tortoiseshell cat – Page 20

Trixie’s First Attempt at Using the Cat Bed

Don’t worry Trixie, Boo didn’t exactly get it right his first time either.

Back in March I was photographing Boo resting on the heating vent when we experienced the Trixie Maneuver, where she approached and backed up and sat down right in front of him, anxiously waiting to see if he would attack her. She had been trying these submissive approaches with Boo, mostly unsuccessfully, but while his eyes went wide for a moment, he did allow her to stay, and she leaned over on her side with her feet and tail overlapping his hands.

While it took a couple of months for Boo to accept Trixie, peace does not yet reign among the cats in our household. Boo and Sam have been at odds since Emma died and Trixie arrived, and Sam has had enough of both the young cats. He’s fine if they are on their own but swats them if they try to snuggle with him.

These things take time, and to help normalize relations I’ve been lining the three of them up each day to give them some cat treats, and they all get along fine then. Sam will be a lot happier when he relents, as he’ll love having extra snuggling partners, but for the moment he’s curled up in my lap and happy to be on his own.

Some Days I Don’t Get Much Done …

… but I can’t figure out why.

Face Time

I got up from the couch and had to move Sam, who had been sleeping on my lap. When I came back I sat down beside him as I planned to go to bed soon. But then Boo jumped up and curled up beside me, and given how stressed he had been about Trixie’s arrival, I decided to stay up longer and give him some attention. He was showing signs of accepting her but he was still pretty stressed out about her.

Later as he slept curled up in a ball beside my legs, Trixie jumped up onto my lap. This woke Boo and I thought he’d get up and leave, but instead he stayed, trying to determine what to do, so I stroked his back and he fell back asleep. I got Trixie to lay down on my stomach but then she eased over so that her feet were up against his body, and I was surprised to see that not only did he not hiss at her, he tolerated it without incident.

So she moved a little closer. And then a little closer. She was now partially sitting on top of him, but still Boo showed no reaction. Trixie then eased completely off of me so that she was sitting on top of him, and I was stunned to see that this too he tolerated.

A little too emboldened, she leaned over and smushed her face directly into his. This I knew would be a bridge too far, yet Boo didn’t budge. Given the landmark moment I decided to forgo sleep for a while longer and let them bond, though I kept falling asleep sitting up. Hours later, with Trixie still atop Boo, I relented and went to bed for a little sleep.

They’ve been getting along ever since.

At Last, Some Rest

I started off the year pretty worn out after Emma’s long decline, and it only got worse after she died and then Sam got sick. Then it was Boo’s turn and even Ellie gave us a scare when a test suggested she had an infection but it turned out to be a false positive. Then we adopted little Trixie and started her slow introduction to the household and even she got sick. And just when it seemed everyone was over all their health issues big and small, one night Ellie wanted to cut her walk short, so we came home early and she walked straight into my office and barfed all over the place. Turned out not be serious, but let’s just say after a few months of chaos we’re exhausted.

There is some good news however as we head towards our new normal. The other cats have accepted Trixie and she’s spent the last two weeks with free run of the house. Though it will be a while before they are truly comfortable with one another, there is progress as shown by Trixie and Sam sleeping on my legs. We’ve gone an entire week without anyone getting sick in big or small ways, and we’re finally getting a good night’s sleep.

Or mostly anyways. Thursday night all three cats joined me in bed but Trixie was in the mood to play so we didn’t get much sleep until she was ready to snuggle up. I love it when she snuggles up to my face, usually she just rubs her face on mine in the most adorable way, but occasionally she can’t resist nipping at your nose. You just never know what you’re going to get, though thankfully the nose bites are getting further and farther between.

We also replaced both mattresses a week ago. We got our mattress when we got married so it was over sixteen years old and due for a replacement. We tested out a bunch, unfortunately the one I liked best was on the expensive side, but so far I’ve slept well on it. We discovered how tortuous the mattress in the guest bedroom was when we stayed with Trixie when she was isolated in there, so we replaced it as well, although with a more basic model.

All of which means that, better rested, I no longer feel as though I’m about to lose my mind. And I shouldn’t fall asleep immediately after dinner, so blogging should return to normal too.

Trixie Wins Her Freedom

This weekend we finally gave Trixie free reign of the house. She joined me in bed last night and is asleep in my lap at the moment. This picture is from a week ago when we were giving her limited time outside the guest room, you can see in her wide eyes that she was a little too hopped up to be let loose on the other cats full time. That’s Sam beside me on the stairs, trying to decide just what to make of his new little sister.

Trixie Gets Comfortable

Trixie’s introduction to the rest of the family is proceeding apace but she’s not yet been given free reign of the house, we’re still keeping her in the guest bedroom at night and while we’re away. Boo is still rather uneasy around her but he is making progress and in the past couple of days has been willing to play when she’s around. Trixie, for her part, seems quite comfortable in her new home, as you can see when she stretched out on my legs a few days ago. You can see where they shaved her belly for the surgery when she was spayed.

Accomplishing Much By Doing Nothing

Despite being off work for two days, when looking at my task list I didn’t get much done, although it feels like I’ve accomplished a lot, helping the pets work through the stress of Trixie’s arrival.

I was most concerned about Boo given his recent stress reaction so I was pleasantly surprised yesterday morning when he climbed into my lap while I was having breakfast. He settled in for a long nap which concerned me as I still had to get up to walk Ellie, so I waited as long as I could then gently placed him back on the couch when I got up. Perhaps he’s been learning from Sam, as he got up and took my nicely warmed spot.

He was still there when I got back from our walk so I sat down and put him in my lap and he fell back asleep. Later when I had to get up I came back to find him right back in my spot, so this time I let him be and sat next to him. Sam came in and curled up in my lap and that’s how the three of us spent the morning, until I at last got up for some lunch and came back to see Sam had taken my new spot.

I left the brothers curled up beside each other and Ellie and I went up to join Trixie for some quiet time in her room. She curled up in my lap and that’s how we spent the afternoon. A lazy day, but a good one.

Allow Me to Introduce Yourself

My wife left town on Wednesday and I was to take over spending the night with Trixie, plus getting up early to feed the pets, and walking Ellie in the morning as well as the evening. Already exhausted, it just seemed a little too much to manage to make it to work on time and get a reasonable amount of sleep, but thankfully Thursday and Friday were fairly open in my schedule so I took them off. Combined with a holiday on Monday I’m home for five straight days.

I’m thankful for that, as the introductions have begun.

My first task was to figure out sleeping arrangements for Wednesday night. Ellie usually sleeps in our bedroom on the dog bed or our bed, and since she had already met Trixie without eating her, I brought her dog bed into the guest bedroom and Ellie, Trixie, and I spent the night there. It all went well at first, I don’t know if she’ll grow out of it but Trixie is a snuggler when she sleeps, sometimes even curling up under your chin. Ellie took to her dog bed and we all drifted off to sleep.

At about 3:30 a.m. I woke to a tiny, snuggly orc chewing on my face and poking me with her claws. I petted her and explained in my best orc tongue that this was not the time for playing. She finally calmed down and we fell asleep until 5 a.m. when a loud and angry goblin began caterwauling outside our door. I assured him that feeding time wasn’t until 6 a.m. and would he please let me get some sleep, but my goblin speech is not as good as my orc, and he persisted.

At 6 a.m. I got up to feed Ellie and Sam and Boo and give Ellie and Trixie their pills and scoop the litter boxes and then snuggled up with Trixie to try and go back to sleep. Unfortunately I was wide awake but I did finally fall back asleep, getting up at 9 a.m. for some breakfast and to take Ellie on our walk.

This all repeated verbatim last night, except that Ellie joined us in the bed, so I’m especially thankful that I was able to be off work. I’ve been letting Trixie explore the house more and more, but she still greets the other cats with too much enthusiasm so there hasn’t been much progress there. She did eventually get pretty tired, it’s a stressful business exploring a new home, so I put her at the top of the cat tree and she settled in for a nap while Boo and Sam came up to watch the squirrels at the suet feeder. Trixie was tired enough that she just lay there and let the other cats sit inches away from her, so while it’s a very small start, it’s still a start.

After a while she was overwhelmed and came back to the guest room on her own, so I grabbed my laptop and came up with her, she’s asleep on my legs at the moment. She’s also taken to napping in the dog bed that I brought in from the bedroom, as you can see in the picture above.

Sorry Ellie.

Tag: tortoiseshell cat

Trixie Masters the Cat Bed