Curious re-united behavior!

Hello everybody.

A while back I adopted two cats from the pound at the same time, a
female kitten and a 2 year old male.
The male is super laid back, the female had obviously been
traumatized. Even though they spent some time together at the animal
shelter she was pretty cautious about him and the rest of the new
house for about 2 weeks.
And of course they quickly became best buddies always hanging out
together, grooming each other and other behavior that you think means
mutual acceptance.

Well the male is adventurous and loves to go outside. At first it was
just a couple hours, then the night, then two nights, then three
nights. I got used to his coming and going. He would come home for
food and a nap and then want to go outside again. And because he would
make sure I get ZERO sleep and destroy things if he didn't get
outside, I would accommodate his outdoor ambitions. Plus he seems to
be healthier being outside. He lost a bunch of weight (was pretty
obese), became much more active and the coat got nicer.

You know where this is going.
7 days pass. Where is he? I put up posters, and in everybody's
mailbox. Nothing for 3 more days. All the while the female cat is
REALLY making it known that she's lonely and bored. Staying at the
door, mewing at it. Going out and in and out and in. Wife equally
getting restless and concerned.
OKAY, time to go to the shelter and get a new cat.

You know where this is going.
At the shelter, ask what kinds of cats they have for adoption. Well
they have this and that but they're all short-hairs and wife loves
fluffy long-haired cats. So they bring out who else but our lost male
cat. Their "clinic cat" recently passed away and they had intended
this particularly friendly cat to be the new mascot, so he wasn't on
the list of available animals but I guess we described him. It was
surreal for sure.
They scan the chip and confirm he's registered to us (by the way, why
didn't they scan him at first??) and we get to take him home.
It's been 10 days. Bring the male home and the female is VERY ****ed.
Like we just introduced a wolf to her habitat. The male seemed kind of
disoriented.. I imagine the trip to the pound and several days there
was a bit of a culture shock. After we showed him his cat tree he
figured it all out and remembered everything.

But the female!! Growling, hissing, behaving like it's a new werewolf
drinking from her bowl. 10 days ago they were grooming each other; he
tries to approach her now and she's angry!!

I've never seen that before... Like he cheated on her.
I hope he just smells like an animal shelter full of dogs.

For now he's giving her the space. If his back is to her she'll sneak
up and sniff him, at which point he notices her and lazily turns his
head to face her. She growls and hisses and swats him as soon as he
looks at her. She's spending her time watching (and growling) from a
distance now. She'll hide under blankets or behind curtains but
constantly has one eye watching him.
I must admit it really is amusing to observe the paranoid female
trying to covertly inspect an apparently brand new animal.

Anyways, just wanted to share my story. Anybody else have re-uniting
stories?

On Thu, 10 Nov 2011 21:05:16 +0000 (GMT), Judith Latham
wrote:

In article
,
Lord_Alex wrote:
Hello everybody.

....

Anyways, just wanted to share my story. Anybody else have re-uniting
stories?

I don't have a re-uniting story but your's is amusing. I think she knows
who he is and just wants to get her point over that he left her and she's
not happy about it.

Judith

Well yes. Plus, he smells like a shelter full of dogs...