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C calicosrspecial Oh that's true isn't it, that site swapping normally comes first. We're doing everything in a weird order!Yeah, I think that is a good plan. Site swapping usually comes before visual contact in my intros so at this point gate time is best if K is getting restless.
That is why when a cat looks away is such a positive as no cat would take their eyes off a real threat,
Part of the reason I can't quite understand K's body language is exactly what you mention, she doesn't seem to be super aggressive or negative but the pawing and her little worried face makes it seem like she's feeling some type of way. But she doesn't have a problem with looking away from T, even if T is right there at the gate.Sure, it is slower than we may like and some of the signs do not match her body language (I am kind of surprised we are seeing some of the pawing but we are seeing less of it it seems) but i don;t see any reason why they will not be successfully intro'd.
I think we're not quite seeing less of the pawing, just that it's less forceful at least 60% of the time, like she's not sure she should bother with pawing but still wants to make her unhappiness known.
cat nap I will have to brainstorm on that this weekend. I have some scrap wood around but I'm not sure how to attach it temporarily, because I have to be able to take it off in order for the gate to fit in other configurations around the house! Maybe if I tie it really well?I do think it will help if you can design the gate with allowing more access, but still maintaining protection for both cats.
I relate to this so much. When playing with T especially we try to tire her out on the stairs, but really I'm the one who needs to sit down after five minutes while she's the one who still wants to go go go!We get more exercise, then the cats do, while the cats lay there.
I would expect it's one of those "can't hurt" types of things. I think there are even cat lullabies, like music made specifically with cats in mind? Anyway, my partner listens to a lot of different kinds of "classical" music and it doesn't seem to affect K or T at all.Members have mentioned 'classical music for cats'...maybe I should try some
They both definitely do not relax, and so they don't sleep. But we don't put them in there long enough for that - and it's a small carrier, meant for airplane travel (I don't know why I got TWO of these when we don't plan to fly with them ever...I think I went off a guide and didn't notice it was for travel use).I forgot to ask you: How do both T and K act like, when they are placed within their cat carriers?
Are they both nervous, meowing, agitated?
Or do they relax and sleep?
But they don't meow either, at least when we're inside the house. K did the tiniest, worried meows when we took her home, and took her to the vet, or anytime she was inside a car, but we haven't done that lately.
K basically turkeys and looks around half curiously half anxious, waiting to be let out.
T, until recently, was only inside for feeding, which she was fine with - so all she did was eat. But the past few days I've been luring her in there with a treat, closing her up and carrying her around, then letting her back out with another treat, and that seems to be fine.
For some reason she likes to try to butt her head up against the top, sort of testing escape, but not really - then she settles down a bit more than K (sphinx position) and also just looks around curiously, waiting to be let out (so she can eat a treat).
K we can "place" in her carrier. T...not so much. I'll work on getting her used to being in there with treats first, then maybe my partner and I can slowly work on getting her used to being picked up and placed in, with lots more treats.
I've thought about this too, but I tried hissing once and both cats definitely ignored me. Also it's hard to hiss loudly like a cat without spitting (at least for me) and I'm not about that life. So we just say HEY instead.How do we know that we aren't telling the cat/kitten something really bad....so I don't think hissing at our cats is ever a good idea
K used to sleep under the couch all the time for the first three weeks we had her, but now we think that was just her way of getting acclimated to the space on her own terms. She much prefers her heated box now and goes belly-up in it often.My cats also like to sometimes sleep undisturbed beneath the sofa, beds, side tables, and places that are dark.
T has taken to sitting under the couch now when she's out in the living room and nothing else is happening, but the second you get up and walk around she will pop out and follow you.
Well, when we switch between blocking off the kitchen and blocking off the living room, we really mean blocking K in those spaces, so they're sort of switching (only K doesn't get to go upstairs - and she doesn't want to be there anyway).Would you be able to do this "Gate time", ...but also be able to switch each cat, to the other side of the gate, every so often,...so that no one cat gets too accustomed to that one side?
Basically, you want each cat to find their own 'special spaces' on each side of the gate.
Also, is there any way that you can leave the gate up for more than an hour, so that both T and K get the most exposure....even if it's just looking at a gate from far away, and not necessarily being right up to it?
With the configuration of the house and what is possible for blocking plus the limitations of my cruddy gate, it's pretty much impossible to switch more than what we're doing, unfortunately.
It might be possible to switch them entirely - gate at the bottom of the stairs, K upstairs, T downstairs. But this requires two people and a LOT of time for the person on T's side, because we have to keep a really close eye on her when she's downstairs (lots of things she could get into that we haven't taught her not to yet).
Anyway, regarding your last point - the gate is almost always up through the whole day (minus a few hours, and the nighttime) at the bottom of the stairs. K just ignores T for the most part. The one-hour windows are for when we do the level-up of "gate time" which is the kitchen/living room blocking like I mentioned.
Heidi will be 3yrs old in June and Cocoa will be 2yrs old this in March.They about a year apart.
S Sugasmom Oh, so your cats are proper adults, not like my young ones. Those are the ages we had wanted to adopt originally but somehow we ended up with K (1.5 years) and T (10 months).I never would have did that intentionally we were having company and I was throwing everything in bedroom and they just ended up in same room together.
It's really nice that they ended up being close friends from that! A happy accident.