lizblackdog | Go get me my pistol, babe

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Current Location: It's quiet. Too quiet.
Current Music: Bob Dylan - Baby, Stop Crying (Street Legal)

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Go get me my pistol, babe

email #1:

saffron is still in her alcove, which as far as i am concerned is
good news because we know where she is! we've made hopefully enticing
dens either side of it with tuna and water in.

hamish is hiding and looking pitiful, but has eaten a bit of tuna
overnight and used the litter box in the night as well. i shall
attempt some quality time with him this evening when i get home.

email #2:

AND upon further inspection, she has left a trail of destruction (well,
3 knocked over things) throughout the house and has both crapped and
weed on the doormat, having had to walk straight past the litter box to
leave her alcove.

Reply: Oh dear. Perhaps she didn't recognise the covered thing as a litterbox?

email #3:

I will give her the benefit of the doubt and take the hat off it
tonight, and leave it in the doorway of the room so she really has to
go right past it. at least she is coming out and exploring overnight,
which means she's not scared stiff. many of the things she knocked over
were on high shelves.

email #4: (from sister's BF, who is being CC'd all correspondence)

I took the lid of the litter tray off this morning. here's the
annoying thing: there are 4 very clear paw prints in it which weren't
there before. she evidently stood in it and said 'i'm not hanging
about here' and went to our doormat instead. which is especially
galling because she's used the litter tray before.

liz, what brand cat litter do you use at home?

hamish has managed to hide in our bedroom to the extent i can't find
him. incredible. mind, i'm not looking too hard as i want him to feel
safe.

Reply: I've always used cheap clay litter - Thomas brand in pet shops, or Asda or Sainsbury's smartprice/economy litter.

I feel I ought to apologise. None of them have ever had defecation dysfunctions like that before... I assume it's a stress-of-new-place thing. Sorry.

email #5: We'll try some of that, thanks!

Don't apologise! It's a lot changing for her all at once--new people,
new noises, new food and new litter. Plus we've split her from her
brother, which I feel terrible about... but the alternative is having
him hiding too, and while they're hiding we can't socialise them
properly. I get the feeling that Hamish hides because he's scared, so
we need to coerce him out, but Saffron hides because that's what
she's used to.

Here's a question for you: Did Saffron come and say hello round the
house at all, when you, the dogs, and the other cats were all about?
I'm wondering what the best way to get her used to contact from us is.

cheers
*sister's BF*

Reply: Saffron would be out and about when it was just us, yes. She'd play with Squish or the other cats, but she's never shown an interest in socialising with humans, and she'd always hide if there were strangers about.

I agree they'd be better together, but not if they're both hiding in a place where they might be able to get into the floor boards. That would be bad.

email #6 - this evening.

Subject: She's out of the hole

she came out, i went and blocked it off. she went to go and crap on
the doormat again i presume, saw *BF* and changed her mind, went to
come back into the hole, saw me in the fireplace and teleported.
neither of us saw her leave the room but she's vanished again.

still, she's not in the floorboards or in the chimney. if she craps
behind the washing machine i am going to kill her, just as soon as i
find her.

she is truly impressive! although i am not really in the mood to
appreciate her skillz.

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...
I can't help but giggle.

I promise, Lizzums, that when the disgruntlement of kittens growing up and moving out is a little less raw and fresh, you will read back over this and giggle, too. Saffron's Midnight Rampages!

It's... yeah. It's very quiet and empty here, but I'm OK.

Apart from the doormat defilement, this is pretty much exactly what I expected from Saffron, certainly at first. Hamish will get over it and start being lovey after a bit, but I'm not sure she ever will.

If they can catproof a room, she'd probably get on better with Hamish's company.

I socialized Heather and Aida (well, Aida, Heather was always pretty damn social) by sitting and reading with tuna next to me.

Three and a half short years later, she is an incredible pest who wants her tummy rubbed NOW.

Yeah - Hamish and Saffron were always the two shy ones of the bunch, but hamish grew fond of me, it just took time and garlic sausage. Saffron will - at least - get to the point where she'll be visible as least part of the day.

they got separated because Saffron hid in a spot they couldn't reach and they were worried she'd end up under the floorboards. I think they wanted both cats in the bedroom, but they couldn't reach Saffron to get her IN there.

The doormat defilement has a purpose, though, in Saffron's mind. She's putting her mark on it, trying to make it familiar. The doormat probably contains the smells of everyone else in the household, and marking it in this way overwhelms their scent with hers. It's probably comforting to her, in a way, even if it is an annoyance.

i just had to laugh at this!! oh, the drama! :)

cats, eh?

Spike is pissed off that I sent his favourite cat away. I've had to promise him that I'll try my hardest to get him some fosterkittens.

awww, poor spike. yes, spike needs to raise some fosterkits.

***giggles***

I know I shouldn't but... Here they've gone through all the trouble getting their home a perfect place for cats... and then they hide and litter on the doormat. That's just so typical.

It really, really is. Cats suck!

Personalities. They have personalities. :P

***says the woman who curses her own cat when it's doing things on purpose she know she shouldn't do***

Do I gather aright that Saffron and Hamish are in the same house? If they are, be careful reintroducing them. If they were separated in a time of such stress, they may not accept each other once you put them back together again. Cats have a weird way of blaming their problems on each other in times like this.

That's a highly scary thought. I hope that doesn't happen.

With every cat I ever had, the magic number seems to be 2 weeks...give them that long and see what happens...

Giddy was horrbly shy when I got her...after 2 weeks, she came out when we were alone (the 3 of us) and then hide if anyone came to visit...it's been a year now, and she is finally coming out to socialize with any visitors I get here.

I've never had 2 sibling cats turn on each other...but, remember, they're not really seperated, either...I'll bet they visit and comfort each other at night when nobody is around...after all, they were both hiders at home, weren't they?

Give them the 2 weeks.

They remind me of my ferals, really. Penny wouldn't let me touch her for a good six months, but had always been my shaddow (granted...I was 12 when I got her and had no idea what I was doing...but maybe she was just similar to Saffron and there's hope for her yet!) Sneak was like that too, but I had like, leveled in cat taming by then...
It took a few days of coaxing to get Sneak to come out of her shell. I'm sure with time and treats, they'll be fine :)

I this is hilarious. :D

Oh, they do make life interesting, don't they? :)
I can recommend some titles of books on modifying cat behavior, if your sister gets too frustrated.

I just can't get over what you guys across the pond feed your animals. It's amazing! Your dogs and cats eat better than I do.

They eat a lot better than I do, too. It's not a general British thing, it's that I'm willing to go the extra mile to give my pets the healthiest diet possible. I find it pays off in reduced vet bills, never needing to clean their teeth and not having to clean up big sloppy stinky turds full of all the indigestible corn and fillers that commercial pet food is loaded with.

There's also the sheer fun the cats have when I feed them something like whole dead mice (I bought them some frozen ones this week). Naamah batted hers around happily for half an hour, then when she ate it she growled the whole time.

cats stuck mightily, yes. However, King Hamish the Noisy, having decided at 2am that he must make friends with us RIGHT THE HELL NOW and made us play with him for 2 hours, is now on his back under the bed having his ears scratched and his tummy rubbed by the Other Half. I think another night in the bedroom and we'll be able ot let him have the run of the house again. He was reticent again this morning, although we had a small cuddle on my way to the shower, and we've been fishing for him with dangly toys under the bed for the last hour, and he is coming round slowly. And I bought him some garlic sausage, but he is slightly too anxious to eat when we're in the room at the minute. He comes and goes - has a cuddle, backs off. Thinks about it, coms back, backs off.

And Saffron is eating, she ate more over the day today than she has so far, and has been wandering round again. Now she is unable to get into the walls she can do what the hell she likes - we're not hunting for her, and leaving her alone at the minute. Hopefully when H comes out again he will draw her out a bit.

ooh, and we just accidentally found Saffron in the cupboard with the pots and pans. Maisie liked it in there too.

Excellent!

He is the loveliest cuddlebeast. I miss him. But I'm so glad.

Progress! S is still in the pan cupboard despite having been Looked At yesterday, and her tray shows signs of her having been in it, and no poo on the doormat. H came out to play a few times in the night and this morning - he says MAU when he wants a scratch, and then goes back under the bed when it all gets a bit much. Both of them cleared their plates last night for the first time. I want it firmly enough established in H's mind that we are a Good Thing that when we let him in the whole house again he doesn't just revert and hide wih S again, but I think we can let him out soon now.

I've been away for far too long, it sounds like some of the babies are no longer living with you...

Yep. Saffron and Hamish are in London with my sister and BF. They seem to be doing well so far.

How are they doing now?

Very well indeed! Captain Stripeypants has started to come out of the bedroom now - yesterday we enticed him downstairs much against his better judgement (he is a sucker for the feathers on the fishing rod) and then this afternoon he came down without being enticed, and was much less inclined to bolt back upstairs whenever anyone moved or coughed. He's started to choose to hang out with us now, instead of hanging out on his own under the bed, so I think that is a big step for him and things will keep going now. In his comfort zone in the bedroom he is lovely - sits on the bed, loves to play and purrs like a train. He is more cautious in the rest of the house but getting there (he is a bit of a wet lettuce, very easily startled).

Saffron is still in the cupboard - she *almost* came out today, and she did see the Captain playing with us downstairs from her vantage point in the cupboard. She really wants to come out, she just can't quite make herself yet - although the other day she was spotted under the cupboard peeking out at us, but went back in when she saw we'd seen her. But I think it's coming. She's much much happier about us, comes to the front of the cupboard sometimes for cuddles, and lets us both scratch her belly and rub her ears, and she purrs and dribbles with pleasure when she has her chin rubbed. So I think she is getting there as well. I suspect she has potential to be a real lap cat - when she wants to be cuddled she *really* wants to be cuddled, and is much more into it than he is. He thinks cuddles will do while he is getting his breath back ready for the next bout of killing the feather, but she loves it. We've had a few almost comings out, and I am going to order a selection of toys this week from a great site, and hope she finds one of them irresistible.

Overnight they rampage round the house (sorry downstairs neighbours) and wreak havoc. On Saturday morning he led a dawn raid on the bedroom, we woke up to things being knocked off the dressing table and saw him on top of it nicking the toy we'd put there, and her at the foot of the bed egging him on. When we got up, it transpired that they needed that particular toy because they had firmly tied the other one to the clothes horse, knocked the clothes horse over and then scattered all the clothes on it round the room.

The next step is getting them comfy enough around us to play together in the day - it's on the way.
The Captain is an absolute joy - Saffron will be too, once she comes out of her shell.

pics here - it'll be updated as and when I take more pics.
http://flickr.com/photos/lebatihem/sets/72157600003282539/

Oooh, and in fact she did come out later yesterday evening! It took a lot of enticing, and careful positoning of the Captain playing with me and the feather in front of her cupboard, but she came out with us all in the room, and while she didn't start playing, she had a chat to her brother, watched him play with me, with utter fascination, and did investigate the toy.

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Go get me my pistol, babe

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