various varieties of evil

[freckles_and_doubt]

I have had two weeks of leave, during which I managed to (a) have my piano tuned and a practice bar fitted (to muffle it, because apparently semi-detached living makes me too self-conscious to play), and (b) acquire another cat. Philip & Jo are emigrating later this year, and needed a home for two of their cats, and I inherited Pandora. Pandora is black and solid and slightly roly-poly, and possessed of Personality, currently expressed via querulous meeping every time she realises she's in an unfamiliar place with an unfamiliar pink blob, i.e. constantly. She's also ridiculous affectionate and prone, as her name would suggest, to Evil, mostly manifested as knocking things over, head-butting me on the chin in the middle of particularly fierce Mass Effect battles, and sharpening her claws on Kevin, the leather chair in the living room. Hobbit is confused and betrayed but being rather sweet and tolerant - all the hissing is on her side, and is fairly minimal on the whole, possibly because I followed a simple principle of dosing them both with catnip every time they met for the first few days. Apparently territorial aggro is not compatible with stoned giggling. Fortunately.

Pandora's favourite place is between me and keyboard, writhing around demanding affection, and occasionally rolling onto the keyboard where a random key-smash will do the most damage. Thusly:



She's actually a black cat, but has a subtle underlay of tabby stripes which are more evident in that photo than they are in the flesh; the (completely accidentally staged) photo below is a more accurate representation of her overall blackness.



Hobbit has registered his displeasure at the invasion by pursuing evil of his own, presumably by sticking his head into the remains of someone's braai fire. He currently has half of a fierce black handlebar moustache and is hurt and embarrassed by my tendency to laugh at him a lot.

Comments

[wolverine-nun.livejournal.com]

Hello!

Have an intermittent tree lobsters, which I think will resonate with your many and various tech/phone support calls over the years.

http://www.treelobsters.com/2015/07/698-shop-talk.html

[strawberryfrog.livejournal.com]

Pandora looks evilly relaxed, and Hobbit looks a bit startled.

[stringgeek.livejournal.com]

I wish I'd thought of the catnip idea this month as I've been helping a new kitty acclimate to my home. Brilliant! It may still be worthy here, though--they are almost playing together, in fits and starts, and catnip might be exactly what is needed to encourage same.

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

I found a really good article on introducing a new cat at http://www.catbehaviorassociates.com/how-to-introduce-a-second-cat/, and was very careful with the sanctuary room thing and gradual introductions - they spent a couple of days on either side of a glass door, and being allowed into rooms individually in series so they got used to each others' scent. Also, Feliway! but the catnip thing really seemed to work in terms of them being within a metre of each other and not growling, when that distance would usually produce growls in the absence of catnip. The article suggests positive reinforcement and reward with lots of treats, but I didn't try anything beyond the catnip. You sound as though you've negotiated most of the adjustment process, though, I hope they take those final steps quickly!