Since Libby is no longer with us, our cat, Toad, has been going through an 'adjustment' period.We adopted her about 12 years ago. She was found in the Meijer parking lot wearing a pick collar and since our cat, Shady, had died two weeks prior, I brought her home.
Originally (the first week) she was a very sociable cat. Allowed us to pet her and generally was easy going. I didn't want the kids to become attached to her so I told them to call her "Toad" until we determined if she was lost....evidently she was not. She had been abandoned. So we took her to the vet and found out she was approximately 10 months old and in relatively good shape. I brought her home, took off the pink collar and she seemed to change before our eyes. No longer sociable and hissing became a part of the sounds of our house. Libby was the dominant female and Toad happily kept 'under the radar'. Her place was upstairs and Libby's was downstairs. Toad slept in the girl's room and Libby slept in our room or Michael's room.
Well, she has been an 'interesting' cat. I have never in my 51 years years NOT been able to win a cat over.....until Toad. She wants nothing to do with humans....except to sleep on Melinda's back at night or sit on their laps in the winter (but don't pet her or she jumps off and runs away). I have always been the manicurist for our felines, but after a failed attempt (with Bob's help) and lacerated arms, I decided to let the veterinary assistant keep her trimmed. After many months of trying to acclimate her to human touch, we basically have given up and make sure she is safe, warm and fed....and she's been happy with that....until now.
Now that Libby is gone, she doesn't know what to do. The first week, she walked through the house as if Libby would jump out at her at any minute. Now she is slightly more settled and has taken to sleeping on our bed or jumping up on the cat perch outside. Yesterday, she joined me in the garden while I was weeding and proceeded to get high on catnip and hiss at me. Last night, I woke up to feel her behind my legs on the bed.
I would like to believe she may finally have given into bonding with her humans...somehow I doubt it. *smile*
2 comments:
I would have put the pink collar back on after that initial hissing period. Maybe she held a grudge at you for taking it off of her! :) She must have been very attached to it. :)
Heck you won over Seeker much to Moms dismay! Although, he is a little lover at heart!
there HAS to be something odd about black and white cats- Tara's friend has a black cat that looks a lot like Toad- similar markings, etc... and has the same personality- it just kept looking at me like, what are you looking at, woman?! Git away from me!
*Hiss!*
I'm sure there's some sort of genetic trait that causes all cats that are black with white markings to be ornery little #@*$
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