Stopped to see the folks and introduce them to the wee small kit, then I drove home towards the bigger introduction: three honking big cats meet small handful o’kit.
I decided I would take the kitten out of the carrier and tuck her inside my sweater. The big cats had seen me leave with the empty, newly washed carrier and had spent time checking it out before I’d left yesterday morning.
I set the carrier down with the door open and let the good times roll. All three cats were there instantly and much deep sniffing and puzzled looks. Even though I called their names, nobody would look up to see me and the kitten LOL. Eventually the kitten got squirmy and hopped down. The three honking big cats (3hbc in future) moved back and stared. They would not look at me no matter what I did. The kitten, taking this scene in, did what kittens have evolved to do – she puffed out her fur and arched her back and waited to die. The 3hbc did what hbc have evolved to do – they jumped back and vanished. The kitten didn’t even have to hiss. Suddenly 3hbc made invisible!
The rest of the night I tried to button down the kitten-proofing, introduced the new kitten food, got ground level water set up and generally played couch to small kitten. The invisible 3hbc made occasional appearences and left the moment they saw the kitten. No hard feelings or fear or anger – just nature and evolution doing its thing to preserve small vulnerable kittens. It’s an amazing thing. Eeeks! small kitten! I’m going away now!
Eventually they get closer and do some checking things out and then the kitten will be larger and more like the wind-up-toy-that-never-runs-down that the 3hbc always wanted.
Sounds like things have started out good. Little kitty will wink them over.
She won us over pretty quick.
win them over looks better.