BerthaBlog

A week ago Duchess was spending her days hiding in the basement. She came up at night to eat the food I left out for her, and would come over to us with a lot of coaxing and reassurance. If we stood up or moved too quickly, though, she’d dart back into the basement. She would lurk around the couch but didn’t have the nerve to actually jump up onto it. (Imagine that—a cat who won’t get on the couch!)

These days she meets me in the mornings demanding her breakfast, and precedes me to her food bowl. She climbs into my lap for petting until the kids start stirring. She no longer flees to the basement as soon as the kids start shuffling back and forth; she stands at the end of the hall, watching them until they actually head in her direction.

If Alpha Geek and I are watching television on the couch, she hops up in between us. She’ll bolt if either of us stands up (or if he coughs), but while she’s there she’ll curl up next to me for petting and start to purr. She’ll lay down next to Alpha Geek and stretch her little white forefeet out to him, giving him an appealing wide-eyed look until he reaches over and gives her a scritch. Then she’ll eel her way onto his lap and purr some more.

I would have posted this last night, but there was cat in my lap. And on my keyboard. And my desk. Then she noticed the mouse pointer and parked herself directly in front of my monitor to observe it. We had fun chasing the mouse pointer around the screen for a while.

I went to the Y this morning covered in cat hair. I missed that.

I had been wadding up balls of paper for her to chase around. Yesterday morning I discovered several shredded-up receipts laying about the kitchen. Alpha Geek, who had been up all night working on servers for a client, informed me that Duchess prefers receipt paper to play with.

The first time I tried to open the blinds for her, she fled the room. Now she’s sitting on a table under the window watching the birds. I think she’s settling in.

Last night, the boys and I were able to coax Duchess into the carpeted living room. The Director sat on the kitchen floor, and the Artist and I sat in the living room; she followed our human relay into the new, unexplored region of the house. At first she only got her front feet on the carpet, and that was just too strange and she went back to the Director for reassurance. Finally she came all the way into the living room to get petting from the Artist. We don’t need treats to lure her; petting and attention is all the motivation she needs.

Later, after the boys were in bed, she came into the living room again for another wild new experience: she got on the couch with me.

She liked the couch. She stretched out, kneaded, and even flipped over onto her back for a moment. She was too antsy to stay there long, but she clearly enjoyed it.

She also ate all her kibble, so I’m no longer worried that she’s going to starve herself because she’s too tense to eat.

Now she’s hiding in the basement to recuperate from her adventures. We’ll probably see her again tonight.