Trixie had been with us for a couple of weeks and was starting to get introduced to the house at large, but she’s wide-eyed not because of being overwhelmed at meeting the other pets (she was eager to do it, we kept the introduction slow for the benefit of her older brothers who were less keen on her arrival), but because I only had one small lamp on and her pupils were wide in the low light of the room.
She is demonstrating her quick mastery of a skill often on display in our home, a cat sleeping in a dog bed. I had brought one of Ellie’s beds into the room where we were keeping Trixie isolated as Ellie desperately wanted to be wherever I was, and she and Trixie got along well from the start.
It had been a long day for Sam, he spent the day at the vet getting his teeth cleaned and a tooth removed. We kept him in isolation for the night since he had to be fed in stages and we wanted to keep an eye on him and make sure he didn’t throw up. It wasn’t easy at first as he made several (successful) escape attempts, but I finally got him settled in and he snuggled up in my lap and started purring loudly.
A while later to my great surprise Trixie came sauntering out from under the bed so I had to put her outside the room without letting Sam out. After he finished his food I let Ellie in as she had been patiently waiting on the other side of the door (patiently waiting apart from the occasional loud sigh or tapping of toes) and then Sam and Ellie both took a nap.
He earned his freedom and at the moment is curled up in his usual spot on my legs.
My wife texted me at work this morning to let me know Harper Lee died. I had mixed feelings, given her reported health it seemed like it was her time, but I was still sad at the loss of someone who gave me something so beautiful. Her novel To Kill a Mockingbird is my favorite book, and my wife loves it too, so when we adopted a little black-and-white kitten in 2001 we decided to keep with the literary names that started with our cat Templeton and named our new kitten after the wonderful Scout Finch. An amazing bond formed between my beloved Scout and I for the next twelve years until cancer took her life. We then adopted another black-and-white kitten, a terrified little thing who shook with fear when we met him, and named him after another character from the book, Boo Radley (this is Boo perched on top of my bookcase).
When we adopted a kitten last year after Emma died, while casting about for a name we considered naming her Finch, both as a nod to the Finches in Mockingbird and to my love of birds, before settling on Trixie. Hopefully we won’t need to name a new pet for a long time to come.
When we adopted Trixie in late January, we kept her in isolation in the guest bedroom for the first couple of weeks, then slowly began her introductions to the rest of the household. We took her introduction slowly not for her sake but rather for Sam and especially Boo, who were not happy with the arrival of their new sister. On the other hand, and despite the appearances in the top picture, Trixie wasn’t afraid of our dog Ellie, and Ellie gave her no reason to be.
No prison bars can hold her
We put a baby gate at the door to the bedroom so the cats could greet each other without the stress of being in the same room, but the scrawny little Trixie could slip right through the bars. It did slow her down, so we could mostly keep her in the room, but it served best at keeping the other pets out and making sure Trixie always had a sanctuary she could retreat to.
Ellie by my side
When I think of those weeks I think of this scene as much as anything, Ellie snuggling beside my legs. Not because that is unusual, as it isn’t, but because of what was happening on the other side of my legs …
A Cat’s Best Friend
I’ve loved Ellie since the day we adopted her, but I don’t think I’ve ever been more proud of her than during Trixie’s first few weeks with us. She was extremely patient with the young cat, even when Trixie tried to initiate play by swatting her on the nose. She’d chomp her jaws together when Trixie was upsetting her and, even though they started out speaking different languages, Trixie soon learned what Ellie did and didn’t like. Sometimes in her excitement she’d forget her lessons but these two got along right from the get go, a relief since my wife was out of town for a week and I had to manage time with all the pets. She willingly put up with kitten mania as long as she could be by my side and befriended the kitten long before the other cats did.
The Adaptable Adoptable
And how did Trixie adapt to having a dog inches away from her? It didn’t keep her up at night. Or at all.
As the weather has gotten colder, Trixie has discovered the joys of this spot beneath the big picture window. Underneath the wooden grate is a heating vent, blowing warm air onto your belly as you sleep. When we moved to this house in 2002, our two cats were Templeton and Scout. Scout (the black-and-white cat) was the first to discover the vent, but Templeton (the gray tuxedo cat) soon discovered Scout’s secret and began sleeping here as well.
I’ve photographed most of the cats on this vent over the years, although it didn’t get as much use once we bought them heated beds. For some reason they haven’t used the beds as much since Scout died a few years ago (she adored hers and insisted it be kept beside me in my office), although they do sleep in Ellie’s beds quite frequently.
We adopted Trixie early in the year so this is her first Christmas with us. We weren’t sure how she’d do with the Christmas tree so when I put it up this weekend I left it without ornaments, just in case she knocked it over.
Not only is the tree still upright but so far she hasn’t tried to climb it.
I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel putting up the tree, I last took it down right after Emma died in January, and she so loved the tree that I can’t help but think of her when I see it. It reminds me too of Templeton, as the day we put it up in 2007 was the day he died. He loved the box the tree was stored in as much as the tree itself. It reminds me of Scout too, when she was young she used to like to climb up into it and sleep near the top. She learned we didn’t want her in it since we kept chasing her out of it, so she’d slink up near the center of the tree as she could then climb without disturbing the branches or ornaments, and she’d sleep in a spot facing the wall where we couldn’t see her. I only discovered her secret spot when I found the flattened branches when I took the tree down.
But nobody loved the tree like our sweet Em.
In the end it made me happy to put it up and see the three cats hanging out peacefully below its branches, and to remember the three cats who are no longer with us. It’s the tree that we bought when we got married and it’s gotten battered by the love our cats have shown it over the years, so we’ll replace it at some point but decided to give it at least another year until we see how Trixie does.
I’m amazed at how far Sam has come in accepting young Trixie.
It has been a long and slow road to be sure. She is relentlessly affectionate and if he gives her an inch of acceptance, she takes a mile. Back in the summer he started letting her curl up next to him (at times), then gradually over the months he’d let her sleep with her head on his legs, then against his chest, all leading up to what she really wanted: sleeping face-to-face. And I mean literally face-to-face, she pushes hers right into his. And bless him he’s allowed her to do it on multiple occasions now, I could hardly blame him if this was a bridge too far.
Which is not to say there aren’t occasionally tears. Sometimes he’d prefer a little more space, and while Trixie has gotten better about reading his moods, there is still more work to be done. And sometimes our young cat just has a little too much energy for her older brother.
They’re curled up next to each other on my legs at the moment after earlier hanging out together under the Christmas tree. How thankful I am that this is the new normal.
Trixie using Boo as a pillow. It took a long while to get Boo to accept Trixie, but our two youngest cats are now friends and can frequently be seen (and heard) running and playing throughout the house. Even so I was a little surprised that Boo let Trixie climb on top of him as they took a nap.
Boolie 