Every silver lining has a cloud? Or, more cat rambling:
The problem with having a very friendly, social cat is this: when you don't socialize with her as much as she'd like, she gets angsty. And she misbehaves.
When I was home sick for a couple days with the Martian Death Cold, she was thrilled - lots of people-time! The next week, though, we were out of town for a weekend and then busy several evenings. She still got petted, and played with, but clearly not as much as she would have liked. So she knocked things off shelves, and took to climbing on the table again, and started "play"-biting just a little too hard. Stressed cat. So we're making sure now to actively spend time with her, not just make sure we pay attention to her as we go... She needs to learn what is and isn't allowed when she's bored/lonely/wants attention (cute or ferocious games with toys are OK, getting on the kitchen counter and scattering things around isn't). However, we also adopted a cat we knew was highly social, and so we're making sure she gets her social needs met.
Which just sounds kind of dirty. Anyhow....
A couple people have suggested getting a 2nd cat, but I'm not fond of that idea for a couple of reasons. First, I wasn't sure about getting this one in the first place (although I've warmed to the idea), and I'm really not sure about getting another. It is an adjustment to have another critter living in the same house, and I'm not sure I can adjust that gracefully again. Also, though, I'm just not sure it would work: there's no guarantee the two cats would get along, and there's no guarantee the other cat would be as well-behaved as Jezebel (and despite the acting-out, on balance she is a pretty well-behaved cat). And there's no guarantee another cat would satisfy Miss J's "interaction craving" - she seems to really want people-time. And adding another cat to the mix would just mean less of our time would be free for her.
All of which may be rationalizing what basically comes down to selfishness. Hard to say.
Overall, though, she's adjusting to us, we're adjusting to her, and we've definitely gotten past the "company manners" stage but nobody has strangled anyone else yet. :-) She's still terribly cute, and very talkative, and sheds enough fur that I think we could collect and spin it (except Megan won't let me, for some odd reason).
When I was home sick for a couple days with the Martian Death Cold, she was thrilled - lots of people-time! The next week, though, we were out of town for a weekend and then busy several evenings. She still got petted, and played with, but clearly not as much as she would have liked. So she knocked things off shelves, and took to climbing on the table again, and started "play"-biting just a little too hard. Stressed cat. So we're making sure now to actively spend time with her, not just make sure we pay attention to her as we go... She needs to learn what is and isn't allowed when she's bored/lonely/wants attention (cute or ferocious games with toys are OK, getting on the kitchen counter and scattering things around isn't). However, we also adopted a cat we knew was highly social, and so we're making sure she gets her social needs met.
Which just sounds kind of dirty. Anyhow....
A couple people have suggested getting a 2nd cat, but I'm not fond of that idea for a couple of reasons. First, I wasn't sure about getting this one in the first place (although I've warmed to the idea), and I'm really not sure about getting another. It is an adjustment to have another critter living in the same house, and I'm not sure I can adjust that gracefully again. Also, though, I'm just not sure it would work: there's no guarantee the two cats would get along, and there's no guarantee the other cat would be as well-behaved as Jezebel (and despite the acting-out, on balance she is a pretty well-behaved cat). And there's no guarantee another cat would satisfy Miss J's "interaction craving" - she seems to really want people-time. And adding another cat to the mix would just mean less of our time would be free for her.
All of which may be rationalizing what basically comes down to selfishness. Hard to say.
Overall, though, she's adjusting to us, we're adjusting to her, and we've definitely gotten past the "company manners" stage but nobody has strangled anyone else yet. :-) She's still terribly cute, and very talkative, and sheds enough fur that I think we could collect and spin it (except Megan won't let me, for some odd reason).