Thought you might be curious about how my two cats are getting on. Those who have been following for a while will recall that we used to have two cats, but one very sadly passed away towards the end of last year. The survivor, Meg, seemed to be very lonely, so we decided that we should get her a new friend. A while back, we found a lovely black cat called Patti, and welcomed her into our family.
Patti was introduced to us as a rather shy cat who was prone to having "accidents", and thus would probably require more litter trays than normal. Neither of these things have proven to be true.
We suspect that Patti might have been a bit younger than originally suggested to us by the shelter, as she is very "kitten-like" in her behaviour. She is a little shy around new or unfamiliar people, but she certainly isn't shy around me and Andie, enjoying spending the night on our bed and having an unfortunate tendency to wake us up at about 5.30 in the morning demanding attention and/or breakfast.
She also likes to bite. Not in a particularly aggressive way, but she will give you a nip if she wants some attention, or if she's feeling particularly playful. Initially, this would make me flinch every time, but I've actually sort of become used to it now, as I know it doesn't hurt. (The accompanying claws do tend to leave marks, but they don't hurt either!)
Patti settled into her new home very quickly, which is great. She and Meg are having some difficulty establishing their relationship or understanding how to interact with one another, however. Sightings of one another tend to result in hissing, and Patti is rather fond of launching herself at Meg at high speed, which naturally makes Meg somewhat defensive.
However, I'm pretty convinced that Patti is doing this out of a desire to be playful rather than aggression. This is pretty obvious given the rest of her behaviour, both towards us and towards Meg.
She seems to want to know where Meg is all the time, and it's clear that she actually wants to try and be friendly. Meg initially wasn't having any of this, but over time she's been allowing her to get closer and closer. She still can't get close — yet, anyway — but they will now both happily occupy the same room and be able to see each other without wanting to attack one another. This is progress!
Meg's behaviour has shown a positive improvement, too. She seems less lonely, and I think that they're ultimately going to get along well. While Meg is still quite defensive, she's already starting to exhibit some of the behaviours she used to show when Ruby was still with us.
They'll get there. And in the meantime we enjoy the company of both of them!
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