Some Piccies of Our Kitties

I have a new instagram account: tashaddrake - which is mostly so I can post piccies of our kitties. Ruby is easier to photograph because she likes to sit of lie down and become an immovable object, but I did get a couple of Amber too :).

Amber wanting her tummy rubbed.

Amber deigning to sit still long enough for me to take a snap :)

Ruby demanding chin scritches :)

Ruby sprawled on my old office chair.

Ruby snoring :)

Cats - changeable creatures!

So this morning our cats had a real barny (chased each other all over the house etc). This is them now:

Never let it be said that cats are consistent creatures - they just like to mess around with our heads! :)

Meet Ruby - new kitty

So this is Ruby. She's an F2 Savannah like Amber and she is actually Amber's cousin (they both have the same grandfather). We weren't going to try another kitty with Amber, but Ruby needs a good home and she's quite large and hence not easy to re-home. We have her on a trail period to see if Amber will come round.

So far it's looking better than with Fi. For a start Ruby thinks Rob is completely awesome and so is bonding more with him than me, which should please Amber. Ruby is also much more laid back. They actually seem to speak the same language. Amber is growling and being offish, but she isn't hiding and Ruby keeps simply flopping into the floor trying to make friends. If we can convince Amber that this is a good idea we might be able to get somewhere.

Ruby is incredibly friendly, but she's doesn't like children. She's actually larger than Amber and she talks lots like Amber does, but in an entirely different way. She's very sweet and I do hope they get along or come to some sort of understanding.

Kitties, or rather now just one kitty

Amber is quietly ecstatic because she has the whole house back to herself. I say quietly because she is still making sure this isn't some trick.

Yesterday evening Fi went back to her original owners. Her son and her mother are there and so, hopefully, she will settle back in quickly. There Karen can keep her until she finds the perfect home for her and if she can't, well she can just stay, whereas we just couldn't keep going forever.

I had a bit of a cry last night when we left her there, but I know it will be best for her. She and Amber were never, ever going to get on.

It's really weird, last night I kept thinking I could hear her while laying in bed and I can't get used to the fact that kittygate is gone and I can just walk from one side of the house to the other.

It's going to be really strange not having Fi around, but I still have Amber. She might be confused by all the random petting as I feel the need to make sure she is still there, but I'm sure she'll adjust. ;)

I am sad today ...

It looks as if we are going to have to re-home Afia.

We've been implementing the separation technique and everything had settled down, but Fi clearly doesn't like staying in the new half of the house and yesterday she escaped into the old part. The first thing she did was chase Amber and they had a huge fight. Neither of them was hurt, thank heavens, but Amber did refuse to come out from under the sofa for an hour.

They seem to simply be incompatible at a fundamental level :(.

I love Fi, she's a beautiful lovely cat, but Amber was here first and Fi keeps terrorising her.

Amber is not a boisterous cat, Fi is very boisterous and they just don't seem to speak the same language.

I wish there was another way, but I can't see it. I think the separation technique might work for cats that aren't so completely at opposite ends of the spectrum, but not for our two. I am very sad, but I don't think it's fair on either of them to keep this up. :(

Kittie update - yay! the technique is working so far :)

Separating the kitties seems to be working so far. After only two days Amber is back downstairs (eating as well as looking around) and going into the garden (when it is her turn to have access) - which for Amber is amazing. This is the cat who barely came out from under the table for weeks when she first moved in.

Afia also seems to be adjusting and is far more relaxed too. She seems to like lying on the table and having her belly stroked :).

Here are some piccies of Amber we took last night while she was relaxing on the sofa.

You can tell Rob took this one and I took the others because this one looks vaguely artistic ;)

Kittygate! Dun. dun, dun...

Our kitties have not been getting on for the last few weeks and we've tried everything we can think of so we've had to go with drastic measures.

Now our house has a new half and an old half. Basically we extended on the side for almost the same size as we already had a few years back and gave ourselves a ginourmous kitchen and open plan dining room, a new spare room and a new bathroom. The two halves of the house are joined by an archway and usually we just have a curtain across it in the winter and nothing else.

However, now we need to separate the two kitties. According to the internet if two cats are fighting then it is best to separate them completely until they have calmed down and allow them to hear and smell each other, but not see, and then carefully reintroduce them to each other when all is well with the world again. Hence

KITTYGATE!!!!

dun dun dun

And yes I believe it deserves the capital letters because it's been so stressful trying to keep the kitties apart and stop one chasing the other that we installed the solution at midnight last night after Rob got back from Germany (we didn't get to bed until 1am).

Please ignore the mess, I'm was in the middle of cleaning when I decided to take a break and take the piccie :)

So this is actually two child gates stacked on top of each other. The bottom one is blocked off with card from the box it came in so the kitties can't just hiss and growl at each other.

It means I have to leave the back door open for Afia to go in and out some of the time and the catflap for Amber the other half, but I can deal with that. Afia has the new half of the house and Amber has the old for now.

Amber seems more relaxed already without having had to deal with Afia all night. She had taken to hiding under the sofa or under the throw on the big sofa when she slept. Yesterday I had to go find her to give her her morning treat and this morning she greeted me at the top of the stairs, meowing loudly :).

Afia is not happy she can't just roam the whole house, but even she seems more relaxed this morning and she has two cat trees and a myriad of toys to keep her happy. She's also going to be really pleased when I head back in there to finish cleaning because then she'll have mummy for a few hours :).

It's going to be a pain for a while, but I want my kitties to be happy and relaxed and neither of them have been for several weeks. We've no idea what happened, one day they were sniffing each other and playing together and almost friends and then suddenly they seemed to hate each other, or rather Amber seemed afraid of Afia and Afia decided to use this to take over the whole house. There was lots of growling and hiding under the sofa on Amber's part and chasing and not much else on Afia's.

Amber hasn't been downstairs for more than a minute or so for over a week now. Hopefully she'll start coming down again now.

There is no getting away from the fact that Amber is a little highly strung and she takes ages to adjust to anything new. Clearly something happened between them and she has not adjusted, so hopefully this way will give them more time. I'm going to start moving both their food bowls towards the gate over the next few days so they will end up eating in proximity to each other and get used to non-hostile relations.

So far Afia has not tried to fly so we haven't had to block up the top of the arch, but I'm not discounting the possibility of the great escape at some point. We have a plan if that happens!

Both of their previous mums are visiting today, so hopefully they will find much more happy, relaxed cats when they arrive. Let's hope we get back to more of this

and less stress. I have been at my wits end for days, so I am looking forward to some peace too :).

Right, now back to cleaning.

Have any of you had trouble with pets?

Cats are such regal animals ;)

I so post things other than pictures of my cats, I promise, it's just with a new kitty in the house the camera is out a lot at the moment :)

Fi-fi loves having her tummy tickled :) There would have been more piccies, but Rob's camera ran out of charge.

Of course Amber would never stoop so low (or at least not when there is a camera around :)). She is always a princess!

New Piccies of Amber and Afia

Well all is going well so far. Afia spent yesterday evening hiding under things, but then explored most of the house in the early hours and is now happily sitting on top of the kitchen units :). We've given her a bed up there until we have the large cat tree delivered so she has somewhere proper to sleep. She likes high up.

They are currently ignoring each other mostly - well Afia is ignoring Amber, Amber just hasn't looked up yet and can't figure out where the other cat has gone ::g::. Amber knows she's here somewhere, but doesn't seem overly bothered that she can't figure out where.

They also chose to eat each other's food this morning :)

On to the piccies!

Afia

Going to sleep on the unit

That Amber is loud isn't she!

Been up all night exploring, shall sleep now.

This bed, it is good.

Amber

Making sure I still belong to her

Paying close attention :D

Love me please!

What do you think you're doing?

Amber's new favourite place ...

FYI - if you're looking for today's AtoZ post, scroll down one :)

Sorry about the quality of the picture, but it's hard to take a photo of my own back.

The grey fluff is my cardigan and the black, bobbles and brown are my office chair. Amber now likes to jump up and sit between me and the back of my chair. So much for personal space :)

Here's an even blurrier side image for reference :)

Some more Amber piccies for all to enjoy :)

So we have a new sofa and Amber really seems to like it, especially when we have a fire at the weekend. She likes to sit on the top at the back or down the end on her blanket. Rob took some piccies this weekend and here they are:

You dare to look at me?!

I shall deign to let you pet me.

Unimpressed with the flash.

Posing

Almost had enough of this...

Hello lower creature...

What do you think you're doing?

I survey my domain, Mortal!

I am above all that I see!

Amber's new furniture :)

Since we have a new sofa, we thought is was only fair that Amber should have some new furniture as well :). Well, that and if she has something in the front room to play on and scratch she shouldn't attack the new sofa.

Here are some piccies of her exploring the three level cat tree with the hammock when Rob has just put it together in the kitchen. In the background of some of the piccies, to the left you can also see parts of a really tall scratching post that we bought this morning as well so she can have a good stretch. That will be headed upstairs so she will then have something in each room. If anyone is interested they all came from Pets At Home.

At the moment they are both in the old dining room with  her existing scratching post so she can get used to them. We also sprayed them with cat nip so she knows they are all hers :).

Kitty in front of the fire :)

Turns out Amber likes out fire. We lit it for the first time this weekend and she sprawled out in front of it. She also sat on the sofa with us for the first time :).