Thursday 12 April 2018

The cat has arrived

and our responsibilities have begun.
He appeared, very unhappily and cautiously out of his cat carrier, and eyed me with some caution. Mmm....a new human. Do I trust her?
    "I'm all cat," I told him.
He was not impressed.
Nephew also arrived with H...'s bed, his litter tray, a blanket, a range of bowls, tins of food, pellets of food, toys, a tray to put under his water  bowl and....was there anything else? Probably. It was like bringing a two year old to stay.
We decided on the best places to put everything....easy for H... to find and hard for the Senior Cat to trip over. H... watched all this with great suspicion.
     "You really are leaving me here?" came the unhappy miaou. 
We assured him that it is only for two nights. He was not a happy cat. 
    "He's an escape artist," Nephew warned, "He can open sliding doors and he will claw his way out of any screen. Keep the windows shut."
Right. We went through the house.
H...went through the house too. He explored every corner, every window, every door. He jumped on to every chair he could find. He found his way  up two bookcases and the shelves that have yarn and other craft supplies. He was not interested in the yarn. 
I removed some more things out of reach of his inquisitive paws. That made him sit under a chair and look at me with even greater suspicion. 
    "He'll be fine," I told his humans. They departed reluctantly.
H....spent the rest of the day exploring restlessly and alternating it with sitting on a chair he has obviously has decided is his. I left him to it.
Eventually he had something to eat. He used his litter tray. He told me in no uncertain terms that he was not happy about being IN when there was whole new world OUT to explore. I offered to play. He turned tail. 
I wondered what he would do overnight. His bed is normally at the foot of their bed. They have trained him to sleep there. K....(Nephew's partner) had brought an old shirt that she had deliberately worn and left unwashed so he would have her "smell" there.
We went off to bed eventually. He was still staring out the window. He didn't bother me overnight.
But there he was this morning. He let me know that I should have been up earlier than this. It was already 6am! He needed to know I was there. 
He followed me to the bathroom and then to the kitchen. I changed his water, washed out one food bowl and gave him, as per instructions, more to eat. Oh yes, he might deign to do that. 
But first he sat there looking at me. I held out my paw. He sniffed and then gave it a tiny lick.
He has taken over my life - until tomorrow. 

2 comments:

Jan Jones said...

H sounds as though he has decided you'll do as temporary accommodation. Enjoy 😊

catdownunder said...

I think he did - eventually!