Tommy slept in the bungalow during
the night. She did get up once to eat and a second time to jump up by me. I
think she was looking for her snack, but since I hadn’t put one on the bed and
there were a couple still on her bungalow, she gave me a quick how-do-you-do
and then went back to her bungalow.
She didn’t wake me again until a
little after 6:00 A.M. Somehow she
thinks I need to wake up at the time. I wonder what she will do when we’re no
longer on Daylight Savings Time. Will she try to wake me up at 5:00 A.M? She
jumped on the bed a few times until I finally relented and got out of bed a
little before 7:00.
Tommy followed me up to the study
door as if directing me to where her grass is kept. While she ate the grass, I
printed the puzzles and came back out. She knew what was coming next and
followed me into the kitchen and stayed with me while I got out her breakfast.
She always rubs against my legs to thank me in advance for the meal.
As she ate I had my coffee and
worked on the puzzles. When I finished, I showered and completed the morning
postings. Tommy could tell that I was getting ready to leave and kept moving
toward the bedroom. She seemed to be
confused because I wasn’t moving her toward the bedroom and I put her treat on
her rug in the living room.
Because I was only going to be gone
for a short time, I wanted to see what she would do if she could roam about the
condo except for the study. I had left
the bedroom door open a couple times during at night and she didn’t cause any
problems, so I thought it was time to let her try to have the condo to herself
during the day. I left the T.V. on in
the living room and left.
About two hours later I returned.
Everything looked fine. All of the plants were upright and didn’t have any chew
marks on the leaves. Nothing was broken, tipped over, or as far as I could tell
even out of place. I gave her a treat and gave her lots of praise and petting.
While I’m still not sure that she could be trusted for an entire day, only time
will tell. She pretty much ignores the plants, kitchen counters, and electric
cords.
After lunch I noticed that Tommy
seemed to be rubbing her mouth a lot more against sharp corners, so since we
needed to do a teeth brushing anyway, I thought we might as well do it right
away.
I brought out her toothbrush and
let her smell it with the paste on it.
She didn’t like it and started to walk into the bedroom. I left the brush at a convenient spot and
waited for her to return. A few minutes later she was back, so I picked her up
and put her on the table.
At first when I tried to brush her
teeth, she squirmed and tried to get away. When she realized that the escape
route was closed and as I continued to speak to her in a calming quiet voice,
she let me gently brush her teeth. As I brushed I kept praising her and she
seemed to calm down and let me continue the brushing. It’s still a little
awkward for both of us, but our methods are improving.
When I was finished I continued to
praise her and gave her a treat. She didn’t take it right away. I thought for
sure that she would bolt from the room and head under the bed, but she didn’t.
She sat near the bedroom door licking her mouth. I hope that she was starting
to enjoy the chicken flavored toothpaste that came with her brush. I think she
also wanted to see what I would do next.
I put a little more distance
between us so she could get to her treat.
She went over and ate her treat. Then she surprised me by coming over by
me. I was so glad that she wasn’t upset with me for brushing her teeth. I spent
a considerable amount of time petting and praising Tommy.
When she had enough attention, she
played with her yellow ball while I worked on the blog. I wanted to make sure that I wrote this
episode down before I forgot any of the details. Tommy keeps showing me how lucky I was to
adopt her. I had planned on taking a
walk, but decided that it was more important today to spend quality time with
Tommy.
After dinner Tommy went to take an extended
nap on the top of the bungalow. I worked on blogs and talked to my sister. I
hoped that she would come out before I was too tired to play with her. It’s amazing how much easier everything has
been between us recently. We’re enjoying
each other and trusting each other more. It’s been almost 16 weeks and it seems
like we’ve been together much longer.
As the day winded down, Tommy
showed up and was ready to play. We played with the laser pointer and Tommy
jumped all over the bungalow. When she tired of that we moved on to the fleece
teaser. We played with that for quite a while with Tommy pulling the teaser
into the bedroom. The first time I waited for her and when she didn’t return I
went and found her. We started playing again and again after a while she pulled
the teaser (and me this time) into the bedroom.
She jumped on the bungalow and continued playing with the teaser.
When she tired of playing with the
teaser she moved inside the box on the bungalow. This is the place where I knew
better than to bother her. She tended to
get very aggressive, hissing and swatting at me, so I leave her alone.
In a few minutes she showed up in
the living room and poised behind a chair, ready to pounce. I threw a couple of her balls passed her and
she was off in pursuit of her favorite yellow ball. The yellow ball got caught
behind a chair. When I went to free it I also saw some fuzz, so I picked it up
and went to throw it away.
As I went into the kitchen, Tommy
must have thought I was going into the bedroom to bed, so she went to the door.
To her surprise I went back into the living room and sat down. Tommy must have
figured out that it wasn’t time for bed, so she went back to playing with the
yellow ball.
When Tommy was finished playing she
went and sat under a chair. It was time
for bed and Tommy wouldn’t go to bed until I went to bed. I closed everything
down and got ready for bed. It had been a wonderful day and once again Tommy
had shown me why she was such a special cat.
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