Cat Introduction Woes

[losna]

She is getting some peace right now. 

Her blanket is spread across the living room floor for delinting. It's queen sized bedspread so takes a while for me to get all her fur out. Sinbad is in Tempest heaven, rolling around on it and napping. Every time I try to work on it, he sprawls across both me and the blanket. Makes it hard to get all the fur out, but it is cute. 

 

[mservant]

 
She is getting some peace right now. 

Her blanket is spread across the living room floor for delinting. It's queen sized bedspread so takes a while for me to get all her fur out. Sinbad is in Tempest heaven, rolling around on it and napping. Every time I try to work on it, he sprawls across both me and the blanket. Makes it hard to get all the fur out, but it is cute. 

Aww, Sinbad 

.   Maybe a good thing too, well apart from his contributing to the fur you're trying to get rid of. 

    He can get his scent all over her lovely blanket and she will perhaps get used to the idea of his scent at least being associated with being all safe and cozy.  Ah, of course with Sinbad he may well be doing this very purposefully, and whenever he sees Tempest with the blanket in future take satisfaction in knowing at least part of him is close to her.

 

[losna]

Amusing story time!

I looked up at the stairs and saw Sinbad playing wildly with a feather toy. Tempest was up on her shelf watching him.  It was very cute. So I watched for a few minutes, then wandered off to finish the dishes.

Ten minutes later, I looked back up. Sinbad was pressed right up against her gate, so close his little nose was poking through the holes. Tempest was running around her room in avid excitement... playing with the toy Sinbad had been playing with just a few minutes ago. 

The question is - did he give it to her or did she steal it? 

We really need to install some cameras to get the answers to questions like this. 

 

 

[Columbine]

You DEFINITELY need cameras - we need to see all this cuteness in action

If only they could talk....

 

[losna]

It's especially interesting given the current status quo between them. Tempest is coming onto the landing more and more. They are squabbling frequently, we hear hiss swats and minor yeowls about 2-3 times a day now.  She isn't really willing to cede the landing to him anymore, although she still doesn't want to cuddle. He does get a paw on her every other day or so. 

Neither of them actually want to fight though, so it's just brief tousles as she shakes off his attempted snuggles before she flees to her room. Although she's usually back out again in pretty short order after he goes downstairs, so it's not a rout so much as strategic retreat. 

 

[losna]

The distance between them is decreasing. Look at this.

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• losna
• Jan 20, 2016

 

[Columbine]

Oh That's great progress You go Tempest - show him that you're not scared anymore

 

[losna]

I love that their ears are completely focused on each other. 

 

 

[Columbine]

I know

 

[mservant]

Well they are looking at each other and focussed but there's no hackles up or tense posturing.  I hope Sinbad resists the temptation to leap in and try to groom or wrestle and lets Tempest make the first move.  

 

[losna]

I just happened to see a closeup of what happens when Sinbad sees Tempest.

Tempest's new hang out spot:

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• losna
• Jan 22, 2016

She sits there like that now because it lets her interact with everyone; from right there she can see hubby and I when we're in the living room. That is taken from the spot I sit on the couch. Sinbad was just at my feet meowing at me, trying to convince me to play with him, when she must have come out to peek down.

His pupils dilated HUGE until his eyes were solid black. Then they sort of rippled. It was really weird looking, like his pupils were vibrating at max dilation. His ears shifted forward at complete attention. I looked up and saw her staring at him - then they both moved.  He was racing to get up the stairs and she was racing to get back into her room. Like a split second and both cats vanished.

He failed to reach her, and now he is wandering the house crying at the top of his lungs. She is camped at the gate in her room, looking like a prisoner with no hope of parole.

It makes me want to cry for both of them. But at least they are able to get closer to each other now, and the chases/spats don't cause Tempest to hide for days/hours anymore, only minutes - usually only until he's gone. 

 

[Columbine]

Aww, poor little Sinbad He just can't contain his love for Tempest :heart3:

It's still wonderful progress though - and it must feel do great that Tempest is trying to join in with everyone, even if it is from a distance. It sounds like she's getting bolder/more confident almost by the day Hopefully it really won't be long before you gave a gully integrated family :cross:

 

[losna]

What does that huge pupil dilation mean? I didn't see any signs of aggression at all, just huge pupils, forward focused ears and rapt attention. Is that just signs of extreme excitement?

Sinbad normally has very large pupils, but this was something else. I mean, his eyes really were solid black, absolutely nothing to see but pupil.

 

[Columbine]

I think it's excitement. I see it in Asha all the time when she's fixated on something - I played her a YouTube video of blackbirds and her eyes went totally black, and she was absolutely rivited on the screen :lol3:

 

[mservant]

Ha ha, those pupils are what you see in photos of Mouse when he's all excited about getting a treat snack or is investigating something he really wants up on my knee.  He looks super-super-cute when he's like that.  

 

[losna]

Just had a huge setback unfortunately.

She's been comfortable enough to be lounging on the landing lately, and even start coming down onto the stairs fairly regularly. She was even eating on the landing, which was just huge. This is a routine lounging spot for her lately, sometimes she even just sprawls out and naps:

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• losna
• Feb 17, 2016

I get so excited seeing her there, usually when she's there and sees one of us she'll let out an excited sound and come about halfway down the stairs to meet us. So adorable. 

He must have managed to catch her dozing earlier. Hubby was out for a walk, I was chatting with him in the office and suddenly these screams  started. Worse than any other screams/cries they've ever made while fighting by an order of magnitude. I thought one of them was killing the other, that's how far up the emotional meter the screams were. We've gotten fairly blase about the screams when he manages to surprise her, but there were just awful. Naturally I went running. My phone was plugged in to my computer so I just dropped it. Hubby heard the screams through the headphones - they were really that loud - and he actually ran back home panicked too.

When I got to the landing, I saw her disappearing over the shelf. She dropped to the floor, started doing the low growling moaning thing and attacking at him through the gate. He was bodily throwing himself at it as though trying to use his body like a battering ram, while panting and shaking.

I went up and scooped him up and carried him in to the bedroom, hugging tightly. Hubby came home them and went in to do the same to Tempest. He said Tempest was more or less fine when he went in there, but it took me probably 20 minutes to get Sinbad calmed down and to stop panting and shaking.

They've both been hiding in cubbies and boxes ever since. 

But they do purr happily if we pet them in their boxes, and don't actually seem stressed out in any way anymore.

 

[mservant]

Way too stressful.   I remember how my heart jumped when I heard my tabbies fighting seriously.  There's nothing like the noises they come out with.  

How are things today?    Have they settled at all?

 

[losna]

She has gone out a few times, but is way more wary and hisses and retreats the instant she sees him rather than letting him get close. He is subdued. But I'm sick today and have pretty much just been lying around in bed so he's in guardcat mode. But it's clear he realizes she's upset with him. He periodically goes out to look at her and cries.

 

[losna]

Further observations have revealed what most likely happened to cause that last fight: Sinbad has gotten sneakier. 

He is now aware of her blindspots, and creeps up the stairs using the railing posts to hide his approach. He has also stopped jumping directly at her - now he jumps into her path. So instead of escaping when she flees at the sight of him, she has to leap directly at him to get into her room. 

In any other circumstances I'd have to praise him for being such a smart little guy. But in this case... He's putting their integration levels back several steps.  

 

[mservant]

  

   Sinbad has been taking some lessons in stalking, hunting and being a proper cat.  

    I hope he learns quickly that he gets less Tempest time with this new strategy and gives up on it quickly.  It would be very funny to watch if only you didn't know that the end result was going to be two very stressed out cats.  When you catch him in the act of stalking her can you divert him to play and stalk with you instead?