Sophia's Spring Visit

Sophia came for her spring visit the last week of March. We were very interested to see how Apricot would react, since last time he actually accepted her presence and came out and was social the last night she was here.

It took him a night to get used to her being there again, but after that he was fine. Sophia might debate that, as he did spend a lot of time under the sofa.

But that's part of anxiety. Even after you are okay with something, sometimes it's just too overwhelming to have that something be there. So he would retreat to his quiet place when he got overwhelmed. But he wasn't scared. It's not like he'd suddenly run for the hills. Just a calm, walking down the hall and into the tv room where he'd be under the sofa if anybody was looking for him.

The weird part of her visit was poor Thimble. He found himself quite scared of her. And he was distressed because he didn't understand why he was scared. He kept trying and trying, but she'd move after having been still for a while (like at the dinner table) and he'd leap up and run, having both a puzzled and a frightened expression at the same time.

I'm not sure what was going on there either. After she'd been here two days he finally calmed down enough to be okay as long as she wasn't getting too close. But it seems my brave boy has finally broken through his bravado to realize that bravery isn't not being afraid of something--bravery is being afraid and facing it anyway. And he's never had any practice in true bravery.

Colby, meanwhile, was his usual phlegmatic self. He hung out around whoever was being the most interesting or the calmest, depending on if he wanted to nap or not. While I rode my exercise bike, for instance, she was playing with her ipad in her room, lying on the bed resting. So he went in there and curled up against her legs and took a nap.

She said that first he tried being on her chest but to her relief that didn't last long. A cat of Colby's weight combined with someone who has asthma isn't a good idea.

So now Colby's my brave boy when it comes to new humans, and even he's gone skittish. I think Apricot is rubbing off on them entirely the wrong way!