It's been exactly eight weeks today since I adopted my strange somewhat neurotic new cat Spooky. I told you a bit about him in the first days, but I wanted to give you a little update, after all he is my furry companion and a part of my artsy life.
As cats go I don't think I could have picked a more different one from my previous assistant than this one. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it sure took some getting used to. For the both of us!
Spooky started out as a total scaredy cat. He spent the first days in hiding and did not trust me one bit.
Where my previous cat Peer was pretty much all over me from the get go, with Spooky everything takes time and patience and it makes me feel strangely special that in the past weeks he has decided I'm okay and can for the most part be trusted. In fact, I'm the only person he trusts. If I have company he runs straight upstairs (where he has a hiding place in my studio) and doesn't come out again until the guest is gone. Then he sits next to me on the couch and we both sigh with relieve that we have the place to ourselves again. ;-)
After about three or four weeks I let him go outside. It was not my intention to do this before he was neutered, but staying indoors made him so unhappy I just couldn't take it anymore.
He rewarded my kindness by going missing for two days! I was in total panic and worried sick about him. But after those two days he showed up and from there things slowly got better. He still spent about 90% of the time outdoors, but at least came back for food and some rest and I was okay with that, as long as he was happy. And he sure seemed happy to be going outside!
Then two weeks ago it was time for him to be neutered, chipped and vaccinated, all things the previous owner apparently did not find necessary, but I find an essential part of caring for your pet.
It took the help of my sister (who just happened to be here at the time) just to get him into the travel basket and I wondered if all the slowly built trust was destroyed again after that traumatic ordeal, but lo and behold, it was not!
Now the overactive male hormones are slowly leaving his body Spooky has become much more of a homebody and seems more and more affectionate and sweet. It's not that he seeks me out all the time (he did not have a character make over after all), but we have actually spent time lazing about on the couch where he will sort of halfway sit on my lap and purr contentedly. He now pretty much only goes out at night and even then comes home regularly and he actually comes and greets me when I come home or downstairs in the morning.
As I said he still does not care for strangers and even his affection for me is a lot more reserved than I am used to from previous cats, but somehow that makes it all the more special. It makes me feel rather privileged to have his trust.
He is not a very curious cat and does generally not really care what I am up to (unless it's food related, then he cares very much, haha), but every now and then he will actually keep me company when I'm writing or arting and that's what the pictures in this post are about.
All in all, we are slowly stealing each others heart and it's a very precious and worth while experience. We caused each other a lot of stress in the beginning, but I think we're going to make it just fine.
Have a wonderful and artsy day.