Milestone 1:
While I was hanging out with Philip, she moved over to where she was hidden but could still see, and hung out with us for a while. And got so comfortable that she put her head down and very nearly closed her eyes.
As long as I didn't look directly at her, anyway. Still, progress!
Milestone 2:
That night, she actually came out of hiding to chase a laser. I took four minutes of video (she came out for that long!) and edited it down to about 40 seconds to get the high points.
Aurora is fostered in Cambridge, MA through the Gifford Cat Shelter in Brighton. Please contact them if you are interested in her!
Seriously, you two. Two days in a row, what the heck?
Husband and I discussed it. It isn't one of us, so it has to be one of you.
Is it you, Philip?
I took the lid off one of the litter boxes, but did I put it a little too close to the bookshelf so you bumped the cone and thought you couldn't use that box?
Or is it you, Aurora?
Yeah, I see you back there. You think I can't, but I can.
Are you protesting the lack of hiding spots in your favorite room (from moving furniture around when Philip was bleeding on the carpet in several places)? Or maybe protesting Philip in a general sense?
Solution:
Move the litter box further away from all obstacles and put the room back the way it was. Also move the camera to the living room.
And that worked!
For almost a week.
The camera caught Philip downstairs (but not on the couch), an hour later it caught Aurora downstairs (but not on the couch), and the next day it showed us Aurora up on the couch where she definitely peed.
j'accuse!
It doesn't necessarily mean she was the original couch pooper, she might have been making her own contribution to the upholstery-cleaner-and-eau-du-chatshe smelled. But it seems more likely than Philip at this point.
New solution:
Take the suggestion from another Gifford volunteer to change the texture of the couch by covering it with a blanket or towels, and placing a litter box on top of the couch. (And buy better cleaner.)
It worked!
Aurora used that litter box a day or two later and did not pee on the couch.
Fun fact: at time of writing, this all happened about two weeks ago. Neither of them has been downstairs since.
Further update: after another week we had put the secondary box back upstairs where they were clearly spending all their time, but then there was another incident. Unfortunately, the camera didn't catch the culprit. Guess it's time to put the litter box back on the couch.
Aurora and Philip are fostered in Cambridge, MA through the Gifford Cat Shelter in Brighton. If, in spite of this post, you might be interested in adopting either of these cats, please contact the shelter.
When Philip came to us, his half-tail ended in a huge, gross scabby thing, like the cap on a pen. (Not sharing photos of that unless someone really wants to see them.) It didn't seem to bother him, he didn't flinch if we pet him close to his tail, and he'd wave that little nubby thing around and bonk walls and people with it without reacting.
A month later, that tail cap came off. The skin underneath was raw-looking and very pink. The first day it was clearly bothering him, he didn't want us come anywhere close to him. The second day he was more like himself.
A couple days after that, he groomed it and it started bleeding. Not life-threatening bad, but drip-on-the-carpet bad. Luckily, Aurora was hiding in the other room at the time. We moved the furniture around a lot to get him contained in case we needed to bring him to an emergency vet. This ended up not being the case, but we arranged to bring him in the next morning.
We had hosted a guest over the weekend and had taken the linens off the mattress that day, and during this drama we ended up taking the mattress off the bed frame and folding that frame up like a tent. And for some kind of hiding spot, put a freshly laundered sheet over the top and stuck a covered cat bed inside.
The room looked very different and altogether not terribly welcoming, but we weren't worried about that at the moment.
At around 4am, I woke up and couldn't sleep, so I went to see how Philip was doing. He was in the one hiding spot the room provided (the bed frame tent fort) and came out for head scratches and he wasn't bleeding anymore.
While I was hanging out with Philip, guess who appeared in my peripheral!
She got extra brave and slunk past me to get to the food dish, which she clearly felt Philip was hogging.
She growled and hissed at him, but he handled it like a pro. He looked at her, but didn't growl or hiss back at her, but he also didn't give up his spot at the food dish.
Later in the morning, we bundled him up and brought him to the vet. The highlight of that trip for me was finding this treasure in the waiting area:
The visit went well. He got a proper bandage on his tail, a cone to keep him from messing with the bandage, some antibiotics, and some ointment for his weepy eyes. And apparently some fun drugs, because he was a little loopy for a while afterward.
And he even felt playful! This is a first, he's never purred and gently bunny kicked my hand before.
Aurora and Philip are fostered in Cambridge, MA through the Gifford Cat Shelter in Brighton. Please contact them if you are interested in either of these cats!
Before we left for the weekend, the small victory in her progress was almost coming out of hiding to eat kibble even though I was standing right there.
While we were gone, the camera caught her strolling in and out of the rooms all night! In and out of the other bedroom, in and out of the bathroom. Scrolling through the images the camera sent us was like watching a stop-motion Scooby Doo chase scene.
When we got back, she had developed a little more variety in her hiding spots, deciding to give the shadows under the other bed a try.
Progress! And we could finally vacuum our guest room without terrifying her.
Aurora is fostered in Cambridge, MA through the Gifford Cat Shelter in Brighton. Please contact them if you are interested in her!
Sometimes approaching Philip while we're standing freaks him out, but if we can stay low or sit with him, he feels better about it.
(That little chin strap!)
We had set up a camera in the guest/cat room to see how active the furballs were, and since Philip was OK with us at least semi-regularly, to make sure Aurora was still doing OK with the new roommate.
She's fine, still happy with the room, and Philip playing with her favorite toy didn't make her change her mind about it.
By the end of July we were getting 100+ emails a day, so we were no longer worried about them coming out of hiding at any time of day. So we shifted the camera's gaze to the door, to see who was coming and going.
Philip was in and out, exploring between the rooms upstairs, we knew that already.
What surprised us was seeing evidence that Aurora left the room for ten minutes. I don't know if that's the first time she's been exploring outside of the room or where she went.
And in the morning, even though she knew that I hadn't left for work yet, she came out of hiding to get in on that sweet breakfast kibble action. And even when she knew I could see her, she didn't go back into hiding! I didn't push my luck by trying to go in.
Aurora and Philip are fostered in Cambridge, MA through the Gifford Cat Shelter in Brighton. Please contact them if you are interested in either of these cats!
Philip had another followup with the vet about his tail, so again I faced the challenge of getting him into the carrier. I can pet him just fine, even with one hand on either side, but anything that feels to him like I'm constraining him in any way induces a panicked run under the bed to hide.
Plan A: trail of treats
Failed. He fell for it last time, but I doubt it'll work again.
Plan B: throw a towel over him, burrito him up and put him in
Failed. My throw technique is poor, and he backed up faster than I expected, eluded the towel, and ran under the bed.
Plan C: blanket corral
This didn't need to be as extensive as it was for Aurora because I know he can't go through the sections of the bed frame that have a horizontal bar because of the cone. He always goes in and out from under the bed in the same two directions. So I put a blanket and the open carrier on one end and me at the other. Then I alternated giving him treats that were just out of reach in the direction of the carrier and gently shoving him from behind. He was not happy about it, but it worked!
He is great in the car and he was great for the vet. His tail is healing well! We're all still hoping they don't need to amputate. They cleaned the stub and soaked it, and since he can still reach to groom the very end, gave him a slightly bigger cone. Poor guy. No bandage, though, so that's probably a good sign.
Philip is fostered in Cambridge, MA through the Gifford Cat Shelter in Brighton. Please contact them if you are interested in him!
Our progress with both Philip and Aurora has been kind of up and down.
Progress with Aurora is slow but notable; on one day in mid July she triggered the camera sporadically from 8:30am to 11pm, a huge change from the midnight to 4am schedule she had originally. She still never comes out when we're in the room, but maybe someday.
Also around that time, we were able to give Philip some meds for tail pain a couple days in a row, and he jumped up on the furniture to say Hello and get some head scratchings.
He does spend a lot of time hiding, but he'll come out for some affection and companionship before going back into hiding
His meow, by the way, is comical. The best way I can describe it is that it sounds like he's pulling it out of storage and dusting it off.
On the whole, though, Aurora is not crazy about this stranger taking over her favorite hiding spots and eating up all the food.
Not that she'll come right out and say so.
On the other hand, there have been a couple of times when I'd like to think we're making some real strides forward.
I started establishing a nightly routine of sitting down near Aurora's hiding spot and putting down a little kibble offering, then doing my best at clicker training with Philip. On one of these days, she didn't retreat after she ate the food, she stayed and watched, hanging out with us in a must-stay-hidden kind of way.
On another day, she hid on the chair under the desk and allowed me to put a treat near her without hissing or swiping at me. That's progress!
Aurora and Philip are fostered in Cambridge, MA through the Gifford Cat Shelter in Brighton. Please contact them if you are interested in either of these cats!
He has a couple health-related quirks. The biggest issue is his tail. We don't know how it happened, but half of his tail is missing and the end is taking some time to heal. Secondarily, he has weepy eyes and a stuffy-sounding purr.
I was able to reach out and scratch behind his ears in the shelter, and we were hoping that he would teach Aurora that people were pretty cool. Unfortunately, it initially looked like Aurora taught Philip to be afraid of everything and he spent several days in hiding.
In fact, he took her favorite hiding spot (far corner under the bed) and she had to make do with her second favorite hiding spot (the chair under the desk).
So for the first week and a half, we gave him the same treatment we'd been giving Aurora - leave give space, let the cat make the first move. He would slow blink at me from the safety of the underbed shadows, but that's as much interaction as we got.
Then he surprised us by moving to the other room to hide under a different bed, but he still wouldn't come out.
And then my sister came to visit. She is also an experienced cat owner who has worked for shelters and has fostered several mother cats and kittens. She discovered that Philip had been waiting for an invitation to come out and be buddies, and now that we know that, we can all be buddies as long as we go slow.
I hadn't wanted to invade his safe hiding place, and at first he would just move further away, but now he's actually fine with hands reaching in. If I hold out my hand for him to sniff, he'll tell me if I should GTFO or give him head scratches -- he'll either lean back and look disgusted or lean in and put his head under your hand. No hissing, growling, or swatting. If he's really not into it, he's more likely to get up and move away than to take a swipe with claws. And if he's in the mood for head scratches...this is your life now, at least for the next several minutes.
(Video taken on day 14)
Some of his shyness might be his personality, some might be that he's still settling in, and some might be that his tail is still healing and will be bothering him for quite some time. He spends a lot of time under the bed, comes out for a few minutes and revels in head scratchings, and when he's had enough he goes back under the bed.
Prince Philip is fostered in Cambridge, MA through the Gifford Cat Shelter in Brighton. Please contact them if you are interested in him!
In foster care, Ginger Kitty wasn't shy at all. She greeted us when we came home and introduced herself to all our friends and every contractor that came to fix something.
Then when Ginger Kitty went back to the shelter, she was very shy. She was placed in the room with the other shy cats, and even within that she had a little enclosure of her own. It took a while, but she allowed the occasional visitor, then started to explore the rest of the room.
I've been back a few times to pick up medications or other cats, and have stopped in to say hello. The last time I was there, she came out of her paper bag to say hello, then plop down next to me to groom herself.
And I heard the tale of how Ginger Kitty not only was the cat who had taken charge in that room, but had gotten everyone else in trouble by learning how to open the door.
*sniff!*
We're so proud.
And I just found out she's been adopted! You can't see it, but I'm doing a celebratory dance. She's such a good little companion, I'm so thrilled she found a forever home!
I'm also told she got in the carrier completely on her own, too.
