Sunday: Max and Nixie Cat meet Face-to-Face

Max wasn't quite as desperate to see me Sunday. This is good because it means he's settling in. This is bad for my feelings because I feel unwanted. Irrational is my middle name. This is what I wanted, silly me! I want him to be happy with Chuck and Dawn and their extended four-footed family.

But Max was still happy to see me, just not with the underlayer of desperation that he'd had Saturday morning.

Again, my laptop still needed setting up, so I parked in the sunroom and did things to the laptop, and occasionally tossed a toy to Max. Chuck came in to help with the computers (that's his area of expertise, welding is just something useful (really useful, wish I could do it) that he can do.

Chuck's style of interacting with cats is actually far more suitable to Max's personality than mine. This day Chuck started "stuff on my cat" by lining up toys on a sleepy Max. The big gray kitten likes to nap in the early afternoon and we were pestering him.

All the toys (minus a few) that he brought with him

Yes, I know he's a big cat. He's only a year and 3 months old, and Norwegian Forest Cats mature slowly, and even if he is only a NFC mix, he's definitely still a kitten mentally!

Finally we stopped bugging him, and he drifted off to a fairly deep dreamland on top of the litter box enclosure (which has one of the towels I brought with him on it).

Nixie Cat (remember her? The one we thought would be the buzz-saw attack cat problem if any of them were?) Yeah, she's at the door. Looking calm. Wanting in.

Chuck looked at me. I looked at him. He said, well, if this turns into a ball of fur, I'll get her and you get him. And then he let Nixie Cat come into the sunroom.

She went around the room sniffing. There was a strange cat here. She must investigate thoroughly. She must become familiar with his scent so she can tell where he's been and what he's been doing. 

Max stayed asleep for the longest time during all of this. Finally he woke up and saw her. Being back to his old bravado self, he jumped down off the enclosure and made as if to go over to see her. 

Nixie Cat was having none of this and told him in cat language, "you stay put right there, mister!" (Hissing and a slight fake-charge.) Max, with an air of aggrieved astonishment, sat down as if commanded to for a treat, and stayed put. She continued to investigate the room. He continued to stay put. Once or twice he stirred as if to get up, and she'd whirl and hiss at him: "What did I say, young man? You stay there."

Nixie Cat investigates

So he kind of rolled over a little bit and let his feet stretch out, relaxing some. I mean, if she wasn't going to let him move, he might as well get comfortable.

Here's where it gets surprising. She approached him, slowly and cautiously, and sniffed his back feet. He naturally pulled them back in under himself defensively, but that was the only reaction he made, and a stern hiss was the only reaction she made. They repeated this sequence with the end of his tail. (All three girl kitties have no tail or very short tails, since they are Japanese Bobtail mixes (Fat Mama and Nixie Cat) or Manx mix (Nubbins).

We decided that things had gone very well and we should end on a high note, so Chuck had Dawn come to the other side of the sunroom door (she had waited outside so Nixie Cat wouldn't feel compelled to defend her person against Max) and call treats to Nixie Cat. Nixie went right out the door for her treats, and then I treated Max as well. 

See, good things happen when you're together!

We actually let Nixie in another time before I left that night too, and things went just as well.

The other surprising thing that happened was Circle Tail (the dog, remember) who had been pacing around the outside of the sunroom on the deck as well as looking through the kitchen door to the sunroom when he was inside. At one point late in the day Circle Tail came over to the kitchen door to check out Max again. Max ran over to the door and put his paws up on it. 

But he didn't hiss, and the paws weren't smacking the door, they were just doing what he does when he goes up on a human's leg to be petted. So we opened the door enough for Circle Tail to get his head through and sniff. No, Max didn't go up to the actual dog nose; I think we'd have fainted from surprise if he did. But he didn't hiss or spit or go all poof cat at Circle Tail. This is all most promising.

And then I managed to get my feelings hurt because when I went to say goodbye to Max all three of us humans were in the room. Max walked up to me and I patted my leg and said "Up?" which usually results in paws up and ear scratches.

Max kind of gave a huff sniff and walked over and rubbed on Dawn's legs.

Oh, no I've been replaced!

Oh, wait, that's what I wanted.

Dawn planned to open the door and let Max explore the top part of the house today before Chuck gets home with Mama and Nixie who go to work with Dawn early and come home with Chuck late. That means the house will have just Nubbins (who will ignore the entire proceedings unless Max gets too close, and will hiss at him if he does) and Circle Tail, and Dawn's going to put the dog door up in the sunroom door so Max can retreat if Circle Tail is too much for him.

I wonder how that went?

So, okay, from here out Max is their cat, and while I can report stories about him, and how he's getting on, it won't be something I can write about a lot because I don't live there.

Max adopts a cat bed he didn't bring with him from my house!

But there is still Guardian Pizza and Friend Pippin to write about, and although they have both passed on, I have lots of funny stories about them. So the blog will keep going, never fear.