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snick and jasper had their third room swapping yesterday. i've learned that snick is not tolerating the room swapping, i think simply because she prefers to be downstairs on the first floor with all her favorite comfy spots. because of snick's medical issues, she tends not to tolerate things she doesn't like very well. everything was going very well with yesterdays room swapping for an hour or so, and i set up two baby gates (stacked upwards) in the door to jasper's safe room where snick was at that point. i had a sheet draped over the baby gates so there was only about 1 1/2 inches or so for the cats to be able to see each other along the bottom of the baby gates. jasper joined me up by the baby gates and walked up to them and peered in at snick, who hissed and meowed at him. jasper immediately ran back away from the baby gates. so i put jasper in a cat carrier temporarily and carried snick back downstairs, and left jasper free run of the upstairs and down the stairs to the screen door (looking into the kitchen). snick has never hissed or anything at jasper, and has seemed to be wanting to meet him.
i thought about the whole incident for quite a while, and i really think snick's reaction was to being somewhere she didn't want to be -- upstairs, instead of downstairs where she prefers to be. snick remained grumpy and hissy even towards me until she'd had a nice long nap yesterday. when snick is behaving like this, i can see how poorly she really feels generally.
so what i'm going to do is no more room swapping. instead, i'll set up a baby gate or two (stacked) between the living room (snick's favorite room, where she spends most of her time) and the kitchen. then every few days i'll simply let snick stay in the living room, and jasper can be downstairs in the kitchen/downstairs hall/downstairs bedroom/bathroom area with me. i'll drape a towel or sheet over the baby gate(s), so there's only 1-2 inches for the cats to peer at each other at the gate(s). and we'll see how that goes.
overall, i think jasper is doing very well. and he seems to be moving past his shyness and being scared of snick. my feeling is that jasper feels ready to spend more time downstairs, and maybe even to meet snick face to face soon. i'm going to take it slowly after snick's hissing though, to feel out if she's fine with jasper as long as she's able to be in the areas of the house she prefers.
i thought about the whole incident for quite a while, and i really think snick's reaction was to being somewhere she didn't want to be -- upstairs, instead of downstairs where she prefers to be. snick remained grumpy and hissy even towards me until she'd had a nice long nap yesterday. when snick is behaving like this, i can see how poorly she really feels generally.
so what i'm going to do is no more room swapping. instead, i'll set up a baby gate or two (stacked) between the living room (snick's favorite room, where she spends most of her time) and the kitchen. then every few days i'll simply let snick stay in the living room, and jasper can be downstairs in the kitchen/downstairs hall/downstairs bedroom/bathroom area with me. i'll drape a towel or sheet over the baby gate(s), so there's only 1-2 inches for the cats to peer at each other at the gate(s). and we'll see how that goes.
overall, i think jasper is doing very well. and he seems to be moving past his shyness and being scared of snick. my feeling is that jasper feels ready to spend more time downstairs, and maybe even to meet snick face to face soon. i'm going to take it slowly after snick's hissing though, to feel out if she's fine with jasper as long as she's able to be in the areas of the house she prefers.
) snick and jasper had a tiny little "to do" today. just snick in the kitchen eating and jasper wanting to pass by about 2-3 feet from her, which snick was not comfortable with. jasper tried to pass by and snick stepped forward a step or two and swatted at him. jasper retreated, then went back up to his safe room for a very short while. then he came back downstairs again. i explained to jasper that snick wasn't comfortable being that close right now, and she was scared. i told him that he didn't do anything wrong, and how he's such a good boy. the supervised visit continued through this evening with no problems.
