I got a new cat last night. It’s the same cat I got last Saturday, but it’s definitely a different cat. He’s changed from a timid lap cat to an obnoxious, wild kitten.
As I’d discussed previously, new cat Charlie has been having a pretty rough go in his new home. He has been scared of everything, every sound, every room, every corner. All he wants to do is sit in my lap in the office and be pet. His food, water and litterbox are all in the office, so he has no reason to ever leave.
Yesterday, I had to go to work, like most people have to, so that left Charlie in the house all by himself for about 10 hours. When I got home, as soon as I got in the house in the laundry room, I called him, hoping he would be out of the office. Well, he wasn’t in the office. I eventually found him in the laundry room, tucked in a corner. I walked right by him and he didn’t make his presence known. Sigh.
The night went on and Charlie got his attention in the office, but I had to go to bed, like most people have to, so I left him as I had before and went to bed. At around midnight, Charlie starts crying for me. I wake up and go give him some attention. I go back to bed and around 1:15, the crying starts again. This time, I carry him back to bed with me. I make him stay on the bed for a while and he seemed mostly happy, but restless. So I let him jump down and figured he’d just disappear under the bed for the night, which would be perfectly fine as long as I could get some sleep.
Instead, Charlie started exploring the bedroom, closet, and bathroom. Because I know he hates the open area between rooms, I picked him up and carried him back to the office. I put him down a little outside the office and sat down on the floor. Charlie wasn’t interested in going in the office and sleeping. He was now interested in exploring, as long as I protected him.
So we worked our way around the house and just like that, Charlie got all of his confidence back. He jumped up on the bar bench, the kitchen counter, and drank from the open-area water bowl, then we worked our way back to the bedroom. He jumped on the bed, crawled under the bed and came right back out, went in and out of the closet. All things he was too afraid to do before. So, great, he’s fine with the house now and I can go to bed.
No, I can’t. Charlie also found his voice. He’s quite vocal. He chirps, squeaks, and meows a lot. And he’s active. He jumped on and off the bed many times, laying against me, then leaving over and over. I got little to no sleep. And on top of that, he suddenly decided he likes chewing on fingertips. So petting his head has to be done in a very careful manner because he used to just headbutt, but now he snaps at you. The change in personality is drastic.
We’ll have to see how he behaves when I get home tonight. It’s always a mystery bag getting a new cat. You never really know what you’re getting.
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