Some of you may recall the ongoing saga of the feral kitty that my wife and I have been dealing with for some time. The last installment was posted here last August, and in the time since, we have been working to make sure Stripe, as he is now known, is settling in and enjoying his new home.
He has come a long way since his first days with us last summer. He is now very much at home in our basement, and any human incursion will likely be met with a charge to bat at a leg as if to say, “Just so you know, you’re on my turf.” He’s still a bit of a scaredy-cat though, so he retreats just as quickly. Still, the days of hiding under the sofa bed are long gone, and he will come out while we are there. He enjoys playing with a variety of toys (his trackball especially), looking out the window, and napping on the sofa and his bed.
He seems to have found a good friend in Annie, another of our cats. Annie and Stripe romp up and down the hallway, chasing each other, and play-wrestling when one catches the other. When they get too tired to run and wrestle, they nap together. He still doesn’t much like being touched, but he watches us stroke Annie, and how much she likes it, so we figure it’s only a matter of time before he gets curious and wants to see what it’s like.
Stripe isn’t restricted to the basement, though overt hostility from Hope and Fiona mean that we tend to keep the basement door closed. But we do put them in a bedroom in the mornings, and open Stripe’s door for his “upstairs time.” He enjoys coming up and exploring the rest of the house, looking out the window, and having a different place in which to play with Annie. So overall, he seems happy and content, and though we still have a ways to go, we can see how far he has come. Obviously, we’re glad we have him.
And since pictures are a must in cat threads…
Here are Stripe and Annie, at the cat tree–Annie’s at the top and that’s Stripe on the floor. It’s a favourite place for them to play during Stripe’s “upstairs time.”
This is Stripe, again at the foot of the cat tree, trying to encourage Annie to play ball with him.
Stripe enjoys playing ball, but I guess it matters whom he’s playing with. In this photo, I’ve been trying to get Stripe to play ball with me. He’s not much interested.
And after a busy playtime, it’s naptime. Here’s Stripe settling in for a nap on the back of the couch.
