And so with love and gratitude...
Nov. 9th, 2004 01:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smokingboot...for the comments and phone calls and kindness and support of fantastic friends, we start again.
Not to forget little Xam (that will never happen) but to give little Surya a chance.
In a whirlwind of concern for Ralik, the remaining kitten, we found ourselves an 'appropriate' kitten to take the place of his sister as quickly as we could. Her main prerequisites had to be curiousity and friendliness, of female gender (better for Ralik to get used to)and that she be approximately the same age and size as he. She came into the house very timid and is asleep on my knees now, purring.
She had a lot to get used to; leaving the other cats in the sanctuary, a much bigger house with another cat, and perhaps a slight prejudice on the part of a worried Boot; Be nice to my little boy or you're out sort of thing. No pressure there then, poor little girl! This was exacerbated by her tendency to hiss and growl at him when he was just being playful - she didn't seem to get the signals right. She hissed at him, Larians' printer, several empty cassette cases and at one point, armed, dangerous and growling like an outboard motor, she approached the empty fireplace ready to sort it out. We have a spider who lives there called Malkin. Maybe he freaked her out, or maybe she's just mad.
Today, she still hisses but she is far more chilled out - and she has never, since entering the house, misbehaved to a human, quite the contrary. She likes humans a lot, and though she and Ralik still haven't sorted out their boundaries entirely, there seems to be considerable improvement. I can't tell the difference between their fighting and play-fighting.
Things have been helped by the sleeping arrangements. We took away the kitty bed and rug to be washed, and made cardboard box dens, one for each, stuffed with cushions and some old laundry of ours, put the dens in the back room and shut the kitties in for the night; they could be sociable if they wished, solitary if they wished, but they still had to share the space. This was hard for me, as Ralik has been sleeping with us the last two nights, and I would gladly give up hours of sleep just to feel him curled up purring under the sheets on my chest or against Larians' back. But if I want him to be a happy, non-clingy cat, I must be a happy non-clingy Catmother. The necessity of eating together and sleeping in the same room has been good for them both.
Fingers crossed; it feels OK. BTW, this is one of my great reasons for never having children. I would be deeply crap at it. Oh, and a weird dream to record.
A woman came to my door, some kind of social worker, collecting for a charity, something 'good' like that. She was a jean-clad attractive woman with long dark hair, a slim figure and dark eyes. I asked to see her ID, and she showed it to me, but the photo on it was alarming; hair on end, red-rimmed eyes, a real Mrs Rochester style lunatic. Somehow, despite my standing in the doorway, she was in the house, smiling reasonably. She seemed to have a lot of charm but I knew she hadn't used it on me. I didn't know she had got past me, I hadn't felt her slip by. She was walking up the stairs calm as you like, perfectly happy, and I raced after her. She went into my bedroom and I was embarrassed at the state of it. Then she disappeared. I checked to see if she had stolen/damaged anything but she hadn't. I was left standing there, completely confused.
Not to forget little Xam (that will never happen) but to give little Surya a chance.
In a whirlwind of concern for Ralik, the remaining kitten, we found ourselves an 'appropriate' kitten to take the place of his sister as quickly as we could. Her main prerequisites had to be curiousity and friendliness, of female gender (better for Ralik to get used to)and that she be approximately the same age and size as he. She came into the house very timid and is asleep on my knees now, purring.
She had a lot to get used to; leaving the other cats in the sanctuary, a much bigger house with another cat, and perhaps a slight prejudice on the part of a worried Boot; Be nice to my little boy or you're out sort of thing. No pressure there then, poor little girl! This was exacerbated by her tendency to hiss and growl at him when he was just being playful - she didn't seem to get the signals right. She hissed at him, Larians' printer, several empty cassette cases and at one point, armed, dangerous and growling like an outboard motor, she approached the empty fireplace ready to sort it out. We have a spider who lives there called Malkin. Maybe he freaked her out, or maybe she's just mad.
Today, she still hisses but she is far more chilled out - and she has never, since entering the house, misbehaved to a human, quite the contrary. She likes humans a lot, and though she and Ralik still haven't sorted out their boundaries entirely, there seems to be considerable improvement. I can't tell the difference between their fighting and play-fighting.
Things have been helped by the sleeping arrangements. We took away the kitty bed and rug to be washed, and made cardboard box dens, one for each, stuffed with cushions and some old laundry of ours, put the dens in the back room and shut the kitties in for the night; they could be sociable if they wished, solitary if they wished, but they still had to share the space. This was hard for me, as Ralik has been sleeping with us the last two nights, and I would gladly give up hours of sleep just to feel him curled up purring under the sheets on my chest or against Larians' back. But if I want him to be a happy, non-clingy cat, I must be a happy non-clingy Catmother. The necessity of eating together and sleeping in the same room has been good for them both.
Fingers crossed; it feels OK. BTW, this is one of my great reasons for never having children. I would be deeply crap at it. Oh, and a weird dream to record.
A woman came to my door, some kind of social worker, collecting for a charity, something 'good' like that. She was a jean-clad attractive woman with long dark hair, a slim figure and dark eyes. I asked to see her ID, and she showed it to me, but the photo on it was alarming; hair on end, red-rimmed eyes, a real Mrs Rochester style lunatic. Somehow, despite my standing in the doorway, she was in the house, smiling reasonably. She seemed to have a lot of charm but I knew she hadn't used it on me. I didn't know she had got past me, I hadn't felt her slip by. She was walking up the stairs calm as you like, perfectly happy, and I raced after her. She went into my bedroom and I was embarrassed at the state of it. Then she disappeared. I checked to see if she had stolen/damaged anything but she hadn't. I was left standing there, completely confused.
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no subject
Date: 2004-11-09 02:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-09 03:10 pm (UTC)There's a lot of tragedy in the world, but, as I have realised over the past few days, a lot of love too. My heart is calmed by that.