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The Megara Chronicles: The Cats are OK
Oct. 29th, 2024 04:11 pmLast time I wrote about the cats, we were iterating the gate to Megara's room, or rather the cardboard on top of the gate to Megara's room. It turns out we had one iteration left to go: One of the pieces had been just above the gate rather than overlapping it, and that was enough for Megara to leap up, get her paws under the cardboard, and then push through it. That was escape #3, I believe.
Since then we've continued our nightly churu feeding, slowly pushing all the cats closer to the gate. There was no hissing, no growling and so we decided to start letting Megara out in the evening when it looked like Mango was well settled in the cat tree or on the couch.
That went well! Mango just watched. Sometimes Mango or Elmer chased Megara, but it seemed like play. So for three days now, I think, we've just had Megara's door open all day, only locking her up at night and when we go out.
For me the real game-changer was on one evening when we'd opened the door and Mango went into Megara's room. We were a bit leery of this, as he'd kind of freaked being in her room before, but by this time we'd had weeks of the gate allowing scents to mix. He was kind of edging around her, and then at one point he suddenly ran at her and his tail went straight up and he chased her under the chair. Yeah, I'd love the boys not chasing her so much, but that was obviously play not aggression.
So, fingers crossed, the integration is going well. Really, I think the gate was the game-changer, alongside the tedious weeks and weeks and weeks of churu feeding, but hopefully we're overcoming Megara's skittishness and Mango's territorialness, and we'll have a pleasant cat household. Could some of them even become friends? Stay tuned.
Oh, and Megara seems to suddenly have hit another uphill of improvement, maybe because of the new open-door policy. After work today I stopped by to play with her with the cat dancer and she started purring and purring, which is a new thing. We'd heard quiet little purrs here and there before, but in the last twenty-four hours, we've heard loud purrs at least three times, during last night's churu feeding, during today's play, and when she was looking for birbs because Kimberly had her laptop out earlier. Megara even walked up and sniffed my face while we were playing!
--
More problematic: the outside cat issue. There's what we suspect is a feral black cat who we'd heard in heat in recent weeks and who lately has been coming up to our doors (or even climbing up on our roof) at night. She absolutely terrorizes Mango who starts yowling, and wakes me up.
After several nights of this, and me turning on and off porch and patio lights to try and ward her away, we've kicked off a three-prong plan.
1. We've been locking the boys up in our bedroom at night, since it's the only room in the house without floor-level doors or windows that evil cats can leer in. This has been a pain because they occasionally fight (three brief skirmishes in the last three nights), they complain, and they start playing with things in the bathtub. But hopefully it'll discourage the black cat when she discovers there's no longer anything interesting in this house. (We don't think she knows about Megara in Kimberly's office.)
2. We bought a bunch of oranges. Oranges, not orangies. I'm going to murder and dissect them soon (oranges, not orangies) and leave orange peels around the porch and patio, and maybe spread juice around. Cats apparently don't like the smell of citrus.
3. We bought some squirt guns. Since the black cat has just sat around when I tried to shoo her off before, I'm happy to discourage her with water, which cats of course hate. Probably only if she's at the back door, which has a screen, so I can squirt her but the orangies can't get out.
We'd also considered trapping her, but discovered the Humane Society won't take strays unless they're either young kittens or very handleable. Otherwise, they'll just tell you to release her where you got her, so that sounds like it would be wasted effort.
So, we'll see how that goes, and if she shows up again after days of no orangies, yet orangES in front of the doors. I'm really hoping to resolve the problem before we go away for Thanksgiving, because I don't want Mango freaking out when we're not home to resolve things (and maybe attacking our other cats).
Since then we've continued our nightly churu feeding, slowly pushing all the cats closer to the gate. There was no hissing, no growling and so we decided to start letting Megara out in the evening when it looked like Mango was well settled in the cat tree or on the couch.
That went well! Mango just watched. Sometimes Mango or Elmer chased Megara, but it seemed like play. So for three days now, I think, we've just had Megara's door open all day, only locking her up at night and when we go out.
For me the real game-changer was on one evening when we'd opened the door and Mango went into Megara's room. We were a bit leery of this, as he'd kind of freaked being in her room before, but by this time we'd had weeks of the gate allowing scents to mix. He was kind of edging around her, and then at one point he suddenly ran at her and his tail went straight up and he chased her under the chair. Yeah, I'd love the boys not chasing her so much, but that was obviously play not aggression.
So, fingers crossed, the integration is going well. Really, I think the gate was the game-changer, alongside the tedious weeks and weeks and weeks of churu feeding, but hopefully we're overcoming Megara's skittishness and Mango's territorialness, and we'll have a pleasant cat household. Could some of them even become friends? Stay tuned.
Oh, and Megara seems to suddenly have hit another uphill of improvement, maybe because of the new open-door policy. After work today I stopped by to play with her with the cat dancer and she started purring and purring, which is a new thing. We'd heard quiet little purrs here and there before, but in the last twenty-four hours, we've heard loud purrs at least three times, during last night's churu feeding, during today's play, and when she was looking for birbs because Kimberly had her laptop out earlier. Megara even walked up and sniffed my face while we were playing!
--
More problematic: the outside cat issue. There's what we suspect is a feral black cat who we'd heard in heat in recent weeks and who lately has been coming up to our doors (or even climbing up on our roof) at night. She absolutely terrorizes Mango who starts yowling, and wakes me up.
After several nights of this, and me turning on and off porch and patio lights to try and ward her away, we've kicked off a three-prong plan.
1. We've been locking the boys up in our bedroom at night, since it's the only room in the house without floor-level doors or windows that evil cats can leer in. This has been a pain because they occasionally fight (three brief skirmishes in the last three nights), they complain, and they start playing with things in the bathtub. But hopefully it'll discourage the black cat when she discovers there's no longer anything interesting in this house. (We don't think she knows about Megara in Kimberly's office.)
2. We bought a bunch of oranges. Oranges, not orangies. I'm going to murder and dissect them soon (oranges, not orangies) and leave orange peels around the porch and patio, and maybe spread juice around. Cats apparently don't like the smell of citrus.
3. We bought some squirt guns. Since the black cat has just sat around when I tried to shoo her off before, I'm happy to discourage her with water, which cats of course hate. Probably only if she's at the back door, which has a screen, so I can squirt her but the orangies can't get out.
We'd also considered trapping her, but discovered the Humane Society won't take strays unless they're either young kittens or very handleable. Otherwise, they'll just tell you to release her where you got her, so that sounds like it would be wasted effort.
So, we'll see how that goes, and if she shows up again after days of no orangies, yet orangES in front of the doors. I'm really hoping to resolve the problem before we go away for Thanksgiving, because I don't want Mango freaking out when we're not home to resolve things (and maybe attacking our other cats).