On Fri, 02 Mar 2007 17:24:27 -0600, Lynne
wrote:

on Fri, 02 Mar 2007 13:55:51 GMT, dgk wrote:

She seems to be fitting in pretty well after 10 days. She has been out
of the Cat Introduction room full time for the past 3 days. There was
some sort of altercation last evening. I heard a major shriek and I
found her and Nipsy staring at each other. I sat between them (very
brave on my part I might add) and petted them and everyone was ok
after that. It was sort of surprising since Nipsy is pretty laid back.

Espy no longer rushes to get past her and was sniffing at her without
his usual hissing. In fact, I heard no hissing at all last night, nor
was I woken up by Epsy just howling like the night before. I have no
idea what that was about but for fifteen or twenty minutes he was just
letting off steam. It was around 3am so I wasn't too keen on figuring
out what was up once I realized that no one was in any danger.

The major trouble revolves around food. I'm now feeding them all in
the same room (the bathroom), with Espy turned away from Marlo so he
doesn't see her while he eats. I feed Marlo a bit away from the two
boys. She is very serious about her food supply and does not
appreciate the others checking out to see what she has in the bowl.

I'm going to have to watch her weight. I always have left out dry food
for between meal snacks but she still takes every feeding opportunity
as if it might be the last one.

All and all, not too bad. I take her into the vet on Monday to get the
stiches out.

I think the next big hurdle is when I let the boys go out in the
backyard as I usually do on weekends. They can't get out, but Marlo is
neighborhood trained and I'm concerned that she might be better at it.
Of course, if she does get out, she knows how to handle it. Then we'll
find out if this was a keeper or a TNR. Now that she knows what indoor
living is like, I don't think that she'll want to go far. The backyard
for some air and sun will probably do her fine. I'd best go get a
collar.

This all sounds fabulous! Great work. I'd be very careful, though, and
keep her in. How will you feel if she leaves and doesn't come back? Or
if she teaches your other 2 how to escape the yard?

I have to sell her on the idea that it's better indoors. Not a hard
sell I think. My former girl Jackie, clearly a street cat, didn't even
want to walk out the backdoor until she realized that I wasn't closing
it.

That's the problem I'll face later this year. Once the weather is
warmer, if I'm home, the door is open and the boys can go in the yard
as they please.

I'm not anticipating a problem with Marlo. She already likes it
inside. Her stitches were removed yesterday and she did not look going
out to the vet. She's ok. The boys are another thing.