Our daughter, MilliCal, moved out into her new apartment a couple of weeks ago (with two friends). That was traumatic enough. But she also took half of our contingent of cats with her. Namely, Hestia. MilliCal has long wanted to get Hestia away from the bullying of our male cat, Hermes.*
At the new apartment, Hestia would be in an all-female environment, with MiliCal’s two roomies and another cat, Mia. But when Hestia got to her new home, she was severely freaked out. She refused to leave MiliCal’s room. In fact, at first she wouldn’t leave her cat carrier. But eventually she unbent and lolled on milliCal’s bed. She still avoided the rest of the apartment, sneaking out only when no one else was around. The last time she ran into Mia (who also tended to stay in her mistress’ room), she charged her. Mia was pretty upset by this – she never had to deal with another cat.
Needles to say, this wasn’t quite what was expected. Hestia liked MiliCal’s friends, and we figured that she would take easily to them, and that she would be friends with a female cat rather than the testosterone-soaked Hermes.
But it didn’t work out, so yesterday MilliCal brought Hestia home. She eagerly came out of her carrier and walked around, inspecting the house. She ignored Pepper Mill and me, but she apparently wanted to be sure the food dishes were still there, along with the bathroom, den, and master bedroom. Yes, all still there.
Hermes wasn’t happy. He’d gotten used to life without Hestia (although he seemed to miss MilliCal). When he found Hestia eating out of a food bowl he hesitantly raised a paw to bop her, but we all yelled at him, and he relented.
Hestia hadn’t lived anywhere else since she was a kitten. Not surprising, I guess, that she didn’t take well to a new environment. Last night, as she always did, she hoped up on te bed and slept at Pepper Mill’s feet.