Diva & Benjamin: My New Roommates

No time to go into details now, but I have Diva and Benjamin in my
apartment now, and they are getting along pretty well so far. Still a
bit stand-offish but they can tolerate each other within close
distances and don't feud much over food.

Here are my photostreams. A number of the photos are repeated between
the two, since some of them have both Benji and Diva in them.

Benjamin -


Diva -
(includes the ones you've seen already, plus new ones)

My Room -
(no cats
in it, but it shows where they live)

I'll talk more about how the weekend went later, when I have more time.

--
Chris Meadows aka | WWW: http://www.terrania.us | Somebody
Robotech_Master | ICQ: 5477383 AIM: RoboMastr | help, I'm
| Skype, LJ-Gizmo: Robotech_Master | trapped in
| Yahoo: robotech_master_2000 | a sig file!

"Robotech_Master" wrote

Here are my photostreams. A number of the photos are repeated between
the two, since some of them have both Benji and Diva in them.

I cant decide which is cuter! Thanks so much for the pics!

Friday Night:

They've both been in the place for a few hours now, and they're
getting to know each other. The shelter operator, who was well
acquainted with Benjamin's personality, said that she would advise
putting them together right away. She said she wouldn't advise it for
every cat, but she knew Benji's personality, that he was all right
around other cats and wouldn't fight back against a bossy female. So I
went ahead and introduced them together right away (after giving Diva
a while alone to calm down from her car trip).

So far there's been a lot of "talking" from Benji, a good bit of
hissing from Diva, a lot of circling around and watching each other,
and a _very_ little yowling and batting. Neither of them is really
doing the full-out ears-back ominous yowling that I associated with my
old cat when anything invaded "her" territory--their ears are mostly
forward--and whenever there is a shrieking confrontation it's only a
second or so long. (There've only been about three or four of them so
far.)

Benjamin seems more prone to seek "higher ground" in the disputes--on
top of my bed, or on the back of the sofa. Diva likes to go under my
bed and peek out from behind the blankets. So far Diva has been the
mainly aggressive one, and Benjamin has mainly backed off. When Diva
moves in on Benjamin, she moves in low to the ground, and Benjamin
stands up on his hind legs.

Oddly, Diva is the only one who seems to be very playful at this
point, even on catnip. I can't get Benji to notice a laser pointer for
the life of me right now. Maybe he'll loosen up once their
relationship settles down.

If I get near either one, the other gets jealous, so I'm just leaving
them alone right now. I'm hopeful that soon they'll settle down to a
state of detente.


Sunday Morning:

They seem to have settled down, somewhat. Their normal pattern of
behavior now is that Diva wanders around sniffing at things or finding
comfortable places to lie down, and Benjamin keeps following her
around, sniffing at her butt. Diva takes swipes at him when he gets
too close, and he quickly backs off. Benji will also go places where
she has just been, such as when she investigated the bottom level of
the cat condo, Benji went in right after she came out.

It's pretty funny, really.


Today:

Well, over Saturday and Sunday the cats calmed down. By Sunday, they
were playing a little, and Diva was even tolerating having Benji right
next to her, as long as he didn't get too familiar. (I've updated the
photosets I linked to a few entries back with Saturday and Sunday
pictures.) When I got home from work today, I swear I saw them either
groom or nuzzle each other a little. The advice I received about
putting them together right away has definitely worked.

Sunday afternoon my Aunt Becky came over to meet the new cats, and
today both she and Uncle Denis came over to visit me. They brought
with them some cat toys and a pair of self-feeding-reservoir water and
dry food feeders, which I have been happy enough to put to immediate
use. We dropped Benji off at the vet's to lose his man-parts, then
went to a Subway for dinner.

I have to admit to having kind of mixed feelings about neutering
Benji. I suppose part of it is a sort of sympathetic cringe at the
idea of neutering (or _being_ neutered in general). Also, I thought
that pair of little fuzzy orbs under his tail was really cute, and
it'll be a shame for him to lose them (though nonetheless, I still
think "neuticles" are silly). Another part was that it would have been
kind of neat to see what his kittens would be like, if he had
them--but there's no way I could afford kittens anyway, and it would
be irresponsible to bring more cats into the world when there are so
many unwanted ones here already.

Something else I learned about my cats: Diva is a litter-flinger. She
digs like a mole, flinging stray litter every which way. (As one of
the photos in the photostream shows.) Though, to be fair, she _did_
help me when I went to sweep it up, batting at the broom whenever it
got into range of her so it would know who was boss. I went ahead and
got a covered, self-filtering litterbox, and have just set it
up. Here's hoping it works as well as the packaging claims. (I know
that covered litterboxes can trap the smell. But this one does have a
vent with an air filter in it, and I plan to take care of it twice
daily anyway.)

I'm going to miss Benji until it's time to get him back tomorrow.

Well, I should go ahead and shower and get in bed. I haven't been
getting enough sleep lately, and tomorrow comes soon.

I'll keep updating the photostreams if and as the cats exhibit more
preciousness. (Also, a friend should be sending me a better digital
camera this week so I can get some better shots than blurry cellphone
images.)

--
Chris Meadows aka | WWW: http://www.terrania.us | Somebody
Robotech_Master | ICQ: 5477383 AIM: RoboMastr | help, I'm
| Skype, LJ-Gizmo: Robotech_Master | trapped in
| Yahoo: robotech_master_2000 | a sig file!

"Robotech_Master" wrote in message
g...

The advice I received about
putting them together right away has definitely worked.

It was still bad advice. You just happened to be lucky.

I hope their relationship continues to go well.

Benji and Diva at play: http://www.youtube.com/v/c0JirZLHQZg

--
Chris Meadows aka | WWW: http://www.terrania.us | Somebody
Robotech_Master | ICQ: 5477383 AIM: RoboMastr | help, I'm
| Skype, LJ-Gizmo: Robotech_Master | trapped in
| Yahoo: robotech_master_2000 | a sig file!