Her world tripled in size when we put her in her own bedroom.
After a couple days, she expressed interest in seeing what was outside Door Number One.
We built a makeshift barricade in front of the stairs and let her out for a little bit at a time. Her world doubled again in size.
She would come out and explore, then it would become too much and she'd go back to safety and we'd close the door for a few more hours.
For a couple days she only had supervised upstairs roaming, then a couple days with unsupervised upstairs roaming.
She didn't seem to notice the stair barricade until she saw me standing on the other side.
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| CONTAINMENT BREACH! |
Suddenly, she had to see where the downward hallway went.
She got all the way down the stairs, set one paw in the kitchen, and ran back up to home base. But we left the stairs unblocked, and she gave the downstairs another try later in the evening. And again the next evening.
Her world doubled in size again! Well, sort of. She still preferred being upstairs. It's a process.
We all discovered that her favorite things to do in the wee hours were to chew on hanging necklaces and to make sure every item on top of the dresser made noise and/or followed the rules of gravity.
It was a little annoying, but it meant she was getting comfortable outside of her room. And, really, the non-scary part of the house was only two and a half rooms big, what else was she going to do?
The exploration adventures became longer and more frequent. I discovered a couple small items in the living room had mysteriously moved themselves overnight. (She jumps up on the dresser, but after a couple days she stopped testing the sound qualities of every item in the middle of the night.)
At time of writing, she's been in our house just shy of two weeks. The occasional large truck driving by still frightens her, but every time she's startled she doesn't run as far away. We've moved the food, water, and litter box out of the bedroom and into their proper places, and she's had no trouble finding them or adjusting to the new locations.
She's still lounging like she's on a beach vacation, only now it's in the living room where we spend most of our time.
She follows us from room to room. Not a lap cat or a cuddler, but she likes to be around.
She's very sweet, and she's a little bit sassy. Skilled at the judgemental stare and seems to have Resting Angry Face in photos, but she's doing awesome and I'm so proud of her.
Ginger Kitty is fostered in Cambridge, MA through the Gifford Cat Shelter in Brighton. Please contact them if you are interested in her!
