Streeeeeeetch da dragon
So just how stretchy are dragons? Not very one would think. Which is probably why I've been feeling a little ragged lately.
Things just seem to keep on happening that suck the time out of my day, leaving me here at midnight finally alone at last, but far too exhausted to write much.
So, what's been happening?
Well, on Monday I had to go pick up a cat. No, not another one we had bought. My friend R, who breeds siamese cats - whom I met in February when we bought Spencer and Biscuit - had asked me to do a favour for him. He had a lovely little bluepoint female about a year old who was a very nervy little cat. She was timid and very scared of people and he wanted me to try to tame her and get her used to people so we could place her with a new owner. It took him four days to even catch her well enough to get her into a carry case, but finally on Monday he called to say she was in her case and I could collect her.
So, we now have Masked Lady living with us. She truly IS a beautiful cat, but very, very timid. The first day she was here she would not even look you in the eye. She would hold her head down and glance up at you briefly and swiftly drop her eyes again. That was monday.
Monday I gave her pretty much to herself, just to get over the capture and car trip and strange place. Yesterday I visited her a couple of times and again today.
I should elaborate when I say 'visit'. I have tamed a wild and frightened cat before. There are two keys to it - they must have nowhere they can hide from you, and they must be kept completely isolated. If a cat can hide they will never let you get close, so never have the opportunity to get to know that humans can be nice. If a cat has other company (from other cats) then they will not seek the human for friendship and continue to keep their distance.
I have found that it best to keep them in a small room where they have to see you and be relatively close to you when you go in there. So, for the time being Masked Lady is living in our bathroom. There is nowhere to hide there. She has a nice warm fleece bed in the shower cubicle, water and a litter tray. The first two days I left food in there with her too, but now she is in active 'training' the only food she will get will be from me.
I go and sit with her, stoking her, getting her used to human touch, talking babytalk to her, crooning to her and just letting her see I am pretty harmless (oh do be quiet!). Then, before I have worn out my welcome, I leave.
Yesterday she started calling, so I went and visited her. I sat on the floor and this time picked her up and snuggled her close as I stroked her. At first she was wary, but then after a while she relaxed and began to purr. R tells me she has never let him hold her. I think she might be a woman's cat by the sounds of it. Some cats are very gender specific as to who they like. Zeus, for example, adores men. If a man had lived here he would have been his.
This morning I spent some time with the Lady again, and cuddled her for a while, and then let her go back down again when she wanted to, but continued to stroke her.
Until now, whenever we are around, she curls up in a tight, defencive ball on her fleece. Today she loosened up enough to actually raise her tail as I scratched the base of it and then got bold enough to walk out of the cubicle and rub against me, turn and do the same, standing tall with her tail straight and high. It's a good sign. She will now look me in the eye too. I think she will be just fine.
Of course, we are supposed to get her quiet and confidant and then find a home for her. I suspect that is going to be difficult. Tygrr and troll are already both in love with her.
And is it any wonder?
Curled up in my lap (half under my jacket)today
It will still take time to get her really confidant, as she has yet to face the other cats and life in a relatively busy and noisy house. Still, Rome wasn't built in a day but so far she is progressing well.
In other news I have been having progressively more and more trouble with my asthma. It has been building up since February until last week it was really worrying me, so finally today I went and saw a doc about it, and came home with a script for Prednilisone. I've never had to have that before. Still, it IS winter - which is a bad time for asthma for me - and I HAVE been pretty stressed the last few months, so I shouldn't be surprised at the necessity of it. Hopefully now it will settle down a little.
There's been lots of other nuisance stuff going on. My broadband router is playing up and I spent four phone calls and nearly three hours talkign to the tech support from the manufacturers before they finally conceded it was faulty and gave me authority to return it.
Then my fancy space age printer went on the blink giving a very thorough dodo impersonation. Of course it does this at night when I cannot check the cables etc because it's so bloody dark behind there. I was talking to a friend in scotland this morning who gave me some suggestions and one of them worked - yay!
But still, that's just typical of the things that eat my time just now - lots of nuisance and unexpected little things.
However, there IS a bright side to things and one of them is that today tygrr is offwork tonight, so when she gets up this evening we get to keep her and play with her! Yay again!
This friday is troll's birthday, which is not too bad as it's a week day, however on the saturday we have six of her friends coming over and going to the movies for a cinema party to see Shrek III and then back here for icecream cake after. Three of them are then sleeping over saturday night. Tygrr and I might leave the house to them and camp on the back lawn in a tent.. *nods nods nods*...sounds like a sensible plan to me....;)
So yeah, I am finding how far one can stretch a dragon.
Just a busy and hectic life really, when all I want is quiet and solitude.
Hmm, quiet and solitude huh? Sounds like a good time to go visit a little cat in her room.
Laters!
Things just seem to keep on happening that suck the time out of my day, leaving me here at midnight finally alone at last, but far too exhausted to write much.
So, what's been happening?
Well, on Monday I had to go pick up a cat. No, not another one we had bought. My friend R, who breeds siamese cats - whom I met in February when we bought Spencer and Biscuit - had asked me to do a favour for him. He had a lovely little bluepoint female about a year old who was a very nervy little cat. She was timid and very scared of people and he wanted me to try to tame her and get her used to people so we could place her with a new owner. It took him four days to even catch her well enough to get her into a carry case, but finally on Monday he called to say she was in her case and I could collect her.
So, we now have Masked Lady living with us. She truly IS a beautiful cat, but very, very timid. The first day she was here she would not even look you in the eye. She would hold her head down and glance up at you briefly and swiftly drop her eyes again. That was monday.
Monday I gave her pretty much to herself, just to get over the capture and car trip and strange place. Yesterday I visited her a couple of times and again today.
I should elaborate when I say 'visit'. I have tamed a wild and frightened cat before. There are two keys to it - they must have nowhere they can hide from you, and they must be kept completely isolated. If a cat can hide they will never let you get close, so never have the opportunity to get to know that humans can be nice. If a cat has other company (from other cats) then they will not seek the human for friendship and continue to keep their distance.
I have found that it best to keep them in a small room where they have to see you and be relatively close to you when you go in there. So, for the time being Masked Lady is living in our bathroom. There is nowhere to hide there. She has a nice warm fleece bed in the shower cubicle, water and a litter tray. The first two days I left food in there with her too, but now she is in active 'training' the only food she will get will be from me.
I go and sit with her, stoking her, getting her used to human touch, talking babytalk to her, crooning to her and just letting her see I am pretty harmless (oh do be quiet!). Then, before I have worn out my welcome, I leave.
Yesterday she started calling, so I went and visited her. I sat on the floor and this time picked her up and snuggled her close as I stroked her. At first she was wary, but then after a while she relaxed and began to purr. R tells me she has never let him hold her. I think she might be a woman's cat by the sounds of it. Some cats are very gender specific as to who they like. Zeus, for example, adores men. If a man had lived here he would have been his.
This morning I spent some time with the Lady again, and cuddled her for a while, and then let her go back down again when she wanted to, but continued to stroke her.
Until now, whenever we are around, she curls up in a tight, defencive ball on her fleece. Today she loosened up enough to actually raise her tail as I scratched the base of it and then got bold enough to walk out of the cubicle and rub against me, turn and do the same, standing tall with her tail straight and high. It's a good sign. She will now look me in the eye too. I think she will be just fine.
Of course, we are supposed to get her quiet and confidant and then find a home for her. I suspect that is going to be difficult. Tygrr and troll are already both in love with her.
And is it any wonder?
Curled up in my lap (half under my jacket)today
It will still take time to get her really confidant, as she has yet to face the other cats and life in a relatively busy and noisy house. Still, Rome wasn't built in a day but so far she is progressing well.
In other news I have been having progressively more and more trouble with my asthma. It has been building up since February until last week it was really worrying me, so finally today I went and saw a doc about it, and came home with a script for Prednilisone. I've never had to have that before. Still, it IS winter - which is a bad time for asthma for me - and I HAVE been pretty stressed the last few months, so I shouldn't be surprised at the necessity of it. Hopefully now it will settle down a little.
There's been lots of other nuisance stuff going on. My broadband router is playing up and I spent four phone calls and nearly three hours talkign to the tech support from the manufacturers before they finally conceded it was faulty and gave me authority to return it.
Then my fancy space age printer went on the blink giving a very thorough dodo impersonation. Of course it does this at night when I cannot check the cables etc because it's so bloody dark behind there. I was talking to a friend in scotland this morning who gave me some suggestions and one of them worked - yay!
But still, that's just typical of the things that eat my time just now - lots of nuisance and unexpected little things.
However, there IS a bright side to things and one of them is that today tygrr is offwork tonight, so when she gets up this evening we get to keep her and play with her! Yay again!
This friday is troll's birthday, which is not too bad as it's a week day, however on the saturday we have six of her friends coming over and going to the movies for a cinema party to see Shrek III and then back here for icecream cake after. Three of them are then sleeping over saturday night. Tygrr and I might leave the house to them and camp on the back lawn in a tent.. *nods nods nods*...sounds like a sensible plan to me....;)
So yeah, I am finding how far one can stretch a dragon.
Just a busy and hectic life really, when all I want is quiet and solitude.
Hmm, quiet and solitude huh? Sounds like a good time to go visit a little cat in her room.
Laters!