| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 1062.1 | Some kind of progress | JULIET::CORDES_JA | Eight Tigers on My Couch | Thu Feb 20 1997 21:46 | 8 |
| Dolly held an open house tonight in the bathroom suite. Everyone made
a trip in to visit at least once. I happened to turn around just in
time to see Onyx and Dolly nose-to-nose. Nobody panicked. Nobody
growled. Nobody swatted. It was too amazing. And, the good news is
that it happened again about a 1/2 hour later. This can't be a bad
thing.
Jan
|
| 1062.2 | | USCTR1::MERRITT_S | Kitty City | Fri Feb 21 1997 05:33 | 9 |
| Jan...by putting Dolly in the bathroom she now realizes this
is her territory and you have helped build her confidence level.
Even when you finally open the door...Dolly will always believe
this is her space and she will attempt to defend her territory
and stand up to the bullies!!!
Good luck in finding her a home..
Sandy M
|
| 1062.3 | More on Dolly | JULIET::CORDES_JA | Eight Tigers on My Couch | Fri Feb 21 1997 16:42 | 33 |
| She has definitely decided this is her territory. What I've been doing
in the evening is opening the door so she can see out and I can see in
and the other cats aren't pounding at the door. She stays right in the
bathroom on her towel. The others go in to greet her and attempt to
eat her food (which I put away when the door is open).
She's showing a lot more personality lately too. She stands up and
prances around and stretches when I pet her. She's also more vocal.
A couple of times when I've walked in she hasn't been on her towel she's
been in other parts of the room. But, when the door opens she trots
right back to her towel.
She's a really wonderful cat. I took a good look at her last night and
she's really quite a large cat. Most of it is fur though. I was
actually considering entering her in a show last night. I've pretty
much given up showing lately for financial reasons and because most of
the cats who aren't too overweight or too cranky to show don't
particular care for it anymore. I'd also have a lot more potential
contacts for a new home in that environment. Lots of spectators come
looking for cats. It would just be a matter of finding the right cat
mom for her.
Dolly stayed overnight at my mom's house once with Joey and Ashlar.
Mom really likes her and I wish I could get her to take Dolly in. But,
she's got a large dog and another cat already and is pushing the limits
of her mobile home park regulations (the dog is way past the 12 pound size
allowed) so she's hesitant to do it. Also, she feels obligated to take
Winston from Jo Ann first if she's going to take another cat in.
Winston was the best buddy of her cat, Monroe, before he came to live
with mom.
Jan
|
| 1062.4 | Dolly update | JULIET::CORDES_JA | Eight Tigers on My Couch | Wed Feb 26 1997 14:20 | 33 |
| I've discovered that Dolly's territory does not extend to the entire
bathroom. It only extends to the end of the towel I put down for her
and does not include her food bowl even though it is sitting on the
towel. The towel is a large bath sheet I had original folded in to
1/4 size. I have since opened it up so it is only folded in 1/2.
Dolly is more tolerant than I'd like about the other cats coming in for
a visit and a meal. I usually pick the food bowl up with the others
are visiting. I was hoping that by putting her food bowl on her towel
she'd be more inclined to protect her interests. Not so.
Dolly has ventured out of the bathroom once or twice. It's a short
distance to the cat tree from the bathroom doorway. However, if she
gets stuck in the hallway with Onyx heading her way she usually heads
back to the bathroom and her towel. It's okay if he comes in and hangs
out in the bathroom near her but she doesn't want to be near him in any
other part of the apartment.
The latest interesting interaction has been between Amelia and Dolly.
Amelia beats on the door to get into the bathroom. I'll let her in and
she'll hang out with Dolly for a while (though not very close to
Dolly). Then she'll beat on the door when she wants out. The other
day I happened to catch Dolly and Amelia nose-to-nose doing the
acknowledgement thing. No hissing, growling, startled reaction
happened. The touched noses for a second and then backed away a few
inches and that was it. This is interesting because when I first moved
Dolly into the apartment Amelia used to chase her and would harass her
at the cat tree. FYI, Amelia is head of household. Even Onyx respects
that she is in charge. Amelia is 11 years old and feels she's earned
her matriarch status because she's older and wiser than those young
whippersnappers.
Jan
|
| 1062.5 | | JULIET::CORDES_JA | Eight Tigers on My Couch | Thu Feb 27 1997 16:36 | 6 |
| A small amount of progress...Dolly actually swatted at Mac when he got
too close to her and her food bowl. Now if she'll just do that with
Onyx. She did have a stare down with Onyx this morning though...I
think she might actually have won that round.
Jan
|
| 1062.6 | Dolly's new territory | JULIET::CORDES_JA | Eight Tigers on My Couch | Fri Mar 07 1997 16:16 | 38 |
| Something very interesting occured last night with Dolly. In the last
day or two she's sort of moved back onto the cat tree. After a week or
more of being in the bathroom she started to seem unhappy being isolated
so when she headed for the cat tree one day I let her stay. The first
day wasn't great. She left little poopies on one of the platforms.
Bummer. I had hoped she had been retrained while in the bathroom. So,
I decided she can hang out on the cat tree at night while I'm home but
she'd have to stay in the bathroom during the day. We did this for two
days and then the next day I left her on the tree all day. Two days
passed with her hanging out only on the tree and...no poopies.
Well, last night I happened to look over and saw her walking slowly and
cautiously back to the bathroom. A few minutes later she walked slowly
and cautiously back to the cat tree (this is about a 5-7 foot distance).
Half hour later she walked slowly back to the bathroom and again and
then returned to the tree. It happened a third time a little later.
Each time she was in the bathroom she just sat by the door and looked
out and the living room area.
I was so surprised. I'm not sure what is happening here. It appears
that her territory has expanded to include both the tree and the
bathroom now. She's also more willing to let me take her off the tree
our out of the bathroom and hold her on my lap. In the past she would
always struggle to get back to the tree immediately. Now she lasts a
good 10 minutes before she has to make a dash for the tree.
I'm hoping the extra attention she's been getting and the fact she has
two areas she feels comfortable in now will help her integrate into the
household better. However, I need to find a way to keep Onyx from
chasing her. I thought having them spend more time near each other
(like when they were visiting in the bathroom) might help them get to
know each other better and cut back on her fear of him and his need to
dominate her. Not so. I can't convince her that he's really just as
afraid that she'll swat him as she is that he'll do something to her.
Once she figures this out, she'll have the upper hand with him because
he's really just a big mush cat when challenged.
Jan
|
| 1062.7 | Noooo! Not on the cat tree! | JULIET::CORDES_JA | Eight Tigers on My Couch | Wed Mar 26 1997 11:33 | 37 |
| Well. It appears we've failed. Dolly is back to using the cat tree as
a bathroom. I think this time it might be my fault though. I've let
the litter boxes go a little longer than I should have before cleaning
them completely. This morning I caught her peeing on the platform she
usually sits on.
I was going to keep her in the bathroom today until I realized that the
temperature in the bathroom was about 10 degrees warmer than the rest
of the house. If the temps get into the 80's again today then she'd be
too warm in there. so, I set her up with food and water on the window
platform in my bedroom.
The cat tree smells horrible. I've used Nature's Miracle and Anti-Icky
Poo on it to get rid of the smell but I think it's time to take the
little green clean machine and give it a thorough cleaning.
This poor kitty really needs a new home with someone who has way less
cats than I do. I thought we'd fixed the problem and that she was
adjusting to living with the rest of my crew but for every step forward
we take there are two steps backwards. I would really like to see her
go live with my mother but I've yet to convince my mom that she needs
another cat. And, if she did live with mom she'd end up being and
indoor/outdoor cat again since mom has a dog door for her dog and
doesn't stop the cats from using it to go out. The cat she currently
has is too fat to jump over the fence or slip through the fencing to
get out of her yard so she doesn't have to worry about losing him. I'm
not sure we'd be that lucky with Dolly.
My next option is to set up the big cage I just got and see if she'll
be happy hanging out in there. She'll be able to see the rest of us in
the apartment (as opposed to being closed in a bathroom). There will
be 3 platforms for her to hang out on and the litterbox will be in the
cage with her so she won't have to worry about avoiding Onyx when she
needs to go. Now all I have to do is find some space to set the thing
up in and we'll give this a try.
Jan
|
| 1062.8 | | CATMAX::SKALTSIS | Deb | Wed Mar 26 1997 13:43 | 13 |
| Jan,
I remember reading on the bottle that the enzyme cleaners like Nature's
Miracle take a couple of weeks to work and will smell funny for a while
while they are working.
I've had problems with Panther going on teh couch because Harry won't
let him near the litterboxes in the bathroom. I solved that by giving
Panther his own box, that he can't get ambushed at, but if that box is
the least bit dirty, he will use the couch. Hopefully Dolly only
replapsed because the box wasn't immaculate.
Deb
|
| 1062.9 | | JULIET::CORDES_JA | Eight Tigers on My Couch | Wed Mar 26 1997 16:49 | 7 |
| Yep, last time I used Nature's Miracle it took several days before
the odor eased up. Anti-Icky Poo seems to work a little quicker.
But, I do need to do a cleaning anyway. You can only have so many
layers of odor control products before the carpeting starts to feel
strange.
Jan
|