Richard Arrives

It was starting to look like we'd be cat-free for Thanksgiving, but nope! Richard came to visit us for the next week and a half.

He's a big cat at 12 lbs, and he's simply large, not round. He's 5 years old, has a cold, and has conjunctivitis in both eyes. This means he has crusting around his eyes and gets goop in his eyes along with the dual meds for the URI.

We also may have some behavioral work to do with him. He came out of his crate straight under the bed and stayed there for a couple hours until we pulled him out. He calmed down as he held him, but if either of us stood up or moved he was back under the bed.

It's now been about 10 hours since we brought him home. He is out from under the bed and in fact sits at the door and howls if we aren't in the cat room. When we come to the door he still skitters backwards and is very nervous as long as we are standing up. The sofa seems to be a "safe place", though, and he happily takes petting there and will head-bump you very solidly. If someone appears at the door or walks in he still hunkers down and debates fleeing. He is calmer if we are sitting, either on the sofa or the floor.

We'll see if he just needs time to adjust to a new place, to new people, or if we need to actively work with him about his being a scaredy cat. We'll have guests over Thanksgiving, so we'll get to see how he does with new people and how long it takes him to warm up to new people.

The first picture I took when he was hiding behind the sofa. The second he was out and about. I think he used to be fed off a saucer, though--I carry the medicine into the cat room on a saucer and he charged over and jumped up trying to see what was on it. Very unexpected given his other behavior, but hopeful.

I think the medicine was a letdown from what he wanted, but he took his meds in a very civilized manner.