Monday 31 October 2016

Welcome Smokey



Friday night saw the arrival of the latest addition to the household:

Introducing SMOKEY


Smokey is 12 weeks old, and is already an experienced traveller - he travelled with Jessica on the  train from London. 

There is already an older, established cat in the house - 
Wiskers - a serious threat to a small kitten (or so we thought)


It seemed sensible to follow the research from books and Google and keep the kitten in a separate room, apart from Wiskers and gradually introduce the presence of the kitten.

So far, the kitten has been all over the house, Wiskers appears not to notice any new scent.
After a couple of days we took Wiskers into the room where the kitten is. The kitten was in his cage and immediately noticed Wiskers, but Wiskers simply turned around and left.
We brought the kitten into the room where Wiskers was - nothing
We put the kitten in eye-line of Wiskers -oooh, reaction! Her eyes widened. Not a muscle twitched, no hissing and spitting - just a modicum of interest, then she turned her back and went to sleep.

Later that same evening Wiskers was settled on my knee when we brought Smokey in and let him play on the floor in front of her. She stayed where she was but watched him. When she began to tense, I worried that she was ready to pounce so we picked Smokey up, but I am now not sure she wasn't just re-positioning to get an easy view.

We worried that the kitten may make Wiskers feel she wanted to move out. Last night we couldn't find her at bed-time. I couldn't find her this morning either, but it turns out she had been settled in the cushions from the settee we currently have in the garage. Well enough hidden that we worried she'd been outside all night in the cold, when in truth she had been totally cosy.

Today we brought the kitten into the lounge to see what reaction we would get. This time Smokey really wanted to get to Wiskers, but the feeling wasn't mutual.

It really can't be this easy and I am sure Wiskers is merely lulling us into a false sense of security - but so far it has been so much more peaceful than expected.