Weekly Progress Report: Apricot is Happy

July 27, 2014

Every week Apricot changes a little bit more.

This is what he does to try to get pets.
He looks as adorable as possible.
It works.

Earlier this week I weighed him and he's up to 11 pounds. He's starting to get a smidge portly, but he's eating the same amount every day, and it seems to be mostly muscle that he's putting on. He has to go to the vet in August for his rabies shot, and I will ask them if I should be concerned about his weight. Right now though, I'm more concerned that he stays happy.

And happy he is. He doesn't like that I'm gone all day at work during the week, and he wants me to pay attention to him all the time when I get home. And of course I'm exhausted and don't want to do anything but sit (and he doesn't want to sit in my lap; he wants me to be on the floor with him). So that's a bit of not happy.

I made him sleep just by slowly scritching his head!

But for the most part, he's a very happy contented cat now. He spends his time when I'm home in the same room I am in, unless I'm sleeping, watching tv (still scary), or eating. Sometimes he hangs around in the kitchen while I'm eating but most of the time he's in the living room where he can see me in the kitchen. This is because during the week I play with the Bird right before I go make supper, and he's recovering from running around and isn't inclined to do anything but lie on the cool floor in the few spots that aren't carpeted.

That's planned, you see, because otherwise he twines around my legs while I'm making supper and I have to be so careful not to step on him or bump into him hard with my legs. I know some people would say that I shouldn't bother to be careful, that he'll learn to get out of the way. Yes, but I don't particularly want to find out the hard way that he won't get out of the way until something bad happens, like I break a foot stepping on it. And then he'd never come near my feet again, which might be a good thing for some people but I kind of like him rubbing against me.

He is so very affectionate. He comes into the kitchen when I come home to greet me. He wants to be petted all the time, and since I often indulge this, because I want to pet him quite a lot too, he keeps coming back for more. When I'm home all day and I do other stuff (read, blog, etc) he hangs out in the room I'm in and sleeps or plays with his toys.

Asleep while I read.
Tempting toes were resisted.

Yesterday he fell asleep on the bookshelf that's right next to my chair. It was so sweet. I feel flattered that he wants to be near me. Remember, this is the cat who wouldn't let anyone near him if he could help it ... anyone but Lynn, who had to work for months to get him to trust her. So his constant engagement with me is actually still surprising to me.

My habit of taking pictures often annoys him.
That's the reason for the look he's giving me.

I found him in my chair for the first time yesterday, too. I was quite surprised, since he seems to prefer places that aren't upholstered and thus hot.

Another picture? Honestly, mommy.

And today I had multiple kitchen chores to do, and while I was getting my pills together for the next month, he decided to hang out in the cat tree in the kitchen. Although I've seen him there before, this is the first time he's stayed long enough for me to get a picture. Just like the cat tree in the pink room, he seems to think there is something not quite allowed in his being there.

He's doing so well that the times he gets startled by stuff are often unanticipated by me. He's learning what "oops, sorry" means!

And he's even getting confident enough to be annoyed with me sometimes. When you're scared all the time, you're terrified of doing anything to make the people around you not like you. But when you get some confidence, and some trust, you can show the people around you that you didn't really like what they just did, without worrying that they will get unreasonable and angry and mad at you and do bad things.

So in one way, I'm glad he can get annoyed with me now. And in the other way, of course, I don't particularly like having him annoyed with me, because often, I couldn't help it--I have to do it. Whatever "it" happens to be. Like turning off the alarm when I come in the house. He has begun to have the opinion that I should stop to pet him first. He wouldn't like it if I didn't turn the alarm off. Those beeps are just the warning signal. Heaven help us if the actual alarm ever goes off. That thing is so loud it's painful, and I'm not as sensitive as a cat.

We're still working on "stop nibbling on me," lest you think all is paradise over here. But he's starting to get a clue about it. I've seen him start to nibble and then stop himself a few times, and he gets praised for that a lot.

He also seems to be calming down some; the kitten behavior isn't so pronounced. With my luck, he'll be back to acting his actual age (whatever that is, but it certainly isn't six months old) by the time I get kittens, and he'll be all irritated with their antics instead of joining in happily.

Oh well, the two of us can be irritated together, then, and tell the kittens to "go play with each other" instead of trying to wrestle our heads!