Saturday, August 09, 2008

The cats

I now have the cats eating together in the demolished kitchen. I had been feeding Lucky separately in my closet, but the other day when I got home from work, I saw that his plate had hardly been touched, while Bootsy's plate in here was almost empty. So Lucky had been eating out of Bootsy's plate (and Bootsy had been letting him). So I decided to start feeding the cats together, in the kitchen, where they'll be fed anyway when the kitchen is done.

Before I got Lucky, I had moved Bootsy's feeding station to this room, out of the workers' way. But since there haven't been any workers lately (and apparently still won't be for a while), I just decided to do it this way. Lucky has been a little confused the last couple of days, but I'm training him. (Bootsy was already used to being fed in the kitchen.) I've been watching them, and Lucky doesn't appear to be intimidated eating near Bootsy, and Bootsy hasn't bothered him in the kitchen.

As you can see, since I don't have counters, I use the stove top and a card table (and the floor) to put things on. I've stopped putting stuff on the ledge at the right (above the green wall, where a counter will go), since that's Lucky's runway.

UPDATE: All that said, there was a major skirmish tonight, with Bootsy going on the attack. I attacked Bootsy back. Poor Lucky--he's rattled. "My nerves" (as somebody used to say). I think I'll go back to feeding Lucky in the closet. I may shut him up in the bedroom with me tonight.

I gave Bootsy a lot of attention tonight, brushing him, etc., and then Lucky came back into the picture, and Bootsy resented it. But Bootsy has to know he can't act that out by attacking Lucky while I'm around. (All of this probably wouldn't have happened if I hadn't been here, meting out attention.) I'm sorry that I had to remind Bootsy that I'm the alpha cat around here, not him, and that Lucky is a member of the household.

UPDATE 2 (Saturday): Bootsy was happy to see me after being locked out of my bedroom all night. He even said hello. I'm not going to say anything to jinx things. Last night was upsetting, especially after I'd emailed the Humane Society last week, with photos, going on about Lucky's successful integration into the home (and then forwarded it to my vet).

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