Another small success

For some reason, Pilchard has been a little [insert expletive of your choice]. She went out of her way to torment Mija over the weekend.

Mija loves to follow me into the kitchen on the outside chance I'm getting something to eat of which she can snare a bit. As she trots into the kitchen, Pilchard will rush her from wherever she's hiding. A round of hissing, angry meows, spitting and growling follows. It got so bad that Pilchard had Mija cornered behind the garbage can in the kitchen. I tossed Pilchard into kitty time out where she stayed for a good 20 minutes.

Kitty time out, however, does change Pilchard's attitude for awhile. When allowed out of the bathroom, she followed me around and meowed for attention. I refused to scratch ears. I sat down to sort through some piles and she came and sat by my feet, meowing. I looked down at her, picked her up and held her and told her, like she understands, that I am not tolerating this behavior.

Later in the evening, as I was playing WOW, she wanted in my lap. This is a new behavior, started about a week to 10 days ago. She jumps into the chair to my right and puts her left paw on my leg while she meows. I raise my arms and she climbs into my lap and settles down. She generally stays for an hour but last night, stayed for 90 minutes.

Toward the end of that 90 minutes, I decided I needed to attempt a claw clip. I was successful. I can only do one paw at a time and I do have to restrain her for the last one. But she let me clip 4 of the 5 nails before wanting to leave. She came back later and I was able to do both front paws last night. Tonight, I go for the back ones.

This is a major event to celebrate. I praised her for letting me clip her nails. Now, if I can get the charge attacking stopped, I'll be really happy.

Beverage: Lady Gray tea

Deb

The return of kitty "time-out"

/sigh

She looks so cute. But cute wears off rather quickly and I'm not sure why.

She's been charging and attacking Mija lately. I broke up two fights yesterday. Pilchard was the instigator and, at least 3 times, she would stalk down the hall after Mija. This could get ugly as I am trying to move their food from the back bedroom where it started when they were brought here to the kitchen where I want them to eat. Mija is now a bit scared to eat as the food and water are at the junction of the hallway and the living room. I'm taking a few feet backwards today while I try to figure out the charge and attack scenario.

Shakespeare used to attack Carole. She would be happily playing on her floor and he would suddenly stalk and lunge at her. She was scratched and bitten more than a few times by this. In every case, he would be grabbed by the scruff of the neck and tossed into the bathroom. This is "kitty time-out". There's a water dish in there but the door gets closed and the cat isolated for several minutes. Once, I forgot about him and he was in there for an hour. As cats have no concept of time, it had to seem like we'd forgotten him. But the point is made, you attack, you're in time out.

So, Pilchard has spent a total of 20 minutes in the bathroom. This morning, I found the rug balled up because someone had peed on it. Maybe the litter boxes weren't as clean as they want them so I did that. It's not as onerous a job as it used to be, thank goodness.

Still, this has to stop. Now I'll worry that Pilchard is going after Mija while I'm at work. Maybe it's good I didn't go anywhere this weekend. I remember Half-Pint, when she was around 7 months old, picked on Penney just once too often and Penney took a chunk out of her ear. That was a quick vet trip, with Carole in tears. No, I didn't put Penney in "time-out" because I could see it coming, although not the ear chunk part. Annoy a cat long enough and they retaliate.

Is this a bid for attention? Is Pilchard jealous? Or is this a territorial thing? Or are they still settling down, still reacting to the random scents of passed on cats? I just know it's stressful for me and I'd rather not worry during the day that my house is now a battle zone.

Here's Mija this morning in the sunshine.

Beverage: China Black Tea

Deb