New Cat Furniture!

August 1, 2014, Friday

Today I worked as fast as I could, put off as much as I could till Monday, and managed to be able to come home for the delivery of my new cat furniture and not have to go back to work afterwards. Happy dance.

Of course this meant that when I got there, Steve was already there (this never fails, no matter what time I get there in relation to the time I was told they were going to be there). Which meant I had to go in the house first, do an extremely brief meet and greet with Apricot, which he did not appreciate, and then put him in the bedroom and close the door.

He really did not appreciate this. After the trees were set up, one in the living room and the shorter one in the kitchen, and Steve had left to continue his journey to the cat show which will be tomorrow nearby, I went in to tell Apricot it was safe.

Apricot was under the headboard, facing away from the entrance, with his paws crossed in front of him. He would not come out when cajoled to do so. And I began to suspect that only half of it was scared; the other half was righteous indignation. In other words, he was saying in cat language, "hey, you put me in here, so I'm going to stay in here, see if you like it now, harumph."

My suspicions were never completely confirmed, but they were given weight when a treat lured him out. Treats never worked when he was actually scared.

He could smell the trees from there. I could, and if I could, he could. They are made by a guy named Steve from actual trees, and had been in a confined relatively hot van for three hours, thus the smell (warm wood, if you're wondering).

The way the branches curve dictates the placement of the perches. He has a website called Furwood Forest if you want to see the range of stuff he does. It's beautiful, and the pictures don't do the trees justice. Also, they are much bigger than they look. They rather dwarf Apricot, because they're made for Maine Coon sized cats (which is why I got them).

I coaxed Apricot out into the living room. He was very wary of the new tree and didn't want to go near it. He settled for having me sit on the floor between him and it. I was petting him, and he was scent-rubbing his face on my hands. Well, he always overdoes this a bit, and gets my hands wet. Usually I dry them off on his own fur while I'm petting him (turn-about is fair play, right?) but this time I turned and wiped the scent mark on the edge of the first platform.

That got a faster response than I ever expected. He gave me a brief look that seemed to say, "oh, this is mine? Why didn't you say so?" and promptly began exploring it. There was the first hesitant sniff at the edge of the base.

Skeptical

Then he slowly moved up, level by level, investigating and sniffing thoroughly the whole time.

He reached the first cradle.

Trying out the cradle but not fully settled (note the moving tail)

He came down and then went back up again,
leaving me on the floor taking upshots.
This is the same cradle as before.

Being an aloof watcher kitty

Until something caught his attention.
This wary look is more usual for him.
We're working on that.

After he explored the new tree to his satisfaction, he needed a break from the living room and its new thing so he wandered off down the hall to the pink room. There's no new furniture in the pink room, but he did give me the opportunity to get pictures of him doing what I know he's been doing for a week or so but I've never been in the room with a camera when he's doing it. And that is, looking out the window while on the desk.

This was Pippin's favorite morning spot. He'd spend hours there. I'm not sure how I feel about seeing an orange tabby cat stretched out on the desk without it being Pippin, even though I changed up the desk as best I could. Pippin had a blue blanket, not the oriental rug, and the pink padded stuff is new. Apricot doesn't like the pink padded fish.

Looking out ... and looking eerie ... too much the same

And he's not fond of the pink mat, either. It was in the carrier when I brought him home, and despite being on the desk since then, I think he still remembers. I'll probably move it back so he can stretch out next to the window without having to do this whole avoidance thing!

Got closer, and got a more intent kitty look

The other tree is in the kitchen on the opposite side of the picture window from the old cat tree. I figure if I'm getting two kittens, I need at least four places to look out the window. (Three cats plus a choice.) The dining room table is between the two cat trees now, and Pippin always liked to be with. Apricot is leaning more and more toward being with while I eat, although he's not sure about this whole car right outside the window thing. I expect the kittens will, eventually, want to be with, since that's part of the Maine Coon personality traits. Which means eventually there will be three cats jockeying for space and I didn't think the one cat tree was going to work. Let's not give them a semi-legitimate reason for trying to talk me into letting cats on the table!

Plus this tree that Steve already had made was just perfect with the colors and everything for my kitchen.

I said all that to say this: while Apricot did explore this tree somewhat, he didn't go up and settle the way he did with the other tree. He did go up to the top platform, but he came right back down again, and my camera didn't get quick enough focus during this brief escapade to get any decent pictures.

Exploring the base

Later this evening we discovered that the bases of these trees, specifically the big one in the living room, is high enough that Da Bird thinks it is safe from view if it is on the floor on the opposite side from Apricot, and high enough that Apricot buys this as a legitimate viewpoint on the part of the bird. (Apricot sometimes gives me disdainful really?? looks when the bird tries to hide behind something Apricot can see through, like the rocking chair legs.)

So we played round and round the cat tree with Da Bird, and I believe this helped with the whole acceptance thing because after that, after supper, Apricot randomly went up into the tree and back down again, multiple times, kind of just because it was there. 

A new place!

This final picture wasn't of the new trees, but it happened today after the excitement of the trees was all over. In the afternoon I wanted to go to get my hair cut, and I wanted a dress to wear to do so. Apricot had never seen the dress closet door open before. Usually he doesn't follow me into the tvroom where the dress closet is. This time he did, probably because I turned on the light and because it wasn't a normal tv watching time for me.

And oh, boy, look, can I, can I, please can I? he begged, the minute he saw what was inside. So I let him explore the closet, while I put on the dress I'd picked and then sat on the floor and watched him have fun. He's not hiding. He's just crawling underneath the different lengths of dresses and having fun. He came out a couple times to tell me just how much fun he was having, and thank me for it (rubbing my hands with his face) and then back in quickly when I asked him if he was done yet.

He didn't really take all that long before he was done, although he did give the closet door a backward glance as we left the room together.

So Apricot has explored new things today, and had fun doing it. I hope he remembers that the noise and the sounds of another human in the house were then followed by really cool things (even if one of those things really was just a closet that was always here and he just didn't know about it) so that the next time something like this happens, he's more eager to come out and explore!