Prince Philip

Introducing Aurora's new roommate, Prince Philip.

Day 1

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.

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Prince Philip is fostered in Cambridge, MA through the Gifford Cat Shelter in Brighton. Please contact them if you are interested in him!