Catsitting HELP PLEASE

The family I babysit for on an almost weekly basis called me up yesterday night in a panic because their catsitter bailed on them or something. Now, Winnie (the cat) is a real sweetheart, but she's only about 10 months old and she hasn't been around other cats since she was bought.

My boys are also darlings but they're big and scary to a little thing like her and I had great misgivings about agreeing to catsit. But I was their only hope and I am pathologically incapable of saying no.

So she came today. She was OK for the first few minutes. Then Ghost came to check out what was what and the ridge on her back could have rivalled a stegosaurus. So there she was hiding in a corner and every time the boys came to close she growled and hissed.

Right now I've shut her in my bedroom together with food and litterbox as it was painful to watch how scared she was. The thing is I live in a 2-room flat (that is, I have a livingroom, bedroom, hall, bathroom and kitchen. That's what we call a 2-roomer in Sweden), and I'm afraid that my two boys are going to start feeling cramped. She's going to be here for a month at least.

Is there anything I can do to facilitate her acclimatisation? She's doing much better alone in my bedroom, but it's not an ideal situation.

So yeah, HELP PLEASE!

Thanks for the advice Carolina! I'm making notes

My bathroom is not the biggest (or rather, its layout is... not good) so the food would end up beside the litterbox anywhere I'd put it, lol. Otherwise I'd totally try that. my bedroom is pretty big... She's being kinda calm though, not trying to hide under the bed or anything. She's lying on one of the platforms on my floor-to-ceiling scratching post, and purrs when I pet her. Not totally spaz-free of course, the dear.

They can't really communicate underneath the door unfortunately, as there is no space there (drafts in the Swedish winter being not nice). But after a few days I'll bring her out to meet each other like you suggested; I think you misread (is that a word?) me, she'll be staying at least a month.

I did offer this, but the mother was adamant about me taking her in. It was very hard to communicate as she was already in a different country and all the talking was done through text-messages on our cellphones... Truth is I would only have been able to go there every other day anyway, as I don't live in the same neighbourhood.

Thanks again for all the good advice. Sorry if my reply is too wordy; I'm loquacious by nature! You're an angel!

That sounds interesting *strikes strokey chin pose* I shall try that today methinks. Mah boys usually let me handle them a little as long as I don't do the unthinkable and try and pick them up.

They are more curious than anything else about the mystery guest in the bedroom. She wanted to go outside today so I picked her up and held her as Tuffen checked her out from a distance and before he sauntered off. Ghost came in a little closer and sniffed her tail before prudently deciding to keep his distance for now. No aggressive movements that I could see. She of course did not like the experience so I'll wait with doing that again I think.

Thank you for all the good vibes, I think my cats are feeling them today. Little Winnie is feeling a bit lonely though so I'm going to spend a few hours with her now, reading out loud a little and what not. Thank you!

Catsitting Update! This will be as detailed as I remember it as I'm still not the best at reading cats' behaviour and thought maybe y'all might give me some input.

I had made an attempt of exchanging towels the night before, but they had been mostly disinterested. So after I came home today I decided to let them meet again face to face.

I tried wrapping Winnie in a towel and holding her but that was teh worstest thing evah apparently as she slipped out of my arms and hid underneath the chair in my bedroom.

The boys were cautious. TG went right into the bedroom and started sniffing and poking his nose into everything, in a very, "Hallo hallo hallo! What's all this then?"kind of way, but slowly and cautiously. Ghost sat by the threshold staring for about eight min, on full alert, as if on guard duty. TG (being TG) soon gravitated toward Winnie's food bowl which he took a bite out off before I said no in my no-voice. (Fear my mighty no-voice, it is powerful )

Winnie by this time had hid underneath a small, nearby table and clearly thought TG was too close 'cause she started hissing. I made a shhh-noise every time she did, which made her stop but also retreat further away.

TG wandered out into the hall again eventually, where he made some mrrrt-noises (he's the noisy one of my two boys), lay down and started cleaning himself. Ghost decided to put two front paws into the bedroom then stopped to stare at Winnie who had moved back under the chair (which is incidentally closer to the door). Winnie growled a little but stopped after I admonished her.

Ghost eventually made it fully into the room, although he stayed by the door, when TG decided to make a return trip. Winnie escaped back to under the table. About four minutes of staring went on between the three. TG then went into the living room instead where again he made mrrt-noises and even a quiet meow.

I went to pet Ghost which he apparently objected to - he's really a "I come to you, NOT vice-versa" kind of cat - so he left the room too which I took as sign to separate them again.

All in all it lasted about 15-20 minutes. I had a small pitcher of water on hand in case of emergencies, and I spoke in a happy tone of voice throughout it to them. There was no lashing of tails, although Winnie's puffed up a bit.

So what do you guys think? Did I mess up? Is there hope? What?

I had a wand toy that I wiggled in their faces now and again, but they never really stopped staring at each other (except for TG who got distracted, lol). It did break some of the tension though I believe. Thanks for the advice!

I hope so Otto!

Catsitting Update!

This morning when I was leaving my bedroom via the door that connects to the kitchen, Ghost decided he wanted IN, and tore past me like a cat on a mission. He hid under the bed while Winnie stood on the nearby chair not quite sure whether to be upset or not. I managed to shoo him out though.

When I got home after work I decided to try another visit. The boys sat outside the open door to the hallway for a while before TG ventured inside with Ghost standing watch. Winnie was very cautious at first, keeping her distance. TG would occasionally sit still for a long time, and Winnie would approach him slowly, then back away.

At one point she got really close and I swear TG smacked his lips at her. She didn't back away immediately, so I'm assuming this isn't a threatening move.

TG then went and - after a bit of a sniff around - sat down beneath the floor-to-ceiling scratching post, and Winnie slowly approached again. TG simply sat there in an upright position, occasionally cleaning himself. When she got a little closer, although still with her hindquarters under the table, he smacked his lips again. Winnie slowly retreated back under the table.

TG decided to go back out of the room then, and Ghost started venturing inside a little. Winnie and Ghost came face to face a few times, but I'm afraid my over-zealous watch made them nervous as I kept moving around them trying to get into a good position to splash them with water in case of dire emergency.

TG came back in and Ghost went back out. It was like tag team wrestling or something. As I decided to open the door into the kitchen as well, TG took up squatting rights in Winnie's cat carrier that stood in front of aforementioned door and made himself comfy in there. This of course made Winnie curious and she repeatedly started to approach, only to back away again.

I moved into the kitchen to ostensibly give them so privacy, all the while keeping an eye on this dance of caution. Unfortunately the angle at which I was standing was a bit off when Winnie finally made it all the way to carrier and for some reason both she and TG jumped and she quickly backed off a bit. But it didn't seem to discourage her and she did this a few more times before she retreated to the bed again.

TG then got up and wandered into the kitchen.... with a curious Winnie trailing after after a minute. She sniffed around the doorway but when TG approached her she first went in under the dinner table and when he then sidled off towards the kitchen's other exit she escaped into the bedroom again.

This, coupled together with me closing the bedroom/kitchen door, caused TG to quickly RUN from the kitchen into the bedroom the other way and stare at her for a few seconds before both boys wandered out of the room again.

Thus ended the Second Meeting of Cats.

I think it's going pretty well! ... I hope...

Oh good, that takes some of the worry off me. Thank you, I try to make it as detailed as possible

And there really wasn't anything else I could do than take her in for the month. She's a sweetheart

She is eating properly yes, and using the litter box. She might actually be eating a little more than usual, but it's hard for me to tell seeing as this is the first time I've had to pay attention to her food intake. Not one of my duties when I'm babysitting

Now I'm off to my friend to have a pseudo-celebration of midsummer. No dancing round phallic symbols for us today, thank goodness. But alas, that also means no pickled herring and no sandwich cake... (mmm, sandwich cake...)

And now for what ALL of you have been waiting for I'm sure () .....

... Catsitting update!

As I am writing this, the door to my bedroom is open. I came home late today after helping a friend look after her kids while her husband was gone, and poor little Winnie had been cooped up all alone all day. She started crying as soon as she heard me come in and the boys where looking at me all accusingly like, "Well? Where have you been all day? Don't you hear that? Fix it!"

I opened the door and a little black nose immediately popped out. Not even the sight of TG and ghost deterred her. It did give her some pause but then she snuck in under a low piece of furniture just outside the bedroom door where the boys don't fit.

TG sniffed at her a little then wandered into the bedroom. Winnie followed soon after.

Now, Tuffen, I've realised, is really a big softie. He might unintentionally bully smaller cat just with his size (I weighted him; he's almost 7kg/15lbs) but he doesn't do it on purpose (unless treats are involved and he finished his before his brother lol). He has made no threatening moves towards Winnie, but calmly lets her approach him much of the time.

Winnie on the other hand, has an unfortunate habit of going into crouch mode, sneaking up, and then pouncing on TG or Ghost, stopping herself before she actually reaches them. TG has swatted lightly at her a few times, and there has been some tail twitching from all parties when she does this. I am more worried about Ghost's reaction to her behaviour than TG's at this point.

Just went in to check on them - TG is under my bed and Winnie is looking at him, her bum sticking out from under the bed, while Ghost watches from the nearby door. And now Winnie is going in under bed, only to back out, move around it to enter it from another end, then hurry out again...

She has yet to really venture outside the bedroom. I guess she feels that's her domain. She did manage to sneak into the kitchen when the boys weren't looking and taste their food though.

I think I'm gonna go shoo the boys out for now and shut the door for the night. Time for bed for me anyways, it's now 1 AM!

EDIT: Well, I spoke too soon or something like that. I shut her in while I went about my before-bed ablutions and she started crying again, poor thing. So then when I tried to enter, she quickly darted out of the bedroom, and though TG was lying close by she showed almost no hesitation as she sniffed around the hall a bit before disappearing into the bathroom.

I tried taking her back inside with me - bad of me I know but after helping taking care of a 2-month old and a hyperactive 17-month old and 7-year old, not to mention I cycled over 5 Swedish miles (roughly 35 American miles) on Saturday, I was feeling a wee bit exhausted - but nope she was gonna be outside for a bit.

So I let her be and went into the bedroom to dress for bed etc. About 8 min later Winnie comes racing into the bedroom lie the hounds (felines?) of hell are after her and hides under the bed. the boys, when I went to look, were sitting beside each other in the living room looking towards the bedroom door with their tails occasionally lashing from side to side.

Sigh.

But the door is open today again, because she is of course feeling very lonely. So far so good though!

Lol, they're still working on it But it's going well. Read more Winnie adventures below!


It is gonna be a bit hard, yes. She's such a cuddly and affectionate little thing. My boys in contrast are pretty independent

Her "freakouts" as I call them are in a totally different class than my boys. Like this morning for example. I had left all the doors open during the night as a test. While I was trying to go to sleep she was zooming all over the bedroom, jumping up on my face, racing along the bed, etc, until I got angry at her and she ran off. Then sometime this morning - don't know when as it gets light out pretty early at this time of year; it could be any time between 4:00 and 7:30 - I heard a dull crashing noise, kinda like a cardboard box falling over or something. I figured she'd discovered one of the many boxes I have lying around and was messing with that, and fell back to sleep.

Big mistake. In my kitchen I have two sets of vertical drawers. On one of them the bottom drawer is actually fake as the pipes running behind it means there is no room for an actual drawer. Winnie had already managed to pull this slat off once yesterday, but I then put it in upside down and it sat much tighter and I figured it was safe.

At her own house, Winnie has a spot under sink that's hers. There's even a hole where she can get in without having to open any of the cupboard doors which means she has a place to escape when the family two-year old gets too close for comfort, seeing as the actual doors are toddler-proof.

So when she found a similar spot in at my house can you blame her for being determined? The banging noise I'd heard had been Winnie opening the drawers ABOVE that aforementioned fake-drawer. She had then crawled into the one closest to the bottom and out the back of it into the space behind it.

I have no idea how long she'd been in there, 'cos as far as I could tell she couldn't get out again the same way. When I got up at 8:30 I was worried and called out her name. I kept hearing scrabbling sounds behind the cabinets and the open drawers and the copious amount of cat hair in one of them hinted that she'd found a way back in. I opened up the fake-drawer slat and sure enough, there she was, peering out at me from the darkness. She was a little wobbly on her feet the first two minutes she was out then soon after she was back to her normal self again.

In fact ten minutes later she'd managed to tear the slat off and was back inside her little hidey hole. She's a good girl though, she came out fast with a little bit of coaxing. All the drawers on that side are now tied up in each other with string in an attempt to keep her out. See if it that works!

Other than that she seems to be doing fine with the boys now that she's out of confinement. She tends to hiss when she feels cornered and one of the boys approach to sniff her, but otherwise it's going well.

Thanks to all of you for your encouragement and advice! Angels all of you!

Watch this space...

I've considered it, but I don't know and I can't see what's behind there well enough to chance it. She might get stuck or something.

Another nightmare is that she would, with her mighty kitten claws, scratch a hole through into the space underneath the sink, which is where her bed and things are in her own home. The company I rent from charge an arm and a leg for things like that.

She's already managed to turn on one of the plates on the electric stove; goodness knows what she can do if she actually TRIES... (TG came and told me however so my flat didn't burn down, lol. TG is such a good boy!)

left them alone for about an hour to visit and go grocery shopping with my sister-in-law and when I came home everyone was still just chillin'. YAY!

Later on I went into the kitchen and TG followed me (hoping for treats) and Winnie followed him. As I stood by the fridge and TG was sniffing the food bowls, Winnie came up along the side of him and they rubbed against each other and sniffed each other's faces. Awwwwwww!

Ghost and Winnie are still a little standoffish although they will sniff each other's faces when meeting in a doorway before moving on.

I've turned this thread into a blog haven't I? Apologies to the moderators!

EDIT: Here's a picture I just took of Winnie!

I'm probably going to spend the first day she's gone rejoicing in the fact that I don't have to go check on her every fifteen minutes to make sure she didn't pull something down.

Then I'm gonna miss her like crazy until my next babysitting gig for the toddler in her family...

And I do believe that TG, if not Ghost, will miss her. Today I saw TG lick her face a little in passing when they stopped and sniffed Ghost still runs away if she tries to play with him.

Poor Ghost, she's taken over all his toys too. I tried throwing the mouse he likes so much for him and Winnie was immediately there, chasing after it too. Ghost went off and sulked. Life isn't easy for the only introvert in the village, so to speak...

Week 3 of the Catsitting Diaries...

Well, Ghost and Winnie are still not getting along; today they almost had a fight, and it ended with ruffled tails and ridged backs on both sides for a while. No hissing though and no one got hurt.

I think it's because Winnie wants to play with him, but Ghost isn't the most social of cats. Heck, I've seen TG groom him a million times, but I've NEVER seen Ghost reciprocate. Anyway, as it is, he avoids being in the same room as her most of the time.

Winnie and TG on the other-hand get along great, sometimes resting next to each other, and when Winnie tries to play with TG's tail he plays back or bats her away without rancour. But she has so much energy compared to the boys; I think they get exhausted just by watching her

I am a bit nervous about leaving them alone tomorrow while I go to my job-training. Here's hoping there isn't another Barney between Winnie and Ghost!

OTTO: Everything seemed to have gone ok when I got home but...

Oh dear oh dear oh dear... I might have to start worrying about Winnie And TG now too!

As I think I've mentioned previously, before the boys I never owned cats. So I have a hard time understanding their "language", so to speak, at times.

It's happened several times now that either TG or Winnie start swatting at each other, dancing around, which then turns into either a chase or TG pinning Winnie to the ground - like he does with his brother when they're playing. Winnie then either escapes and a chase ensues from there or she actually starts hissing (this is when I intervene). TG on the other hand never hisses or growls at her and I am (falsely???) interpreting his actions as attempts to play with her. The problem there is that he's almost 7kg and Winnie isn't more than 2kg soaking wet. I don't blame her for hissing. Any suggestions?

Yesterday when mopping the floor in the living room i found a spot that looked suspiciously like blood on the floor. It was very small and there was just the one spot. Do female cats bleed when they're in heat? I know dogs do. I'm really hoping she isn't, but she has been VERY affectionate these past few days, and she spazzes out more and more. Is that just her being a very young cat? I sure hopes so. Both my boys are neutered but I could do without the erratic behaviour that comes from being in heat. No yowling though and her genitalia isn't swollen (again, I've noticed that on dogs). And I haven't found any wounds or sores on any of them.

She has these nightly spaz-outs where she runs full tilt into my room - which is open just a crack and has a door stop to keep it that way to prevent this behaviour - races up the floor-to-ceiling scratch post, starts batting at imaginary bugs and at loose wallpaper up there, uses the middle platform as a spring board to the floor and out into the rest of flat, where I hear various things go bump as she races around. Sometimes she just partially climbs down the scratching post HEAD FIRST and leaps to the ground from there. Scares the living bejayzus out of me!

What to do?! Thoughts, views, opinions and admonishments all welcome.

Thanks for all your comments and good vibes! I've been a bit busy (and a bit lazy lately) so sorry for not updating for those of you who are wondering how it's going.

It seems to be going great! At least between the cats themselves; I, on the other hand, am slowly loosing it. <--(paper bag on head never a good sign...)

Winnie plays with both of them now. There is still growling and hissing when she plays with TG 'cos he pins her and he's, well, HEAVY. But Ghost will usually roll over on his back and let her pin him, which is cute.

She managed, together with the boys, to escape onto the balcony (my brother helped me build a barricade to keep this from happening as there is no netting on the balcony yet to keep them from escaping, but we forgot that cats are all furry Houdinis.). This gave me a bloomin' heart attack as last I heard she had no insurance and she is not ID tagged - my boys have an ID tattoo on their ears at least.

I will miss her when she leaves, and I think the boys will too, but I'm clearly not cut out to handle such a young cat in such confined quarters. Then there is the nightly run arounds that, coupled with my new meds that make it harder for me fall asleep, caused me to break down in actual tears the other night after trying for 3 hours to fall asleep. I try tiring them out before bed but it doesn't always work. Sigh.


Augh! Enough with the LJ entry already!


Thanks again for all your wonderful advice and kind thoughts! You're all angels Winnie and the boys say thank you too of course