Oh, Crap

The struggle goes on. Callie slept on the bed Lucie has claimed. And so she pooped in the middle of the floor in that room in protest. It was so stinky... Grrrr.....
In other news, the scent sock puppet has been hard at work and the cats are starting to treat it as they treat me. Cleo loves it, Callie approaches with trepidation and affection, and Lucie just bit the hell out of it. While purring. So i gave her a catnip sack and she licked it and allowed me to proceed.
This could take a while.
All hail lord Luciefur, ruler of the man cave. Going to have to come up with a cave for Callie, maybe. Pain in the ass. Pull one string and more knots appear. And so it goes.

Sock Puppets

My morning inspections have turned up no out of the box action since the creation of the cat cave system. I am hoping this lasts longer than the record 5 days stretch. It has been a long 4 months of carpet shampooing and enzymatic cleaners. And i am really done with it at this point.
Now for the aggression. Hence the sock. I have begun the group scent establishment practices. Put sock over hand. Pet Cleo. "Yay, petting!" Sit on couch. Up comes Callie, who notices "the monster" immediately. Pet with other hand while leaving sock hand absolutely still. Wait until she is chilling and not looking. Sneak in some petting with sock. Head to bedroom to approach Jaws. Sit on bed behind Lucie. She likes this best, i think. Scratch forehead and side of face with sock hand. Allow sniffing. Get all happy that no biting happened. Present sock to Cleo. Apologize for the hurt look in her face. Pet her while leaving sock next to her until she purrs. Pet with sock on the sly. Soon she doesn't seem to mind the contamination. Attempt to recapture the moment on the couch with Callie. Callie is just happy to get me away from Cleo, so doesn't seem to notice the sock. Enjoy go me moment. Head to work.
Come home to the usual rush at the door. Callie is first, jumping onto the back of the couch for her petting. Lucie comes running to check it out and maybe allow a little petting while rubbing my leg. Then Cleo gets off her perch and bitch slaps Lucie on her way to my shoes. All three of the girls were abandoned declawed on the street, so they have issues, but can't really kill with the front paws. This is a good thing. Cleo sharpens her non-claws on my shoes (always does this before Dave or i leave and when we get home), sits until i pet her, then heads off to grab a snack on her way back to her perch.
It's her house.
And back to sock puppet time before bed. This may take a while. Currently, as i type this, Callie and Lucie are chasing each other around, playing modified tag. This just started about a week ago and involves no growling, hissing, meowing or puffing up of fur, so i think maybe they are not fighting. They just chase from one end of the house to the other. then reverse poll positions for the return run. From now until about 2am. Beats the fights that happened at the apartment when Callie and Cleo were acclimating. Those two did better when we moved here about a year ago. Neither had home turf and they seem to have worked out a system, although they are not friends.
Time for me to try to sleep through kitty aerobics.
And come up with a name for the sock puppet. I have a feeling he is going to be around for a while... Unless Lucie kills him.

First day readings

Well, looks like I have some learning to do.
I traded out some stuff in the room Lucie claimed. I put her favorite blanket under the corner stand, giving her a nice cave that smells like her and added a sprinkle of catnip to lure her in so she finds it. Also, her favorite toys are strewn about. I moved the litter box from the scene of the crimes to a more workable spot. I have high hopes that Lucie will accept the new turf and not feel the need to mark it. Also, perhaps the other two will get the hint. That may be a stretch.
The cats remain largely suspicious of the book itself, but they're scared of everything, so no worries.
Next comes group scent establishment to hopefully reduce anxiety and aggression.

Cleo with her "stay off the perch and no one gets hurt" look on.

Callie bobbing and weaving so the book can't attack her.

Lucie being her antisocial psycho self. Her ears are forward in the "dare you to touch me" position. Pass.

Speedy Delivery

The book has arrived. Dave and I will be jumping in and working on us to help them starting tomorrow. Working today and, well, it's really nice outside and...
First impressions were:
Cleo loves it. Especially the bottom front corner.
Callie is curious, but not loving it yet.
Lucie didn't bite it.
Later, Cleo and Lucie both had nervous vomit moments. Probably unrelated. Callie remains her silly self.
Will keep you posted on the side effects of the use of the book as we move along!
All future posts will reference this book.


And the three cats who drove me to it...

Meet the Castaways

Recently, I won a copy of The Cat Whisperer, a book i have hoped to read and apply for a long time now. My husband and i have three rescued, variously traumatized cats.
This was a natural for me. I preferred cats to people most of my life. I would sit in my grandfather's barn for hours observing and making friends with barn cats. I would watch how they interacted. When they blinked, how they approached each other, how they played, how they established who the boss was, etc. I was a statue mostly. The youngest would get curious first and start to use me as a playground. Eventually, i could move and no one would freak out. This took time because the mothers were very skiddish. I learned a lot back then, but that did not prepare me for the sorts of dysfunction that has occurred.

The first of our merry band is Cleo, a lovely black probably maine coon who came to us about 4 years ago. A coworker rescued her from the streets. The story goes that her owners were evicted, the landlord did the 30 day lockout and then opened the doors. Out ran Cleo and a dog. It took 3 days for them to get her into a have a heart trap with food. She came to us underweight and very scared. She vomits when nervous and hates anything that startles her. She developed her kidney problems then, i think. She was thrilled to have a home, but remained a pet bed for a long time. At this point, she is the Queen of the house, However, she remains a pet bed whenever we have company to this day.

Two years later, the very nervous Callie came home from a shelter clearance sale. She is an abandoned tortie who was about 18 months old when we got her from the streets by way of the shelter. There were wars of epic and cosmic proportion as both vied for our affection. And as she figured out that Cleo in her litter box does not assume an invitation to sneak attack. Using information found on the internet, i was able to reduce the aggression with distraction and multiple everythings, so that the fights became occasional swats over the next year. She dislikes being held much. One of the first things she did when i first held her was slice my neck side to side with her back claw. Ouch. She is incredibly insecure and has to be on top of either me or (if i am unavailable) my husband. Preferably on our shoulders or across our chests (while sitting, which makes for interesting acrobatics), just don't actually make her feel trapped or officially held. She is slightly more social with company.

Then Lucie (sometimes called Luciefur) came last Christmas eve. Things went logarithmically bad. She had her own room. We introduced scent. All seemed not bad until the genie was out of the bottle. At first, she observed. Then, not so much. She was on the short list to be euthanized at the shelter. She had already been quarantined once for biting a worker. If she did more, it was curtains. She was declawed (all the girls came that way - part of the sympathy vote, i suppose) and very overweight. She was obviously terrified in the box of her 4 month cage home next to the big sign about biting and nervousness. But, her behavior when moving around was scared, not dominant and definitely not aggressive. Impulse buys can go in unexpected directions, but the other two had worked things to a science with some guidance and lair creation. Why not...
The biting continued whenever touched anywhere but the face and even then when she is done with you. This is not a huge issue and one that we are patient about with her. We just stay calm and move back to a distance where she feels safe again. She almost never bites hard, just a quick strike with her teeth that doesn't leave marks or anything. The exception is if we miss the early warning signs, startle her or pet her from in front of her face. There were a couple of fights, but those are mostly gone. She and Callie chase each other around, but in a tag kind of way. Boxes and bowls are not crime scenes.
I wrote begging for the book when the defiling of the man cave/exercise room got to be too much. At first, she was soiling the carpet in the room she originally was kept in. I figured she didn't like sharing. I deodorized, closed the room off for a few days and did some strategic cat bed and toy placement with treats and catnip placed here and there. Problem went away. Go me. The other room had always been sparse. I figured, since it had been unclaimed by anyone, the lack of cat in one room so the humans could have room to play would be ok. I was so wrong. Lucie started soiling that. I tried what i did before, but it continued. And the biting got worse. Blood was drawn while purring continued. (Even more frustrating because she doesn't groom enough and won't let us help out by petting or brushing, so she is a knotted short hair grease ball). She is getting more bold and controlling of everything, which is stressing out Cleo, exacerbating her vomiting, binge drinking of water, and confining her to the top of her favorite cat perch. The bottom of her chin is red from marking everything repeatedly. We were considering giving up. I work on a psych floor. Living on one was too much even for me.
And here we are. Welcome to kitty rehab. Please book, arrive soon!