Cats, week one

In which I talk at length about our two cats; read at your own risk.

Last Sunday, Jey and I popped into the pet store down the street to grab some food and litter for Evey.

We emerged with a foster cat.

We’ve talked about adopting a second kitty but had agreed to do it in a month or two, once we’d scoped out some new apartments, had a bit more time to dedicate to the process, once we’d budgeted for the adoption fees…we had lots of reasons to wait. But when we saw Cleo, a tiny gray tabby curled up in her cage, shivering from the loud noises in the pet store, we looked at each other and decided to just go for it. Ten minutes later, the kind women of Texas Pawprints clipped her nails, put on her red collar, and handed us a carrier box.

We already have one cat, Evey, who is also a rescue animal. Because of her background (taken off the streets where she was starving, as she didn’t have the courage to fight for food) she’s always needed some special attention. Basically, she is the very definition of a “scaredy-cat” — she requires coaxing to do just about anything new. But with patience and time she becomes desensitized to new environments (walking around outside the front door, for example) and eventually becomes eager and confident.

Evey chillaxin’

I’ve never seen her around another cat before, and from her kittenhood she’s always been isolated, so we read a lot about how to introduce two felines to each other.

Mostly, the sources say, you have to let them get used to each other. Start with the two cats in separate rooms. NewCat, as a foster animal, is often comfortable with a bathroom or utility closet, as they are used to being in cages and even that small room is a lot of space to them. ResidentCat should be allowed to sniff the carrier, towels that smell like NewCat, or even poke her nose under the door.

As it turns out, Evey was not too keen on having another cat invade her territory. She hissed…a lot. At the cage, at the smell on our hands, at the bathroom door (when she could stand to be around it).

When Evey hisses her face gets wrinkly and distorted. Kinda like the vampires in Buffy.

But we just stroked her and kept talking to her. We also took turns behind the door, helping Cleo adjust, and explore, and not knock anything down.

Cleo is between 8 months and a year old, and she’s already had a batch of kittens (four of the five have been adopted out by Texas Pawprints already), despite still being a kitten herself. She ‘made biscuits’ on just about everything when she first arrived (as is evident in this video).

The first night, Cleo meowed all night long. We didn’t get much sleep.

The second night, Cleo meowed all night long. Our nerves were getting a bit frayed, but we put on some music and tried our best to get a bit of rest.

The meowing…the meowing…

The third night, Evey camped out in front of the bathroom door. Whenever Cleo began yowling, Evey would hiss. Cleo, reassured that she wasn’t alone, would stop meowing. Thanks Evey!

By Wednesday, we let the cats look at each other through a net divider. Evey would creep over, hiss, and retreat to stare menacingly (known in the cat world as ‘posturing’). But the hissing was less angry, more ‘I’m asserting my place in the household heirarchy!’ — progress!

After a couple of days of gentle meetings like this, Evey was constantly trying to get into whatever room Cleo was in (to groom her or swipe at her, we weren’t quite sure). Cleo also had a tendency to shoot out between one’s legs as soon as one opened the door. (This happened with me a lot more often than with Jey…)

Whenever Evey saw Cleo, she’d freeze — but after several attempts at freedom, Evey seemed a lot more chill — so we decided to let them occupy the same room (more or less, as we have a pretty open floorplan). Miraculously, hissing encounters were minimal.

Fast forward a few days, and the pair were actually kindasorta playing with each other!

Now, they both tolerate each other. They hang in the same room, usually within four feet of one another. Evey only hisses if Cleo tries to smack her tail. They aren’t sleeping on the same surfaces yet, but I think it’s only a matter of time.

A gallery of Cleo:

P.S. The kitty’s original name (given to her by Texas Pawprints) was Rizzo, after the character from Grease played by Stockard Channing. We were planning to name our new kitty “Mew”, but found that we talk to them too much (“Hey Mewmew! Come here!”) for that to work as a name. I think kitty has a very Egyptian profile, so her name is now Cleo — short for Cleocatra.