (for the first time, in the kids' case) the "Trouble with Tribbles" episode of the original Star Trek. She is 4 years old but very tiny; people who visit us always seem to think she's a kitten. She makes a pretty funny contrast with our other cat, Grover, who is also 4 but is big and fat.
When we first brought Tribble home, I kept her closed up in the living room, to get used to it without Grover's interference. I never dreamed that two months later she would STILL be exclusively in the living room! After the first few days, I started leaving the door open, and Grover would go in (to be fearsomely hissed at by Tribble, who despite the size difference is making it quite clear that she's the boss) but Tribble wouldn't come out. At all. For several weeks she stayed in the living room exclusively, even though the door was open. She was perfectly happy to hang out with us when we go in to watch TV or play Wii or whatever; she would come over to us on the couch and purr and demand petting (but never go on our laps) but she wouldn't come out. Still, she seemed happy enough, and was managing to coexist with Grover except when he came too close, so I started leaving the door open even when we weren't home.
Then, at some point, Tribble started to poop on the floor next to her litterbox, instead of in the box. She also peed in a couple of non-approved locations. I was tearing out my hair over this. I ended up changing several things at once: I moved the box to a different part of the living room, changed her to a different kind of litter, and went back to keeping the door closed most of the time, because I suspected that Tribble wasn't happy about Grover using her box. I couldn't think of a way to keep Grover out of her box, so for the interim, keeping the door closed was the solution. I left it this way while we went on our vacation (about which I will post later) and all was well.
We got back from vacation and now, finally, Tribble is showing much more interest in coming out of the living room. At first she would just come out into the kitchen when it was feeding time, but now she will actually sit next to the living-room door, and sometimes even scratch on it to be let out, and as soon as I get up in the morning (or home from work in the evening) I open the door and she comes right out. She has finally started to explore the kitchen, hallways, and the kids' bedroom, and my bedroom a little bit as well. At night when I put the kids to bed she comes into their room and will even come onto Ruthie's bed (which is a mattress on the floor) and meow and purr at us. In the past week I also caught her going onto the kitchen table to lick milk out of a bowl of cereal, so clearly she is getting bolder by the minute. She also continues to hiss at Grover if he gets close, and he clearly is well aware that she's the boss of him.
Last night for the first time, I left the living-room door open when I went to bed. Barely a minute or two after I turned off the light and got into bed, Tribble jumped up onto my bed. She sniffed around a bit and then went away. I don't know what else might have happened overnight, but in the morning Grover was lying on my legs and Tribble was hanging out in the hallway.
So, I hope this is the beginning of Tribble being ready to inhabit the whole apartment, and hopefully learn to coexist more nicely with Grover. But the big question is what's going to happen with the litterboxes. I REALLY don't want to have a litterbox in the living room long-term. Nor, of course, do I want to be dealing with cat poop on the floor again! So it remains to be seen whether Grover will continue trying to use Tribble's box and if so how she'll react. I'm thinking of getting an enclosed box for Tribble, and getting one with a really small opening, so that she can get in but Grover can't. I would love something like this but yikes is it pricey.
Anyway, so aside from those minor, uh "logistical" issues, we just love our new kitty. Oh, and this would be where I post pictures, right? Well, if you're my Facebook friend and you somehow managed to miss them, some of the pix are here. And here are a couple more -
(In that first one you can see a bit of her belly which was still naked from being spayed. It has taken a long time for that fur to grow back!)