Looks like everything is back to normal:
Though he spent her first 36 or so hours back home hissing at her, Othello has now resumed his post as both guardian and pesterer of the kitten. (A warning for you Livejournal people: I post a lot of pet pictures. I mean, a lot. You have been warned.) Here I caught him red-handed, grooming her face. For the first day or so after she came home from the vet, Olivia’s body did have a chemical smell to it, and she cleaned herself obsessively during that time too, so I’m sure she knew it was there. I’m just glad that inter-feline relations are back to normal.
This reminds me of the time when I brought both my cats to the vet for front paw declawing (I got them from the Humane Society at the same time and so I usually brought them to the vet simultaneously). When I brought them home the next day all they wanted to do was crawl into some corner and die (separate corners, of course). They also wanted those damn bandages off their paws. They kept shaking and licking their paws when I left for work. When I returned home I found those bandages scattered to the four corners of the house. I also found the cats hidden in various corners and not too pleased to see me. They got over it in a few days and it was so much nicer to have them in my lap without them scratching the hell out of my legs and other, um, more personal areas.
This shared experience made my cats much closer to each other. I’ve never seen cats – who weren’t siblings – this close before. They hardly ever fought and they groomed each other regularly even up to Saddith’s last day alive. I doubt I’ll ever get a pair of cats as nice as Teresa and Saddith and that’s probably why I haven’t bthered to replace them when they died.
If only people could get along as well as cats.
Othello and Iago were similar to that; they were fixed and declawed together, and came home and stared at me as if to say “What have you done to us!?” together. Othello has also visited the vet with Olivia (and with Xena too, now there’s an odd couple), but obviously he couldn’t accompany her for this.
By now, he’s completely gotten over the whole hissing-at-the-kitten thing and they’re inseparable again. Once you’re on Othello’s good side, he’s pretty protective of you.
This reminds me of the time when I brought both my cats to the vet for front paw declawing (I got them from the Humane Society at the same time and so I usually brought them to the vet simultaneously). When I brought them home the next day all they wanted to do was crawl into some corner and die (separate corners, of course). They also wanted those damn bandages off their paws. They kept shaking and licking their paws when I left for work. When I returned home I found those bandages scattered to the four corners of the house. I also found the cats hidden in various corners and not too pleased to see me. They got over it in a few days and it was so much nicer to have them in my lap without them scratching the hell out of my legs and other, um, more personal areas.
This shared experience made my cats much closer to each other. I’ve never seen cats – who weren’t siblings – this close before. They hardly ever fought and they groomed each other regularly even up to Saddith’s last day alive. I doubt I’ll ever get a pair of cats as nice as Teresa and Saddith and that’s probably why I haven’t bthered to replace them when they died.
If only people could get along as well as cats.
Othello and Iago were similar to that; they were fixed and declawed together, and came home and stared at me as if to say “What have you done to us!?” together. Othello has also visited the vet with Olivia (and with Xena too, now there’s an odd couple), but obviously he couldn’t accompany her for this.
By now, he’s completely gotten over the whole hissing-at-the-kitten thing and they’re inseparable again. Once you’re on Othello’s good side, he’s pretty protective of you.