It happened. Those worker hoomans let some strange kitten invade my space. They even named it……Velcro. I do not like change! This is unacceptable. This is my kingdom!
I was Queen of the castle, managing those worker hoomans like usual. Then…..HE arrived. A Good Samaritan found this creature in the road and brought him to the clinic. If only I would have known he would stay, I could have put a stop to this whole thing! He looked fine but had something going on with his eye. He is definitely in better shape than me when I first came here. Now, this does happen from time to time. Some other cat or kitten will come around and stay for a while but, then they get better and go away. No….not this Velcro. He has been here forever! His eye is better now and he needs to be on his way. I overheard THE DOCTOR say that he is going to find him a home. I do not know how serious he is because…..pause for this…..the other day, that kitten was allowed to hang out with him in his messy cave!!!! He was playing with a string ( Velcro not THE DOCTOR ). Can you believe this? The audacity of that bearded doctor hooman to allow this! And while I am at it, what about those worker hoomans? They had the nerve to put him on the floor with me. He thought he was going to just pop on over to me. Oh no Velcro, that is not happening. I swatted him right away. Then, I sauntered away in a huff! How dare he! I sure showed him who was boss around here.
What some of you hoomans do not know is that cats are naturally solitary animals and some of us are perfectly happy without the company of our own species. We are the loners. We are territorial and do not like conflict. There are some cats that can be very social and form strong bonds with other cats. They are the weirdos, in my opinion. They enjoy company and can benefit from having another cat as a companion. The social behavior of us cats can be complex and influenced by things like genetics, environment, and individual personalty which I have a lot of. When a new cat is introduced to an existing cat, time and patience is a must.
For those of you hoomans who want your cats to have a “friend”, there is a guideline you can follow to help with this process. It is called "3-3-3 rule" and it will help you understand a cat's adjustment period in a new home. It takes about 3 days for a cat to decompress and feel safe enough to start exploring (expect the cat to be shy, hide, and be fearful), 3 weeks to begin establishing a routine and showing more of its personality, and 3 months to fully adjust and feel comfortable and secure in their new home. By three months, they should be bonded with their new family.
I hope that, by providing this information, it may help some of you understand your cat or cats better. It, however, does not clear up my dilemma of Velcro. Put simply, he needs to go! This is Bettie’s house!
