Friday cat blogging

Here's a series of photos of Close Encounters of the First Time

I put Orange Boy, your typical mellow yellow, into the carrier, and brought him into the Waif's suite. He didn't seem particularly concerned about it; he just settled in and watched. The Waif was suspicious of the intruder.

For about ten minutes, I simply watched the two of them sniff each other and monitored the energy with which the Waif stuck her paw into the crate.

I was encouraged when she rolled on the floor in front of the carrier. So far, so good. So finally, after 15 minutes, I let Orange Boy out of his prison.

He has never been allowed in the back half of the house, so it was a totally new place for him to explore. He was not at all interested in the Waif; he wanted to see what was around each corner (and if there was food in the dishes). He wandered around, with her trailing him. Incredibly, there were no hisses!

Finally, he got under the folding chair and it was at that point that she took a swipe at him to the point that he meowed, somewhat pitifully as though to say, 'I haven't done anything wrong! I'm just being a nice guy here.'

That was last Saturday and since then, everybody has been allowed into the back half of the upstairs. The Waif has shown no interest in coming into the front part of the house, though I have brought her into my study. The others have gone into her space — la Doyenne takes about two steps inside the door, hisses and then runs back out again. Young Guy goes in, hisses at everything and meows at me, as though to say: 'Am I safe? Is it OK? Am I a good boy?' And Orange Guy can't wait to get in there. The Waif looks at all this riff-raff with utter horror and refuses to engage with any of them.

When he's not scared to death of being in the new space, Young Guy considers the map of El Salvador I have up on the wall to figure out where I go when I disappear for a week or two.

And La Doyenne, when she's not running in terror from the Waif, curls up on her favourite spot, as always.

I am wondering if I will always have a divide household? It can't be because on the 4th, some people are going to meet in the upstairs space. Ay, that means I have to clean it before I leave and then make sure that my cat sitter takes the Waif out of her space and locks her up in my study for the duration of the meeting... unless I can fully integrate the house between now and Monday. I don't think so.