Saturday, July 12, 2014 – A Day of Successes

Today was a day of successes. After waking up and following the usual routine of making coffee, checking and replenishing food & water, and cleaning out to the litter box, which by the way is an Omega Paw Roll and Clean that I absolutely love, I decided to try once again to engage Tommy in some play activities. Today she decided that she like attacking and running after the ribbons on the wand. We played with it for about 10 minutes until she lost interest, but at least she participated. Later she actually rolled and captured one of her balls several times on her own. Slowly, but surely she’s coming out of her shell and playing. Later in the day she suddenly had a burst of energy and was running around the condo. I’m not sure if she’s finally feeling better after her operation on Monday and all the anesthesia and drugs have worked their way through and out of her system.

I also try to reward her with treats, but as I’m trying to keep her mind working, I've been putting them in her “spring” toy where she has to use her paws to get the treat close to the outside so she can get her mouth close enough to it.  Later she might figure out how to get her face inside the spring to get the treat, but either way she’s figuring it out.

I also put them on the top of her scratching posts hoping that she’ll start using the post.  I've been trying to teach her to use the post, but I haven’t had much success. I need to add some catnip to make it more attractive.  I did hear a noise while I was working on the computer this morning. Tommy had tried to pull down the scratching strip that hangs on a closet door.  I put it on the floor for her and she went after it with a vengeance, scratching and biting it. I know that there’s catnip in it, but I can also see that she likes to scratch on the floor, so I may be changing out the post for a floor scratching station.

The issue of being under the desk has also been solved and I can’t believe I didn't think of this sooner. I put an aluminum foil “fence” in front of the areas where there are cords and other “forbidden” items. After a little investigating on her part, Tommy decided that if she was going to go under the desk, it would just be to sit by my feet and I’m okay with her doing that. When I’m on the computer now she’s either at my feet, sitting with me on the chair, sitting on her own chair nearby, sitting on the desk, or playing with the scratching strip.

I hadn't done laundry since Tommy arrived and I knew that it was time for her to be introduced to the machines.  While she was curious about what I was doing when I was loading and unloading a load of laundry, once I left the area she followed behind me. At this point the machines are too noisy for her. The only problem we had was when I wanted to make the bed with clean sheets. She wanted to help by sitting on the bed and didn't enjoy it when I put the flat sheet on the bed on top of her.  She needs to learn that there are times when she can’t be on the bed. She stayed off the bed and just watched me finish. She finally decided it was safe when I put her little afghan from the shelter back on the bed. She’s a smart little kitty!

Most of the evening was spent quietly until the storms started. As they began I could see the stress level increasing on Tommy. She spent the time during the storms either laying on me on the sofa or wedged between the sofa cushions and me.  I’m glad that she feels safe with me. As the storms subsided we headed for bed and I thought about what a great day we’d had.