All weekend, Apricot got used to having me around and made wonderful progress in getting comfortable with having a human walking and moving around him.
I wondered how he'd deal with Monday.
This morning: Well, I'm getting the idea he's not much of a morning cat. After I called his name a few times, randomly throughout my thirty minutes of lie-in-bed-and-slowly-wake-up, he came in, and attempted to jump up on the bed. But he missed; didn't jump high enough. So then he stalked out, all "I meant to do that" and grumpy.
He was in his cubby when I got up, and when I got back from my walk, so he got several drive-by pettings before I went to work.
When I got home I had groceries to put away, aside from my usual stuff, and I was doing that in the kitchen ... what do you think? Apricot walks in, calm as anything, into the kitchen with me there, and wants greeted and petted and played with!
As I distributed things throughout the house he accompanied me, often blocking my way in the effort to get pettings, which he got more and more often as my hands got emptier. And he led me into the tv room and wanted petted there, as if to say, "look, I'm not scared to be in here." And into the kitchen, and the bedroom, and all over the living room.
He started this thing he only did a few times before, where he kind of pounces and puts a soft paw around my leg and lets go. So I decided he needed played with and got out Da Bird and ran him all over the living room with it, and now he is calmer.
So I guess he missed me and didn't get scared of me in my absence, the way he'd been doing before. He'd be okay with me after a few seconds but would give me a wild-eyed look as I came up to him. Now, it's instant "hey, pet me!"
Now I'm wondering how we're going to deal with the lonely in the house problem until the kittens get here! This whole adjustment phase was supposed to take longer!
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| This is roughly the geographical center of the living room He's claiming territory by lying out here in the open! |
It's a good thing I'm writing all this down. I had forgotten that it's only been since Saturday that he's been out and about. It seems like longer than that. I really have to watch where I walk now, because if I'm walking, chances are he's weaving back and forth in front of me. It's like my legs have a gravitational pull, because no matter which side he's on, he wants to be on the other side, and walks across in front to get there. And sometimes when I've been standing somewhere, like talking on the phone or making supper, he'll come by and rub against my leg with his body, kind of an absent-minded furry sideways hug.
I don't think he's been under the headboard since before Friday afternoon. It's like he suddenly decided things were okay here and he could be anywhere he wanted without fear.
My Blu-ray has the option of a Digital Concert Hall, and twice now I've had that playing and tried to lure him into the tv room. The first time was Sunday night, and when the conductor's face was shown on the big screen, twice the size of a normal human head, Apricot was fascinated against his will. He even put his front paws up on the tv stand once to see closer. But it was too much and he had to leave after just a few minutes. Tonight I got him in there for longer, maybe half the first movement (five minutes or so, I'd say).
Just so as you know, "luring" him involves just saying "come on in, Apricot, come on" repeatedly with variations on the theme, and holding my hand out at petting height. That's all it takes. He'll even come when he's scared sometimes. I find this amazing. Pippin, of course, could not be lured, but that's because I helped him overcome his fears as a kitten, and as an adult he depended on my presence but not necessarily my touch. He liked to be petted, of course, but as a proper cat he felt it was my duty to come to him and pet him. I feel this is the proper cat way too, so Apricot's willingness to come when urged is rather surprising to me!
Apricot is spending more time in the kitchen with me, too. In fact today he came in to greet me when I came home from work before I even had a chance to take my shoes off. I thought he'd gotten used to the automatic trash can. Since it's a little trash can, a cat tail walking by can easily open it, and he'd done so several times.
Apparently I was wrong about that. I guess he was just ignoring it as another "house sound." Because today after supper he was sniffing at it. I'd put the empty plastic ziploc in there that had held the ham slices, and apparently it smelled good. He sniffed at it around one side and his tail arched over the motion sensor in the middle.
It opened. He leaped back, astonished. But, to my own astonishment, he prowled forward again, ready to investigate (cautiously, of course). Well, the thing does close after a while, perhaps 15 seconds? 30 seconds? I know it always closes on my hand when I'm peeling a hardcooked egg into the trashcan, so obviously it stays open shorter than the time it takes me to peel eggs ...
It closed. Again, the startled leap-back from Apricot. And again, he went to investigate it. This time he sniffed the middle where the motion sensor was, and when it opened, it bumped his nose on the way up. Well, that was just too much for Apricot, who jumped back (cleared the floor with all four feet at once!) and retreated resentfully into the living room, watching it.
The trashcan has a safety feature where if the lid hits something while opening, it stops opening and stays frozen and you have to re-set it by manually pushing the lid closed. So it didn't re-close the lid after Apricot opened it the last time.
He wasn't where he could see, but as I closed the lid I told him that he'd scared it more than it had scared him, because it wasn't even moving anymore. And he seems perfectly okay, no more skittish than before the incident. Perhaps he's getting the concept that things may seem to do stuff of their own accord but it's very limited stuff? I suppose this precludes getting him a remote controlled toy mouse, though ...
Remember Da Bird? Da Bird is very well received now. I took him on a journey through the house chasing it, which was a bit challenging in the space-restricted hallway! He will pounce on it with vigor now, instead of watching it carefully before putting out a cautious paw. I have even gotten a full-on run out of him, and once a leap into the air to try to catch it.
One thing that worried me was that he hadn't gone onto the bed since his ill-fated leap resulted in falling slowly off of it. I used Da Bird to lure him up onto it, and we shall see if this stayed in his brain long enough to counter the fear of falling off again.
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