Happy new critter news!
Sep. 30th, 2011 06:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
moominmuppetI need a Spike icon. Should take pics. (that's Tarma and Ringo in my icon)
Spike is a gigantic brown tabby with a little stub tail, about eight or nine years old. He's ridiculously smart and trouble-making and exploratory, and when we fostered him the summer we moved I absolutely fell in love. We had him, Lucy, and Riley for about six months, and kept Riley permanently (previous owner was paring down from 9 cats to 2). Lucy and Spike went back home, but at the time I asked that if he ever needed a home again, that we be given right of first refusal. Sad circumstances have led to that, so we were contacted with the offer to have him back as a part of our household permanently. I jumped at the chance.
So Spike arrived Wednesday afternoon, complete with a giant bag of supplies. I was ridiculously excited; I'm so thrilled to have him again!
We were debating how well cats/dogs retain memory of previous environments, but I'd say he's retained at least a basic sense of familiarity. When we first took him in two years ago it was weeks before we really started to see him confidently wandering around the house (it was such a problem that we _twice_ started making "missing cat" signs for the neighborhood -- his hiding place turned out to be incredibly sneaky). This time it was about six hours before he came out of his hiding spot and started exploring. He's still got a touch of new environs timidity, but only a touch. He's sniffed at the dogs, tolerated Ringo's ever-present curiosity and Cat's occasional hisses (Riley and X have mostly ignored him), and overall been his usual affectionate, mouthy, exploratory self. He's already figured out how to open the cat food storage cabinet, although it was in the midst of being oblivious to the giant bowl of cat food on the shelf above it, so that was kind of funny. As expected, Ringo is following him around like a little brother, much like Ringo does with Riley. I think they'll all do well together.
All in all, everything's going really well with his re-introduction, and proceeding faster and much more smoothly than I'd expected, especially in terms of the cat introductions (which often involve days of hissing and sorting out hierarchy in new introductions). Despite having been gone for a year and a half (if I'm counting right), he's settled right back in. Yay!
Also, it's worth noting that Ringo's additional affection toward me since I lost Mushroom hasn't tapered off at all. I really do think it has to do with not being marked as her territory anymore. I almost never mention her, I know, but she's still very much on my mind these days. Anyway, I'm very much appreciating that about Ringo. Also, I've been enjoying the personality similarities between Ringo and Morph, whom I also still miss. Morph was a very silly, cuddly boy as well. So Spike and Ringo are reminding me of Mushroom and Morph (the two cats I had since college that I've lost in the past couple of years), but in good and happy ways. Riley and X are primarily attached to Caleb, and Cat is Grafton's. I've been doing my best to woo the ever-distractable Ringo, and will be doing the same with Spike, but I'm definitely already feeling less cat-lonely.
Spike is a gigantic brown tabby with a little stub tail, about eight or nine years old. He's ridiculously smart and trouble-making and exploratory, and when we fostered him the summer we moved I absolutely fell in love. We had him, Lucy, and Riley for about six months, and kept Riley permanently (previous owner was paring down from 9 cats to 2). Lucy and Spike went back home, but at the time I asked that if he ever needed a home again, that we be given right of first refusal. Sad circumstances have led to that, so we were contacted with the offer to have him back as a part of our household permanently. I jumped at the chance.
So Spike arrived Wednesday afternoon, complete with a giant bag of supplies. I was ridiculously excited; I'm so thrilled to have him again!
We were debating how well cats/dogs retain memory of previous environments, but I'd say he's retained at least a basic sense of familiarity. When we first took him in two years ago it was weeks before we really started to see him confidently wandering around the house (it was such a problem that we _twice_ started making "missing cat" signs for the neighborhood -- his hiding place turned out to be incredibly sneaky). This time it was about six hours before he came out of his hiding spot and started exploring. He's still got a touch of new environs timidity, but only a touch. He's sniffed at the dogs, tolerated Ringo's ever-present curiosity and Cat's occasional hisses (Riley and X have mostly ignored him), and overall been his usual affectionate, mouthy, exploratory self. He's already figured out how to open the cat food storage cabinet, although it was in the midst of being oblivious to the giant bowl of cat food on the shelf above it, so that was kind of funny. As expected, Ringo is following him around like a little brother, much like Ringo does with Riley. I think they'll all do well together.
All in all, everything's going really well with his re-introduction, and proceeding faster and much more smoothly than I'd expected, especially in terms of the cat introductions (which often involve days of hissing and sorting out hierarchy in new introductions). Despite having been gone for a year and a half (if I'm counting right), he's settled right back in. Yay!
Also, it's worth noting that Ringo's additional affection toward me since I lost Mushroom hasn't tapered off at all. I really do think it has to do with not being marked as her territory anymore. I almost never mention her, I know, but she's still very much on my mind these days. Anyway, I'm very much appreciating that about Ringo. Also, I've been enjoying the personality similarities between Ringo and Morph, whom I also still miss. Morph was a very silly, cuddly boy as well. So Spike and Ringo are reminding me of Mushroom and Morph (the two cats I had since college that I've lost in the past couple of years), but in good and happy ways. Riley and X are primarily attached to Caleb, and Cat is Grafton's. I've been doing my best to woo the ever-distractable Ringo, and will be doing the same with Spike, but I'm definitely already feeling less cat-lonely.
