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The Megara Chronicles: Three Weeks Later
Sep. 7th, 2024 12:52 pmIt's been almost three weeks since we brought Megara into the house. (That date will actually be on Monday.) And we officially adopted her on September 1st. Which ironically is Ginger Cat Appreciation Day.
Everyone got wet food on the 1st, a gravy covered food that everyone enjoyed. For Megara, it was her adoption feast, and for the orangies, it was appreciation.
Megara is still a very nervous cat who constantly flees under the chair in Kimberly's office. But, she's made great strides. Sometimes she doesn't flee when we walk in or out of the room. We can even scritch her if we patiently wait for her to come up to us, sniff us, and then present herself for petting. I can even walk up to her to give her a treat (though she's iffy if she'll eat treats or not when someone is right there). She seems like a really friendly cat, now that we know her better, we just need to encourage that despite his childhood trauma (whatever it was). I feel like one of the big goals is to get her to the point where she'll actively seek us out, and not hide from us, when she's offered the run of the larger house. So she's been getting a couple of hours a day from us to encourage her to appreciate humans. I even slept in her room last, but she mostly hung out on the cat tree from what I could see.
We've also been working hard to integrate her with the orangies through supervised visits.
Elmer has been the most interactive. He's less fearful than Mango (definitely) and more curious (maybe). One of the biggest challenges is that Megara likes to charge the orangies because she wants to PLAY. (She seems not at all afraid of other cats, unlike humans.) The orangies don't like that!
The first time we had Elmer in with Megara I was playing with everyone with the (felt) ribbon toy and at one point it got wrapped around Elmer, as it tends to. He started hissing at it, certain that Megara had gotten him! Another time he was in her room and she scared him and he ran and hid in the cat carrier and had to be carried out of the room.
(I've since realized that maybe we should move the interactions out of Megara's room, since the orangies are currently the scared ones and she's not.)
Yesterday, Elmer and I were sitting outside Megara's room, watching her, and Megara started going crazy, flying up and down the cat tree like a trapeze artist. Kimberly and I were pretty sure she was inviting Elmer to play. She also kept running behind the door too, I was pretty sure hoping to spring out at Megara. Well, Elmer finally decided to go into the room, and I'm not sure if Megara sprung at him or what, but it ended with Elmer hissing and bopping Megara in the head. Sigh. But I can't blame Elmer when Megara was waiting to get him. He couldn't know it was play.
Mango is likely to be the bigger challenge. He's the one that's been yowling about cats outside in the night for the last few months. He's let out that yowl a few times when we had him in the same room as Megara, so we've mostly had him watching her from afar. Which seems fine. He might figure it out on his own. Or, he might see Elmer is OK with her and decide he's OK with her.
We'd of course love them to be friends. That of course doesn't usually happen with cats. But, the boys are just under 3 and Megara will be 1 in December. And, she'll be the only girl in a house of boys. So we figure the chances are as good as they'll get, especially if we're very careful about the integration.
And we're trying to be, but of course this is all very tiring. We'll see how it goes!
Everyone got wet food on the 1st, a gravy covered food that everyone enjoyed. For Megara, it was her adoption feast, and for the orangies, it was appreciation.
Megara is still a very nervous cat who constantly flees under the chair in Kimberly's office. But, she's made great strides. Sometimes she doesn't flee when we walk in or out of the room. We can even scritch her if we patiently wait for her to come up to us, sniff us, and then present herself for petting. I can even walk up to her to give her a treat (though she's iffy if she'll eat treats or not when someone is right there). She seems like a really friendly cat, now that we know her better, we just need to encourage that despite his childhood trauma (whatever it was). I feel like one of the big goals is to get her to the point where she'll actively seek us out, and not hide from us, when she's offered the run of the larger house. So she's been getting a couple of hours a day from us to encourage her to appreciate humans. I even slept in her room last, but she mostly hung out on the cat tree from what I could see.
We've also been working hard to integrate her with the orangies through supervised visits.
Elmer has been the most interactive. He's less fearful than Mango (definitely) and more curious (maybe). One of the biggest challenges is that Megara likes to charge the orangies because she wants to PLAY. (She seems not at all afraid of other cats, unlike humans.) The orangies don't like that!
The first time we had Elmer in with Megara I was playing with everyone with the (felt) ribbon toy and at one point it got wrapped around Elmer, as it tends to. He started hissing at it, certain that Megara had gotten him! Another time he was in her room and she scared him and he ran and hid in the cat carrier and had to be carried out of the room.
(I've since realized that maybe we should move the interactions out of Megara's room, since the orangies are currently the scared ones and she's not.)
Yesterday, Elmer and I were sitting outside Megara's room, watching her, and Megara started going crazy, flying up and down the cat tree like a trapeze artist. Kimberly and I were pretty sure she was inviting Elmer to play. She also kept running behind the door too, I was pretty sure hoping to spring out at Megara. Well, Elmer finally decided to go into the room, and I'm not sure if Megara sprung at him or what, but it ended with Elmer hissing and bopping Megara in the head. Sigh. But I can't blame Elmer when Megara was waiting to get him. He couldn't know it was play.
Mango is likely to be the bigger challenge. He's the one that's been yowling about cats outside in the night for the last few months. He's let out that yowl a few times when we had him in the same room as Megara, so we've mostly had him watching her from afar. Which seems fine. He might figure it out on his own. Or, he might see Elmer is OK with her and decide he's OK with her.
We'd of course love them to be friends. That of course doesn't usually happen with cats. But, the boys are just under 3 and Megara will be 1 in December. And, she'll be the only girl in a house of boys. So we figure the chances are as good as they'll get, especially if we're very careful about the integration.
And we're trying to be, but of course this is all very tiring. We'll see how it goes!