… but I can’t figure out why.
Tag: Trixie
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.
Tucked In
Shortly after we adopted Trixie, I went to check on her before leaving for work and saw that she was tucked in under the blankets with her head on the pillow. I assumed my wife had done it before she left and grabbed my camera as I thought it made a cute picture, but it turns out Trixie did it all on her own.
Her confidence has grown by leaps and bounds since then so we started introducing her to the other pets this weekend. We started with our dog Ellie and that went well for the most part, but Ellie did snap her jaws at times if Trixie got close to her mouth, we’ll have to keep an eye on that. Our cat Sam is still a little unsure of his new sister but he did ask repeatedly to come into her room to meet her, the biggest problem is that Trixie introduces herself as “HEY SAM I’M TRIXIE LET’S PLAY PLAY PLAY!!!!!!”, while Sam would prefer some gentle nose-sniffing and a snuggle. Nevertheless Sam is coming around a little quicker than I expected.
Boo will be the hardest, we brought him in and he just sat in the corner and hissed and moaned. On the other hand, he sniffed Trixie when she was in the cat carrier today and didn’t seem upset, so perhaps that’s some progress. He still seems out of sorts, our sensitive little Boo, but he is still playful and above all, is eating normally.
Which is not true for little Trixie and that’s why she was in the cat carrier after an unexpected vet visit. She’s been throwing up and not eating much, although seemingly fine otherwise, so my wife took her in today. It’s unlikely to be anything alarming, probably just that her young stomach is adjusting to a change in her food plus the stress of her new life, but given what we’ve been through the past few months, it’s distressing just the same.
If she’s eating by tomorrow we’ll keep her on anti-nausea meds until she’s back to normal, but if not she’ll have to go in for more tests. These last few months have left me emotionally exhausted and I tend to fall asleep early on my couch every night, hopefully things will return to normal soon. I’d like a week where everyone is eating and no one is throwing up. We’ve been cat owners for over twenty years so it’s not like we’re new at this, but we haven’t had a run of illnesses like this before.
Thankfully Ellie has been healthy despite her advancing age, although even she gave us pause when a routine test suggested she had an infection. Thankfully a follow-up test showed she was fine and the first test was a false positive.
So Trixie, What Did You Think of Your First Vet Visit?
Okay then!
In truth her visit went fine, she charmed everyone she met. She just got a visual inspection this trip, in two weeks she’ll get some shots and then we’ll see a real test. She may be a bit older than initially thought, probably closer to six months than four or five, as she already has her adult teeth. It may be that she’s going to be a bit on the small side.
She was a bit unsure of herself when she got home so we gave her some time alone and soon enough she came out to play. Last night I laid down on the bed near her and she moved over and snuggled her face into mine. It was so adorable I could barely stand it.
She still has a bit of the sniffles but that seems to be getting better. Sam and Boo initially were very curious about the kitten on the other side of the door, Sam especially, but lately they’ve stopped trying to get in and are content to wait and see what happens. We’ll introduce our dog Ellie first since she should be the easiest, then give the cats brief introductions when we’re sure Trixie is up to it and her sneezing has stopped.
On the one hand I can’t wait for her to just be a part of the family, but on the other these early bonding moments are pretty special, as we see her start to understand that she’s home.
Trixie Gets Comfortable
Our shy little Trixie is getting more and more comfortable with each passing day. This picture is from Thursday, two days after we adopted her. After playing a long game of string the tired kitten crawled into my lap, stretched out, and settled in for a nap. She’ll hide under the dresser behind her when she isn’t feeling so confident, such as after her first vet visit today, but for the most part she hangs out on the bed and plays or sleeps or snuggles. She’s starting to understand that this is her home, and so far, I’d say she likes it.
Boolie 