So, I figured I would write a little something about Pixel's first night at home (girls seem to call her "Pixie" when I tell them her name):
Well, after settling in a bit, she decided her two favorite places are my lap/chest/face and the spot under an end table.
The end table I have is a "mission-style" end table, meaning it has bars similar to a jail-cell or cage. It's occurred to me that she's spent her entire life either starving or in a cage, so I let her hang out there without disrupting her too much. I put her cat condo right next to the table and against the sliding glass door. I also relocated her food there for the time being.
I'm pretty sure she doesn't think she's allowed to seek out attention. If I approach her, she will start purring before I even touch her, but she won't come to me. So I put on some sweat pants, grabbed dinner and a beer, and sat down with her on the couch for some TV bonding time. I put on a couple episodes of Dirty Jobs and decided that her eyeball focus was up 4,000% whenever there were animals involved in the job Mike Rowe was doing... so we focused on animal episodes.
She came from the shelter after finishing treatment for an upper respiratory infection and during our first trip to the vet, she gave me some antibiotics to give to Pixel for the next few days. It dawned on me at about 7PM that she was not going to go grab a glass of water and take the pill herself... sooooo... I helped her. She loves being held upside down with her head on my arm, so I put her in that position and worked open her mouth by applying pressure to the back of her lips... the purring stopped... the pill went in and I held her mouth shut and massaged her throat. I could feel her swallow and I checked that she didn't spit it out. I resumed her belly rub and she resumed her purring. Mission accomplished.
She finally got up the courage to explore a bit, so I let her walk around for a bit. She makes an excellent Swiffer. If there was any place my housekeeper left dust, Pixel would certainly let me know.
I realized that for her entire life, dark as been synonymous with scary, alone, cage time. So when bedtime came and I shut off all of the lights, I took her into the bedroom for a minute and set her on the bed. The idea was to let her know that she was still free to move about or stick with me. She cuddled for a bit, then set up camp near my feet. Five minutes later she was off exploring again.
Midnight came and I woke up and I could hear her moving around a bit. A fallen DVD case and little scampering sounds. So that made me feel good. I woke up again at 3:30ish and I heard the heat click on and then I heard her scamper and a little "mew!" I got worried that she had hurt herself in her fright so I went to go find her.
I kid you not, I searched from 3:30 until 4:30 in the morning with no sign of her still thinking that she might have fallen behind the refrigerator or between the bookcase and the wall. After the first ten minutes (I only have a 1000 square foot condo) my mind was running wild and I was searching behind closed doors in closets and the bathroom. I even turned on the patio light and looked outside to see if she had unlocked the slider and gone outside only to close and lock it again. I was seriously thinking that I had a cat that could walk through drywall (she's young, she doesn't know any better). There was a point at which I had to stop, think, and make sure I even had a cat.
As you can imagine, which each third and fourth check of the same place, I got more and more worried. Finally, in a desperate attempt to find her, I started tipping over furniture. I found her tucked all the way up under my oversized Lay-z-Boy glider-rocker. I don't mean "under the chair" I mean "permanently installed in the mechanics of the chair."
I grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and she went limp. I pulled her out and set her in her cat condo while I put the chair back. I realized that the chair was the place she felt safest when something scary happened but I couldn't let her stay under there or she'd squished. After a minute or two in her cat condo, I took her back to bed with me. This time she was a cuddlesaurus rex (one of the most dangerous cuddlesaurs that ever lived!).
She curled up next to me and I rubbed her belly until she fell asleep. She woke up once and shifted position to wrap her paws around my arm and then fell back asleep. When my alarm went off, instead of running away, she nuzzled in deeper with me. I got up to do my thing and she followed me for a bit before wandering off. I took a shower, got ready for work, and came down to do the medicine dance again.
Guess what... missing cat again.
This time I knew where to look. I flipped over the chair and she sulked away to her cat condo. Smart? Maybe! I got her medicine ready and snatched her up. Same procedure as last time. She was fine with it. I grabbed the t-shirt I was wearing in bed with her and tossed it in the cat condo and set her back in there.
And that's where she was when I left for work today.
I really miss him.