Life with Carnivores

I realize that I haven't made a lot of posts lately - mostly because the animals are keeping me SO busy that I don't have time to stop and write about them.  Well, to be fair, a HUGE portion of my time has been taken up with late Spring/early Summer planting, which is coming to a close really soon.  In May and early June I tend to work VERY hard in the garden.  After that it's just maintenance for the rest of the summer, and it's too hot to start any large landscaping projects by then.  The animals are very glad when I come back into the house and pay attention to them.

Much of our work has been to get Romeo acclimated to his new surroundings - we knew it was going to be tough, because we were introducing a 7 year old male cat, very set in his ways, and very upset that he was taken away from his previous home, to three very stubborn female cats.  Or rather, two VERY stubborn female cats (Charlotte and Bit) and one mostly submissive cat with her stubborn moments (Annie.)

It's going much better now than the last time I posted.  Romeo is out of "quarantine" and is allowed to roam the house at will.  He still spends most of his time in the guest room.  I think it's his "safe room."  Here is yet another picture of him on top of the radiator in there.  It's his favorite perch in the house, which is why so far all of my pics have been of him on that.  He does get down, really.

Much to my surprise, Charlotte is not the cat that we are having the most difficulty with.  Oh, don't get me wrong, she hisses at him if he accidentally walks too close to her (believe me, he tries not to!) but she is mostly content to pretend like he doesn't exist.  No, the problem child is Bit.  She will not leave him alone... stalks along behind him constantly, and will hide and then leap out on top of him deliberately, usually when he's trying to use the litter box or eat food. He's actually a bit frightened of her, for all that he weighs exactly twice her weight.

Here's Bit, looking a bit sulky after I made her leave Romeo alone long enough for him to eat.

Charlotte insisted that I take her picture, and even gave me a beautiful pose:

And then I decided that I couldn't leave Annie out.  It was hard to get a decent photo of her, because she was being very shy tonight.

Argos is the one that we are having the absolute least amount of trouble with.  The only tense moment was when he FIRST realized that Romeo was in the house, which was when Romeo wandered past him in the living room.  He started to go into that "greyhound chase mode."  Jeff and I recognized it right away before he got so fixated on Romeo that he wouldn't notice us at all, and both said "No Kitty!"  Argos looked surprised and disappointed, but we haven't had any further problems out of him.

Here's Argos, looking handsome on the couch.  You'll also note that he looks really happy.  I'm sure it had a LITTLE to do with the fact that I was sitting next to him, but it probably mostly was because he had just finished up a large milkbone.

Argos has been very patient with us being so focused on the cats for the past couple of weeks.  And of course we try to give him lots of attention too.

This weekend we're volunteering at a Petco Meet & Greet...  we take him into the store, and set up a table for Steel City Greyhounds, and then just stand there in the doorway when customers come in.  If they have questions about greyhounds, we answer them.  And let them pet and feed Argos, and let him show them what great pets greys can make.  It's for a good cause...  I have to say that I smile every time I see someone out walking a greyhound.  (Or really, any kind of dog, but greys are near and dear to my heart.)

Off to bed.  I'm wondering which of the cats will wake me up tonight... they've all wanted reassurance, and it seems like they most want it in the wee hours of the morning.  Or maybe it's revenge for bringing home a new cat?  I guess I'll never know.