The Cat Diary: Grisou's First Week

[5/30]

It has been a week since Grisou arrived. The introduction to Missy has been, let’s say, delicate. After a couple of days we started letting them see each other, Grisou shut into the patio and Missy in the living room. Each time she hisses a bit, maybe a little growl, stares at him, then wanders off. Sometimes it lasts ten minutes, sometimes barely a few seconds. Needless to say we’re worried that she will just revert to being semi-feral, never coming into the house at all, and last night was not a good sign - she didn’t come into our bedroom at all, and seemed to spend most of the night on the roof. But this morning we had a big surprise. Grisou was in the patio waiting for their morning encounter. She wandered into the house by herself and walked past him without even pausing, and on into the bedroom where after a short drink from her drinking bowl (the champagne bucket) she settled down for a snooze. She surely must have seen him, and decided to treat him with disdain. If that’s true, it’s a huge step forward.

When she’s in the garden she’s just like her usual self. I sat with her for a while this morning, while she squirmed around on her back, just close enough that I could rub her tummy if I stretched. How cat-like! 

Grisou has made amazing progress in the week we’ve been together. When he arrived he didn’t really seem to know what to do with his hind legs. He could jump down onto his front paws but then his back legs just kind of squiddled around, leaving him in an astonished heap on the floor. Now he’s happy to jump down from my lap or a bed, executing a perfect landing, and he can jump up short distances.

He is putting on weight at an amazing rate. Every day he eats about 10% of his body weight, and gains about 30 grams - which is over 3% of his weight. Every day. The first time we weighed him he was just barely 800 grams, today he will probably be over 1 kg when we weigh him, or if not then certainly tomorrow.

[5/31]

After Hercule died, I became completely paranoid about Missy. If she wasn’t around for even an hour I would be terrified that something awful had happened to her. If I woke up in the night and she wasn’t around there was no question of getting back to sleep.

I really thought I was getting over this, quite successfully. But last night, I discovered it’s not so. We went out for dinner, leaving Missy ”waiting for her train” next to where the garden trains are parked, around 7.30. We got home around midnight. Normally when we get home late, we call her and within 20 minutes or so she shows up - sometimes she is waiting outside, looking at her metaphorical paw-watch and demanding where we have got to. But last night I called and called, but no cat. Finally around 1 I went to bed, but it was hopeless. Every ten minutes I’d get up and wander round the garden with the flashlight calling her. By 2 I was convinced the worst must have happened. I took a pill because otherwise I just wouldn’t sleep. Even so I slept for no more than half an hour at a time, trying not to get up each time but eventually yielding. My mind was racing with what I would need to do the next day.

About 3.30 I woke up… and there was Missy, snoozing next to her friend tansu-kun (the Japanese chest of drawers). I can’t even begin to describe the relief. I fell into the sleep of the blessed, and didn’t wake up fully until after 10 in the morning. Where on earth had she been? Almost certainly no more than a few yards away, maybe on the roof, or in a hiding place in our garden that I haven’t yet discovered, or maybe just over the fence in the abandoned garden next door.

Meanwhile Grisou is as kitteny as ever. He has become an expert escape artist. It takes him less than a second to zoom out of a room while the door is closing, dashing across the floor, slithering everywhere on the tiles, until he is in our bedroom - his current favorite bolt-hole since he can hide under the bed.

The Cat Diary: Missy and Grisou

I started writing the Cat Diary two years ago, when our beautiful young black cat Hercule was hit by a car and killed. At first it was a way to try and contain the grief and utter desolation I felt at his loss. Since then it has grown and grown and the whole Diary is now over 40 pages long, even though each individual entry is only a paragraph or two. 

In May we finally added a new kitten to our home and family. This seemed a good point to start a new Diary.

Missy and Hercule were littermates. Hercule was always the bold one, while Missy, who is a beautiful long-hair three-color cat, has always been very timid. She runs away from most people and most other things too. Her few encounters with other cats have always been seriously unfriendly. So we were pretty worried about how introducing her to a new cat would work out - which is why it has taken us two years to get round to it.

(For UK and European readers, dates are in US format: month/day).

[5/23]

A whole new chapter in the Cat Diary. Two days ago Grisou arrived, a tiny gray kitten just eight weeks old. Yes, we finally made the leap. He was in the window of a local vet, along with his brothers, sisters and mama-cat. We’ve been looking for a single male kitten, as young as possible, that we hope Missy will adopt as her own. For now they are kept well apart, Grisou living in the guest bathroom along with his food, way-too-big cat bed, litter tray, toys and all the rest. He just had his first real excursion, an hour exploring my office/workshop which is absolutely full of fascinating stuff, like the Apple sticker that slithers across the carpet when he jumps onto it.

Missy has seen him, standing watching with 100% concentration but (to our relief) not hissing, growling or running away. She seems pretty much her normal self, maybe even a bit more affectionate. She still sleeps in our bedroom or (last night) on the chair in front of my computer. Grisou loves playing with Isabelle’s phone so much, she thinks he’s a kitten geek - maybe Missy is jealous and trying to catch up.