Friday, April 4, 2014

Whirlwind Week Part 3: The Journey of Phibo


Ok so if you don’t care about adorable orange cats this may be a post you want to skip.  At the risk of being seen as a Crazy Cat Lady I’m going to take an entire post just to talk about moving Mephibosheth (Sounds more respectable to use his full name right?) to his new home.  If this is your first time reading this Blog I swear I don’t post about cats all the time, read the other entries if you’re concerned about my sanity J

Well after my mom and I came to the decision to move Phibo we drove over to my apartment.  The cat had been a bit traumatized by people coming in and taking all his stuff.  During the morning move he would hide behind something and then someone would move whatever he was hiding behind and he would run and hide somewhere else until that object was moved.  It was a vicious cycle.  When we arrived to pick him up Phib was lying pathetically in the middle of the living room floor, obviously stunned by the moving process.

I picked him up and mercilessly shoved him into the cat carrier and locked the door, the white tips of his paws reaching desperately through the bars of this tiny cage.   .    . Sound a bit dramatic?  Did I mention the helpless cries that fell on seemingly deaf ears?  In reality I felt terrible and when we got out to the car and he cried the entire way home (Not the annoying cat cry most cats do but His patented “Don’t you love me anymore?” cry) Ugh and when he tried to stick him tiny nose out the air holes just awful.

After that ordeal we get in the house and at the point I was with stacking there was really only enough floor space in my room for his litter box, food and water and a path for me to walk to a chair I had setup.  When the cage was open Phib bolted into the stacks skillfully maneuvering to the far reaches of the piles so that he could not be recaptured and put back into solitary confinement.  I thought he might hate me forever.

However, Phib is easily one of the most social cats I have ever met and after maybe an hour in hiding, he ventured out of his sanctuary and let me pet him and sat with me on the chair.  There are other cats and dogs who live here so the plan has been to slowly introduce them.  This meant that first night he was on his own.  I have since arranged things so he has plenty of room on the floor and still has some stacked boxes to perch on.  It’s kind of creepy to walk in at night and have glowing yellow eyes staring at you from eight feet up.  He hasn’t made any new  friends yet, the little dog likes to hang out in the room, and Phib no longer hisses at her or puffs up to 3 times his normal size so I guess that’s progress.  All in all for a cat that had lived his whole life in one place with only one human to interact with I think he’s doing exceedingly well.  I’m pretty sure he’s gained about a pound stress eating but hey who wouldn’t stress eat after all that?

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