Great news about Rhoda Mia finally finding a home from the Kirkland cat room. Hope she's finally found a home where she gets to look out of windows from atop a cat-tree and gets lots of attention when she's good and ready for it.
Sad news about our friendly fellow yellow George being sent back to Arlington for the litter issues. Can't help but think his being declawed is at the root of it, poor fellow.
That leaves us with just five cats -- four of whom would get along just fine if only the fifth, Sophie Dori, would let them.
Started off the morning with giving shy guy KABOODLE an outing -- can't really call it a 'walk', since I carried him the whole way. He got to see about half the store and seemed pretty interested, before he started trembling and I took him back in. All morning he was very affectionate -- rubbed against my leg, head-butts, purring. He was hidden, as usual, when I arrived -- so well hidden you wdn't have even known there was anyone in there under those blankets (cat? what cat?). Letting him out first, while all the other cats were still in their cages, and letting him explore, seemed to do him good. I put him up on the cagetops, which he explored thoroughly and seemed to approve; he eventually settled atop the cat-stand near the door -- near his own cage (which he went back into several times, off and on) and also up high where no one cd sneak up on him.
Case in point, little SOPHIE DORI, who no sooner came out of her cage than she began looking for Kaboodle in all the places he'd hidden in last week (this was v. obvious when she poked her head under the cat-stand by the cabinet, went behind the bench, etc.). Luckily it never occurred to her that he might have gone high, so he remained safe from her all morning. For such a small cat she sure throws her weight around: she not only growled at everybody in passing but at one point trapped Shortly in the corner behind the cabinet and wanted to bully her. It got so bad that Scruffy and Mondo Max weren't even left at peace in their cages: she growled at them through the bars and reached through the bars with her paw to try to swat them, so that each retreated to a paw's length from the bars. Her high point of the morning was discovering a tiny little cricket that'd somehow wandered into the cat-room. Luckily she's an enthusiastic rather than a skilled predator, and she found and lost it three times over the course of the morning (I admit to intervening on the cricket's behalf more than once).
MR. SCRUFFS was his usual majestic self. He set up to hold court near the door, enjoying the breeze that blew under it. He wanted to be seen but not touched: he pulled back from my various attempts to pet him but came right back to the same spot as soon as I stopped. What a beautiful cat. Just wish he'd interact more, with me and with visitors to the room.
MONDO MAX was his usual confident, friendly self, while his pal SHORTY is still shy but less frightened. In particular I'm glad to say she was more trusting of me, so that when I wd pick her up she wdn't struggle. I put her up on the cagetops, which she cautiously explored and decided she approved of. Later she shifted to the top of the cat-stand near the cabinet, where she stayed the rest of the moring. I'd call that a breakthrough after all the cowering in the cage just last week and the week before. As for Max, he was very sociable. I've concluded he loves attention; when I took him out for a short walk around noon he was somewhat nervous until a man came up and started giving him attention, whereupon Max really opened up and welcomed the attention and petting.
health concerns:
--Kaboodle's eye seems to be just fine.
--Sophie has a little cat acne on her chin. I got some of it off before she objected and told me that was enough for now. Not a big problem, but we shd keep an eye on it and clean it a little as opportunity offers.
-- I really do think Sophie needs a calming collar. If she's this hostile when the room only has four other cats, none of them aggressive, what's she going to be like once it starts to fill?
--John R.
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