Then when I get up I call "Apricot, I'm awake officially." (I started adding the "officially" because, well, he could see perfectly well that I was awake while I was lying in bed.) This morning I called softly because Sophia wanted to sleep in. Or not get up at 5:30 anyway ... is that really sleeping in?
My little orange kitty seemed almost normal except that he didn't eat much. I have concluded from previous behavior (the pattern of when he throws up food) that he has a nervous stomach and it's best not to encourage him to eat when he's got a nervous or scary day ahead of him. So I didn't worry about the not eating. He's at a healthy weight and it won't hurt him to eat lightly for a few days.
I headed out for my walk and he was still behaving normally when I got back. But when I went down the hall toward the bedroom, Sophia's door was open more than a crack, even though it was dark. He got very skittish at that point, and although he followed me into the bedroom, he also soon left. This is actually fairly normal too. Apparently my changing clothes from walking clothes to working clothes is not interesting enough to hang around for!
Sure enough, Sophia was up (she'd been in the bathroom we'd walked by but the door was shut so Apricot hadn't reacted) and so by the time I left for work shortly after, Apricot was back in his cubbyhole in the living room, observing from a safe distance.
Sophia told me that when she'd gotten up for a middle-of-the-night bathroom stop, Apricot had actually come and sniffed her foot while she was "occupied." I told her Apricot likes to come around while you're "occupied" in the bathroom because he knows that humans can't get up rapidly from that position. I was still surprised Apricot got that close to her!
Today I had a very rough, long day at work. Typical, when I'd specifically said I wanted to leave early toward the end of the week in order to spend time with my family. But it's not like they forced me to stay; the workload exploded and forced me to stay because I'm perhaps a tad too conscientious.
Sophia reports that while she was in the house (she was in and out visiting parents and the other sister during the day) Apricot stayed in his cubbyhole, but there was evidence that he was getting up and moving around when she wasn't in the house.
When I came home, Sophia was just leaving again to spend a couple hours before supper with our parents. This was quite welcome because of the aforesaid long day at work--I needed some time with just Apricot to decompress.
And I was so very happy that within about five minutes of me talking to and coaxing Apricot, he came down from his cubbyhole and cuddled with me. Since he's not a lap cat, his version of cuddling is different from any cat I've ever had. I sit on the floor with my legs in a wanna-be split (like nowhere near a split, but you get the idea) and he cuddles up against my stomach. Depending on his day, some days he cuddles closer than others.
Today he seemed to be trying to merge with me. He was pressed up against me and purring like a motor without a muffler. I needed the cuddles just as much as he did so we sat there and comforted each other for probably fifteen minutes. Finally Apricot decided it was safe enough to go do things (like drink from his fountain) while I kept watch.
I kept a very sorry watch considering I just keeled over slowly from a seated position to a lying down one and almost took a nap on the carpet. But this was okay too, as Apricot likes when I'm completely down on the floor. I'm "smaller" that way and less scary.
And I was deliberately doing a lot of the "I'm not a scary person" things that I'd almost stopped doing. Apricot needed reassurance, so I was supplying it.
We even got to play with Da Bird for a while. It was not very enthusiastic, and consisted mostly of Apricot lying in his star tunnel and playing very gently with the feathers when they came within reach. He made the occasional dart and pounce, but those were few and far between.
Then Sophia came back for supper, and Apricot lodged himself in the cubby hole again.
I actually consider this to be wonderful progress. He's not hiding completely, and he's somewhere he can watch. I think it's a good thing when he's not too scared to be an observer, at least.
After supper we (the human we) hung out in the tv room on the sofa, since the living room doesn't have a multiple person seating arrangement. Yet.
And when we emerged to go our separate ways to bed, I found Apricot had moved into the stair cat tree cup on the other side and was looking out the window. He stayed there even when Sophia came through to get a water glass from the kitchen.
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| Back on Oct the 11th in the stair cat tree's cup |
Even more progress!
Now that she has gone to bed, or given enough evidence of staying in the pink room to satisfy him, he's come down from that cat tree and is roaming around the living room; looking out the patio door, coming over to me for pets, wandering away into the kitchen to look out the window there (judging by the length of time before he comes back and the thump when he hits the floor jumping down from the cat tree), coming over for more pets, getting a fountain drink of water, scratching his scratching posts, and coming over for more pets. You get the picture.
I even got a goodnight kiss last night and I have every hope of getting one tonight. From Apricot, not Sophia.
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