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Adventures in Cat Psychology
Mar. 17th, 2007 01:07 pmToday, Dave and I are welcoming a new kitty into my house.
Since my Nikita kitty got sick, she's not wanted to play with Boo as much. She still does from time to time, but not as much as The Boo needs. As a result, Boo has been driving me crazy, acting out, getting into things, basically misbehaving in order to get my attention. While I'm more than willing to give her extra attention, she's been needing more than I could give. I had come to the realization that I needed another cat... one that could keep Boo occupied.
Enter Andrew Lloyd Weber.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jeffry_wynne was needing to find a safe home for him due to integration problems with his other cats. After a little discussion where it was revealed that the majority of the problems were due to his other kitty's health issues, there seemed no reason to not give it a try. Nikita's older, and not in the best of health, but if she doesn't want to play, she can defend herself, and if she bites him, he's not going to contract her chronic disease. And even if he and Boo don't hit it off as the best of friends, his presence will at least be enough to keep her distracted.
He's been in the house for about 5 hours now. He seems pretty relaxed, although he's sequestered himself into a safe cubby hole behind the couch. He'll let us reach back and pet him, and he batted at the cat fishing pole for a little while. When it became clear he didn't want to wander around and explore the front rooms any more than he already had and was just going to stay in one place, I decided it would be okay to let Nikita out from the bedroom. Nikita has always lived in a multi-cat household, with many different cats, so she's an old pro at meeting new roommates. She smelled him in the room immediately, traced his steps to his hiding place, and jumped onto the window sill where she could see him. After a glance at me that seemed to say "you do know there's another cat down there, don't you?" she shrugged and went on her merry way, completely unconcerned by his presence. He also seemd to still be pretty calm and not stressed by her appearance.
A little while later, we let Boo come out. Since Andrew Lloyd Weber seems to not do well with being in a cat carrier, the original plan to let the girls meet him while he was safe in a box was tossed early on. His cubby hole, however, gives him the same amount of security. See, the last time we introduced Boo to a new kitty, she didn't react well at first. She turned into Pet Semetary cat, got all puffy and hissy and growly and turned on everyone - cats she didn't know, cats she did know, people. She eventually calmed down, and while she and Shinji never really got along, they did learn to live with each other. So, I was a little concerned about how aggressive she might be.
Turns out, I had very little to worry about. She spent a little time looking around the house for him. I gave her his harness to sniff so she could learn his smell. She eventually made it to the window where the two made eye contact. There was a little bit of low growling, and a couple of quick hisses. Then she lay down and looked out the window for a while before leaving the general area. No puffiness. No satanic kitty of death and doom. She's a little disturbed by his presence. He seems a little concerned about her, but again, he's not freaking out. Just kinda hanging out and letting us interact with him as long as our backs can handle the position we have to get into to pet him.
I figure, once he decides to venture out of his cubby hole, there will be a little more work needed to keep the peace, but for the moment, things are going very well, even better than expected.
Since my Nikita kitty got sick, she's not wanted to play with Boo as much. She still does from time to time, but not as much as The Boo needs. As a result, Boo has been driving me crazy, acting out, getting into things, basically misbehaving in order to get my attention. While I'm more than willing to give her extra attention, she's been needing more than I could give. I had come to the realization that I needed another cat... one that could keep Boo occupied.
Enter Andrew Lloyd Weber.
jeffry_wynne was needing to find a safe home for him due to integration problems with his other cats. After a little discussion where it was revealed that the majority of the problems were due to his other kitty's health issues, there seemed no reason to not give it a try. Nikita's older, and not in the best of health, but if she doesn't want to play, she can defend herself, and if she bites him, he's not going to contract her chronic disease. And even if he and Boo don't hit it off as the best of friends, his presence will at least be enough to keep her distracted.He's been in the house for about 5 hours now. He seems pretty relaxed, although he's sequestered himself into a safe cubby hole behind the couch. He'll let us reach back and pet him, and he batted at the cat fishing pole for a little while. When it became clear he didn't want to wander around and explore the front rooms any more than he already had and was just going to stay in one place, I decided it would be okay to let Nikita out from the bedroom. Nikita has always lived in a multi-cat household, with many different cats, so she's an old pro at meeting new roommates. She smelled him in the room immediately, traced his steps to his hiding place, and jumped onto the window sill where she could see him. After a glance at me that seemed to say "you do know there's another cat down there, don't you?" she shrugged and went on her merry way, completely unconcerned by his presence. He also seemd to still be pretty calm and not stressed by her appearance.
A little while later, we let Boo come out. Since Andrew Lloyd Weber seems to not do well with being in a cat carrier, the original plan to let the girls meet him while he was safe in a box was tossed early on. His cubby hole, however, gives him the same amount of security. See, the last time we introduced Boo to a new kitty, she didn't react well at first. She turned into Pet Semetary cat, got all puffy and hissy and growly and turned on everyone - cats she didn't know, cats she did know, people. She eventually calmed down, and while she and Shinji never really got along, they did learn to live with each other. So, I was a little concerned about how aggressive she might be.
Turns out, I had very little to worry about. She spent a little time looking around the house for him. I gave her his harness to sniff so she could learn his smell. She eventually made it to the window where the two made eye contact. There was a little bit of low growling, and a couple of quick hisses. Then she lay down and looked out the window for a while before leaving the general area. No puffiness. No satanic kitty of death and doom. She's a little disturbed by his presence. He seems a little concerned about her, but again, he's not freaking out. Just kinda hanging out and letting us interact with him as long as our backs can handle the position we have to get into to pet him.
I figure, once he decides to venture out of his cubby hole, there will be a little more work needed to keep the peace, but for the moment, things are going very well, even better than expected.
