I have been very apprehensive about Apricot's response to my having another human in the house. I did my best to prepare Sophia to behave like a cat-human so as to minimize the trauma, but I had no idea how he would respond.
When she came to the door, I went to it, acting very excited in a low-key way. Do you know how hard it is to act excited without getting bouncy? But anyway, I wanted him to know that I, at least, thought this was a good thing. I'd been telling him she was coming for weeks now, in the hopes that that would help as well.
He stood in the kitchen and watched her through the window of the kitchen door. She told me after that she was doing slow-blink cat kisses at him through the door, which may account for why he only retreated to the living room / kitchen doorway when I opened the door and let her in.
He never turned and ran, just slowly backed away, stopping periodically to watch her as she slowly came farther into the house. We stayed in the kitchen, though, until he had completely retreated. I wanted to have him not watch the luggage arrival; strange human is bad enough, strange human with lots of new stuff is even worse.
Well, I do happen to like my sister quite a bit (both of them, but we're only talking about the one who is staying with me right now). So we chatted and I helped her bring her stuff in and we got her ensconced in the pink room. And the sorts of things you do after a long drive--more water, etc. Then I wanted to show her my new (to her) sofa in the tv room.
Since at the moment it is the only multi-person seating place in the house, we ended up sitting on it and chatting. She has a new iPad (a birthday present from this year) and was showing me that, which is really cool since I want an iPad but I can't afford one and the kittens I'm getting so I'm not getting an iPad. It was fun looking at one, though. Noticing the differences in the iOS from my iPhone and so on and so forth.
What neither of us realized was that Apricot had not retreated to the bedroom under the headboard as I had assumed. I didn't realize until I went to check on him and didn't find him there that he was under the sofa. We'd been sitting on him and talking this entire time!
I don't know if this was a good thing or not. Since we didn't know he was there we weren't self-conscious about talking so he heard freely flowing and easy conversation between us (indicating that I'm okay with this new person). But he was right in the middle (literally) of the new human and me, so that had to be scary.
Suppertime came and we went to the kitchen to have that. We made an apple crisp with two honeycrisp apples. I know they aren't technically baking apples--you have to increase the cooking time of any recipe you use them in, and if your other ingredients don't appreciate the longer cooking time the recipe won't work. But for recipes where it does work, they make such delicious desserts!
Apricot didn't budge from under the couch during supper. I know because I checked on him before and after. But if I wedged myself under the reclined chair I could reach my arm in the very narrow space available and pet him. And since my arm is fairly well wedged in that position, he has to be willing to be petted. If he moves even an inch farther away, I can't reach him.
I found it encouraging that he was not only willing to be petted, but he rearranged so that I could reach the bits he wanted petted the most.
After supper (and the check-in on Apricot) my sister and I went for a short walk, just ten minutes or so. I told Apricot we were leaving for a little bit and we'd be back soon. When we got back (from a very nice walk except for a high-pitched yappy dog on a leash that we were able to avoid fairly quickly) I announced that we were back, both of us. This is different than my normal announcement of "Apricot, I'm home!" (or I'm back!) I wanted to make sure that he didn't come bounding to meet me like normal and then be horrified when there were two humans and one of them he didn't know.
So he didn't show up, which I was grateful for. We made our way through the house. Sophia wanted to call our parents and see what the schedule for tomorrow was. She did that in the pink room (which is the guest bedroom when there is a guest, which is her. I never have anybody else stay with me). While she did that, I went to check up on Apricot again.
He wasn't under the sofa. Odd. Guess he moved to safer pastures under the headboard. I walked into the bedroom and looked ... he wasn't there either. I double checked the sofa. No Apricot. Checked the bedroom again. No Apricot.
I've lost a cat! Where could he be? Those are the only two good hiding spots in the house. I started going through the house looking for him in other places.
Remember back at the very beginning when he first emerged from the bedroom? His new favorite spot was the cubby in the cat tree in the living room by the window. Yup, that's where I found him. We had walked right past him and never even saw him. But he got to watch us.
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| The photo is from back in June, but he was in this cubby today, too. |
It's brilliant because after Sophia stopped moving around and went to bed (and I do mean right after she stopped moving around--because he had an abortive attempt at this thinking she was done and she wasn't yet) he came down out of the cubby and came over to me. He is acting just like his normal self, walking through the living room, expanding into the other parts of the house on a whim and then coming back. He jumps up on the bookshelf (the top shelf is empty and at window height) by my chair and wants kisses. (Real ones, not long-distance ones.)
I'm so relieved. I was afraid that he'd be terrified back into a ball of fluff that took ages to lure out of his shell and it would be that much harder this time around. But as soon as she was "gone" (and he knows she's still in the house) he went back to normal.
Of course, now I have to go to bed too. I wonder how he'll be in the morning. I hope he takes the opportunity tonight to sneak into her room and investigate her stuff (which will have her scent and make him more familiar with her). I think he did that with me when he first came. He'd come out at night when I was asleep and explore the bedroom. That was, of course, before he declared he'd rather have free run of the house and I had to get a light-blocking curtain for my door so I could leave it open.
We shall see. I'm really impressed with the way he's handled this whole thing so far. He's been a very brave kitty, for an Apricot kitty anyway.
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