It's been a long tiring day. My instrumentation at work failed to, well, work, and I had to eventually transfer to another (untested) one. I didn't get home till well after 5:30.
By the time I got everything put away and settled and went in to see and pet Apricot, it was after 6 and I was starving.
But even if I did have to pet him under the headboard with my arm wrapped around the wooden headboard supports, it was still comforting and relaxing. I petted and scritched and in general made a happy cat (but still a hidey hole cat). And then I called Lynn to give her the update about him using the scratching post in the middle of the night.
Right when I diverted my attention to the person on the phone, Apricot stood up and walked nonchalantly out of the headboard hidey hole. I almost choked but kept talking about what I was talking without indicating in any way shape or form that this was unusual or something "not good".
I was thrilled. I petted the inviting head and he curvetted around so I could also get a good scritch in on his base-of-the-tail favorite spot. At this point I'd finished telling her about the scratching post so I told her that he'd come out, just now, and was being petted most happily.
He was even trapped in the area he came out in, because it's a narrow space between the bed and the wall and I was occupying the entire width of it, and so he'd come out in the space between the bed, me, and the two walls. But it didn't seem to faze him.
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| Apricot Marmalade, out of hiding at last |
I told him he was a brave, wonderful kitty and such a good kitty, and (after I hung up the phone), isn't this better because I can pet both sides of you and get all that loose hair off? After he flopped from petting relaxation, I took pictures, but not many because the camera click still startles him a little bit. I offered him the phone after the picture so he could sniff it and see it was just another object that makes noise.
He finally decided to go back in under the headboard, so I let him be and went and fed my starving tummy.
You see, this was a very brave and incredibly dangerous thing for him to do, so now he has to think about it for a while and mull it over in his mind and examine it from all angles to see if there was anything that might indicate that he should or shouldn't do it again. This is the way cats like this work: everything has to be puzzled over and thoroughly examined.
But I got him some wet food on his plate (which he hadn't seen because I'd determined he wasn't getting "the good stuff" until he came out while I was there) and brought that to him. I put it where he had to come out to get it. He did come out, ate a small amount, and then went back in, clearly still having to think things over.
I still have to be patient. Rome wasn't built in a day, so they say, and trust isn't earned in three days. But I feel all giddy inside and happy. He only took three days to un-hide from me! Whee!
June 12, 2014
Didn't take him long to think over the situation and decide he quite liked it. He was even out when I came into the room one of the times after the initial entry after the long work day. He was, admittedly, directly next to the entryway to his hidey hole, so he could skedaddle at the slightest provocation, but my walking up to him apparently didn't count!
He is, however, still a bit skittish about me and food. He doesn't like to eat with me close by because he can't concentrate on his food and me at the same time and I'm still an unpredictable variable in his mind. About five feet away (from his dry food) was the limit for how close I could get.
And of course, being me, this whole lovely progress has to be tainted by the fact that the more I get to interact with him, the more my grief for Pippin flares up. I do wish Apricot Marmalade didn't look quite so much like him. I don't suppose they make dyes for cats. Turn him a different color for a little while?
At the same time he doesn't look like Pippin at all. Pippin didn't have quite so much of a white tummy (which I've gotten to see plenty of as Apricot, again unlike Pippin, thoroughly enjoys a good tummy rub). Apricot doesn't have the Maine Coon fur length pattern either; his is the same length all over. And while the color is the same, the tabby pattern is subtly different.
I was sitting on the floor at the end of the bed, and Apricot went to eat and then went around through the headboard space from the other side (he fits through; Pippin was a smidge too big) and came out behind me and curled up against the headboard from the non-hidey side with his head wedged up against the wood. Pippin as a baby used to sleep like that all the time. And that was just a bit too much similarity for me to handle at the moment, so I stood up all the way and walked slowly and carefully toward Apricot, knowing that this would disturb his equilibrium enough that he'd get up, but probably not disappear. It worked.
June 12, 2014
Didn't take him long to think over the situation and decide he quite liked it. He was even out when I came into the room one of the times after the initial entry after the long work day. He was, admittedly, directly next to the entryway to his hidey hole, so he could skedaddle at the slightest provocation, but my walking up to him apparently didn't count!
He is, however, still a bit skittish about me and food. He doesn't like to eat with me close by because he can't concentrate on his food and me at the same time and I'm still an unpredictable variable in his mind. About five feet away (from his dry food) was the limit for how close I could get.
And of course, being me, this whole lovely progress has to be tainted by the fact that the more I get to interact with him, the more my grief for Pippin flares up. I do wish Apricot Marmalade didn't look quite so much like him. I don't suppose they make dyes for cats. Turn him a different color for a little while?
At the same time he doesn't look like Pippin at all. Pippin didn't have quite so much of a white tummy (which I've gotten to see plenty of as Apricot, again unlike Pippin, thoroughly enjoys a good tummy rub). Apricot doesn't have the Maine Coon fur length pattern either; his is the same length all over. And while the color is the same, the tabby pattern is subtly different.
I was sitting on the floor at the end of the bed, and Apricot went to eat and then went around through the headboard space from the other side (he fits through; Pippin was a smidge too big) and came out behind me and curled up against the headboard from the non-hidey side with his head wedged up against the wood. Pippin as a baby used to sleep like that all the time. And that was just a bit too much similarity for me to handle at the moment, so I stood up all the way and walked slowly and carefully toward Apricot, knowing that this would disturb his equilibrium enough that he'd get up, but probably not disappear. It worked.
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