The weekend has come and is almost gone again. It does that.
Apricot is no longer showing the rapid improvement of his first few weeks with me, but that's because he came so far that now he only has a little ways more to go, and he's taking his time.
I vacuumed again Saturday morning. Apricot followed me from room to room as I put things up off the floor in preparation for vacuuming, and didn't seem a bit unnerved by all the changes and movement. In fact, I began to see dawning realization in his body language, to the point where I called him out of the bedroom after I had cleared it for vacuuming and then shut the door when he was out, so that he wouldn't try to headboard hide from the beginning. That wouldn't work either, since I vacuum right up next to it! (Also, can you imagine how being in a small area surrounded on all but one side by wood would echo the sound? I bet it would be loud.)
So once I got out the vacuum cleaner, telling him what I was doing and letting him see it, he removed himself to the living room cubby in the cat tree. When I did the back half of the house and the part of the living room I can reach with the cord still plugged into the first location, he watched me carefully but not with any particular alarm.
Turning off the vacuum cleaner, I then grabbed its plug and switched plugin locations, and noticed that the kitchen was quiet. This meant my wash was done and needed to be put in the dryer. While I was doing this, when I was almost finished, I happened to glance out into the living room to see Apricot moving himself! He was headed into the hallway.
When I came out to start vacuuming the second and last part of the house, I checked up on him and sure enough, he'd stashed himself under the headboard. I gave him a thumbs up and said that I wasn't done yet and to stay there. And he did. After I finished, I put the cleaner away and then went into the bedroom and before I even got around the corner of the bed, started saying that "I'm done, you can come out now, it's safe."
And he met me halfway. Pattern recognition is a wonderful teaching tool!
Of course, later that day I did things unusual and strange. Since I have to leave my door open a crack now at night for him to come and go, the light from the rest of the house has been bothering me. I got a light-blocking curtain and the necessary hardware, and planned to hang it over the bedroom door. He already knows how to go in and out of a curtain covering a doorway, as the "door" to the master bedroom's tiny bathroom is actually a curtain.
If you're curious, I taught him to push the curtain aside and go through by pinning up a triangle of the bottom corner so there was visual room to walk. And then each day I lowered the triangle just a bit until the curtain was completely loose and he had to push it aside to walk through. Which he does admirably. I am doing the same thing with this light blocking curtain since it's a new location and it's a heavier curtain.
But in putting it up, I had to use a drill which makes noise, an unusual noise that he hasn't heard before. Plus I had to get out the two step step-ladder which makes noise when it's unfolded and set up and also when you put it away, and all sorts of other stuff (the curtain rod, the tieback, the box of tools, etc).
I unpacked the curtain and the curtain rod and the tieback in the kitchen. He watched very closely and even volunteered to help a few times. He seemed very interested and only a little skittish. And then he got bored and left, which is even better. Not that I mind him helping, but the confidence implied in walking off and letting the new stuff happen without him is quite an accomplishment of itself.
When I brought everything into the hallway, he came back to investigate. I let him sniff the drill while telling him it would make loud funny noises when I used it. He also wanted to sniff the drill's battery charger, and I let him, telling him what it was for. Not that I expected that part to be understood. He should be picking up on the words "noise" and "loud" by now, but expecting him to understand batteries is a bit much!
All this extra preparation seemed to be helpful, because when I climbed up and down the step-ladder and drilled holes and fastened screws and had to find a new screw for one of them because the cheap metal stripped the part you use to make it turn with the screwdriver, all of this didn't seem to faze him one bit. He just watched from various distances as required by the noise level, and even came by and sniffed at things once.
I was very proud of him. I was also very happy because I don't like scaring my cat and so when I do things I have to do and he's not scared, that makes me feel good.
Weekends are my chance to try all kinds of new things with him. The stuff I just told you about is the house related things. I also tried a couple new cat related things. First, I unpacked the figure-8 harness I got him and introduced him to it.
This involved letting him sniff it and do whatever he wanted to with it. Which was biting it and nibbling on it. Okay. Probably the smell of new on it. I left that on the floor for now.
Later, this morning, I draped it over him while he was on the floor on his side wanting pets and petted him around it. He was mostly just puzzled and mildly curious. So this afternoon, I put it on him, loosely and just briefly. This was most unusual and he didn't know what to think. He seemed to go with the theory of something had gotten on him and so must be washed off. I took it off after maybe thirty seconds to a minute. I will keep trying it on him for a few minutes at a time throughout the week, increasing the time and the tightness as he gets comfortable with it. Getting it over his head was interesting ... he wasn't deliberately avoiding it, but he wasn't holding still either.
I also got him something he'd like, I hoped. Have you heard of the Undercover Mouse? This is a circular motor powered by AA batteries that makes a wand go around and around, randomly changing direction and, if you want, speed. The motor casing is covered by a vinyl circle that goes out to the very end of the wand. At the end of the wand is attached a cloth mouse. So to the cat, the mouse is dodging around the edge of the vinyl, without the predictability that says "mechanical." (And technically, the mouse and the wand are one piece; the wand attaches into the motor part.)
Well, I was going to get him an Undercover Mouse, but as I was ordering the figure-8 harness on Fosters & Smith, and they had a spend this much get free shipping deal, I got him their version of the Undercover Mouse, which is called a Mystery Motion and has feathers instead of a mouse. According to the comments, it's supposed to be sturdier than the Undercover Mouse, so that's something. Unfortunately, the Mouse is motion activated (it doesn't go until the cat approaches it) whereas the Mystery Motion you turn it on and off. And it's noisy, so it's not a toy you leave on while you're out of the house, which is what I wanted it for.
However, it's a big hit with Apricot, so that's the important part!
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| Got it! |
Over the next few minutes he crept closer and closer, watching and analyzing it. Had I gotten this toy even three weeks ago, he would have been terrified, but now he's got a good enough sense of human machine noises that I think he rapidly figured out the noise wasn't going to hurt him. I emphasize that because I think he also rapidly figured out the noise changed pitch and tone with the changing direction of the feathers, and started to use that to predict when the feathers would hold still long enough to make a grab worth while.
After a while he was close enough that, like the picture showed, he could grab the feathers. They stop moving when they are impeded in motion, so they won't rip out of his paws. But the split second he lets go, off they run again, round and round. He was utterly fascinated and loved every minute of it. I even took video, which if I can ever figure out how to get this blog to upload video (instead of choking on it and saying connection terminated) or figure out how to upload to youtube (what's a channel anyway and why do I have to have one?) I will link to it or put it up here.
After ten minutes or so I'm afraid the sound was getting on my nerves so I wanted to turn it off. This isn't quite as bad as it seems; if the toy is only brought out for short times, he will be less likely to get bored with it.
I had planned to leave it out and turn it on when I got home.
As you can see, that wasn't going to work. Even after I turned it off, he was still hunting. And what was the final blow in my plan to leave it out was the fact that he started investigating where he'd clearly seen me, twice, make it go and stop. He was trying to figure out how to push the button on the black circle you can see in the picture that makes it start or stop. It also changes the speed, which I had left on slow for this first time. I really don't want him being able to start or stop it at will. (Although if he did figure it out, and manage to exert the right pressure in the right spot, it would be hilarious if he turned it off and on for the kittens whenever they get here!) (No, I really don't want that sound starting up randomly in the middle of the night, however funny one cat operating a toy for another cat would be.)
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| Hunting the feathers down to the source |
So I have had to stow it away. I couldn't put it in the toybox with Da Bird; that would be confusing since I want him to ask me for what toy he wants. (I wouldn't know if he went to the toybox which toy he wanted.) But I have an end table that sits in the middle of the living room defying its stated goal as an "end" table, and it has a drawer which turned out to be just big enough for the Mystery Motion toy when it's disassembled. Luckily for me and my mechanical aptitude (or lack thereof) it is easily assembled with the wand part rotating onto the motor part like a giant screw and nut.
I haven't gotten it out yet. As soon as I finish the post I'm planning to.
As for other progress: He's getting more used to being picked up. He's also taken to asking to be picked up into the chair while I'm sitting there. He doesn't stay long, long enough to be petted and then he leaves again. But it's not a frantic "get me out of here;" it's more the kitten "I'm bored now, see you later." Which is often five minutes later. Makes it somewhat difficult to read!
He's also used the litter box while I was in the bathroom and watching. Not that I really want to watch him pee; but it's a good thing to watch your cat every so often while they are using the litter box to make sure they aren't straining or having other difficulties. And this is the first time he's actually been okay enough to continue what he was doing while I was there.
Several times before this time he'd come in, walked into the shower stall where the litter box is set up, turned around and left, like, "never mind, it's too crowded, I'll come back later." Using the litter box is a very vulnerable time for cats, so it says something about his trust level that he went while I was still there.
And Da Bird is becoming more and more a strategy exercise. He won't attack it while it can still "see" him, no matter how much he wants to. It's so funny watching him crouch to attack, his butt wiggling in a quiver of orange fur, holding himself back. If the bird seems unaware of him, and stays doing what it was doing (ie, lying still on the floor) sometimes he will risk a charge. If the bird "walks" away and out of sight, then he'll definitely charge because it could escape!
In the confines of the hallway, he'll chase it full speed, up and down, doing these incredible acrobatic twists at either end. It doesn't hurt that sometimes he catches it out of the air. This only encourages his air dancing. And no, I'm not letting him catch it. It's all I can do to keep it away from him, and I don't always succeed. My reflexes aren't what they should be, apparently!
When he gets tired, though, he just wants to catch it and eat it, and if I want to continue playing, he'll huff and lie down. If he stays lying down despite direct provocation (the bird comes and dances over him), then I know he's done, and I'll try to lure him into "catching" it one more time (and this time I let him). After that I drop two treats by his head and take the bird out of his grasp. That's when he gets to eat his catch.
He knows it's a bait-and-switch, though, which I think is why he was so happy to catch and eat the fly!
With all this exercise he's getting stronger, but his arm strength isn't what a normal cat's usually is. This results in some hilarious events where he tries to chase the bird up the cat tree and misses by just a hair-width. While most cats, if they got a grip on the sisal post, could pull themselves up, he mostly just slowly slides off and falls to the floor, generally on his back. The first time this happened I held my breath, wondering if he was hurt, and he did act a bit put out, like his dignity had been injured.
By now he falls so often (and I never laugh no matter how funny it looks) and he charges up the cat tree with such enthusiasm (which is why he falls so often) that it is becoming normal. He bounces up, going back up the cat tree sometimes by a different path, sometimes by the same path with a touch more caution. He appears to be made of rubber.
Pippin was clumsy too, but he was far more cautious, even as a true (under a year old) kitten. Apricot seems to have no inhibitions about falling any more after that first time. He doesn't even try to flip around to his feet, either, just lands on whatever bit was going to land anyway, and then scrambles back up. I've never seen a cat do that with such inhibition. It's great fun to watch even if I can't laugh out-loud at him.
(Why can't I laugh? Because then he'd get his dignity in a twist and stop doing it.)
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