New Cat

Most people, upon the news that they are being forced to move wouldn’t get a new pet. We are not most people.

I can see where working at an animal hospital is going to be somewhat problematic. There are always cats up for adoption, and sometimes dogs too. Of course, there is usually a reason most of these animals were abandoned, but with Anton I’m not sure what that reason could be. He was left sometime overnight a couple weeks ago on the clinic’s doorstep and everything checked out that he was a healthy and neutered male Maine Coon mix cat. A couple days ago my partner came in to meet him and told me to bring him home.

So here we are, two days later, and after trying the whole slow introduction thing, allowing our other two animals to get used to the smell of a new cat, decided to see what he would do if we left the door open in the room he’s been staying in. Of course, no surprise to either of us, our dog decided to go on the attack. Anton, instead of backing away, showed her that he wasn’t going to be intimidated and when she backed off, he slowly walked towards her. Our dog promptly ran to her bed and laid down, the cat continued his investigation of the house for a few minutes before we decided to keep him in the office for another day.

Ugh. Why is it that introducing new pets can be so problematic? I remember when we brought home two kittens one time and our older cat we had, Footers, wanted nothing to do with them for weeks, even though they would follow him everywhere. Our dog, Lucy and other cat, Tuesday still go at it if Lucy thinks Tuesday is receiving any attention from either my partner or I. Huh, I guess we’ll just have to take it slow. And sorry about the picture. The only time I’ve been able to get a picture is feeding time because otherwise he’s twirling or trying to climb up me to be held or sit in my lap.