note: Esperanto is at the end. / notu: Esperanto troviĝas fine.
from the start we knew that if we got another cat Fae may not be happy with it. when we first met her at the RSPCA shelter it was obvious that she wasn't getting along with her penmate. i tried to not read too much into that, however, as i see that all the time while volunteering at the RSPCA and know that that doesn't always last. then there was
the incident with the neighbor's cat where Fae literally went ballistic. since then, however, Fae seemed to calm down some and so when Fae started acting lethargic we held out some hope that a second cat could work.
so far Fae has been taking things remarkably well. :) i think Fae's feelings come and go in stages/waves.
- the pissed off stage: wants nothing to do with you.
- the angry stage: still very mad but reluctantly near you.
- the unhappy acceptance stage: not so mad anymore but still very unhappy.
- the acceptance stage: starts to act more like normal; even becomes curious.
- ????
during
stage 1 if we sat by her she would go elsewhere. she didn't even make direct eye contact with you-- talk about being given "the cold shoulder"!
stage 2 seemed to begin when she reluctantly wanted to be near us again but still shunned the attention that we gave her. during stages 1 and 2 Fae didn't purr at all, which was very strikingly noticeable because she usually purrs a lot! it wasn't until
stage 3 that she started purring a little again when food was involved. she also started to play again but her already rough playing became markedly rougher! it was to the point where biting often hurt even though no blood was drawn. i guess she was acting out her mixed feelings about things... now we have entered
stage 4 where she seems to have come to terms with Iggy's permanent presence in her apartment. she is still somewhat apprehensive about it, but she hisses only sometimes now and she only distances herself from us occasionally. her purring and tail wagging are almost back to normal, thank god! i'd missed them a lot.
<3 i wonder if
stage 5 will be "ok, i'm ready to deal with him now"..? or perhaps that's
stage 6 or
10.
today we seem to have made a lot of progress! we had already been swapping their blankets and had been letting them smell each other on our clothes, but this morning they swapped places to an extent. Iggy got to go in our bedroom while Fae investigated the spare bedroom (her favorite room) that Iggy had been staying in. Fae didn't seem very put out by Iggy's smell being everywhere, although Iggy was a bit antsy, presumably due to obviously being in Fae's space. they also saw each other through a crack in the door that was bigger than ever. out of about 6 crack-in-the-door meetings there was only minor hissing twice. very encouraging. :) i'm thinking that maybe tomorrow we'll put Fae in the spare bedroom and let Iggy fully explore the apartment. then Fae will have to start facing up to his smell being everywhere without having to face Iggy himself.
in conclusion, here's a short video of Fae play-biting. enjoy your weekend & thanks for reading!
(Esperanto is below / sube troviĝas Esperanton)