This new move is freaking Mogget out. He hasn’t come out from under the bed on his own in two days.
Well, I take that back. At night, when the scary shadows are lessened by the darkness, he will come out if the bedroom door is closed. I’m keeping the litter box and the cat food in my room for now, because he’s so scared of the ceiling fan in the dining room that he claws me to get away (which promptly reminded me to trip his claws!).
So, for your amusement, a record of the move, from the cat’s point of view. Well, from my POV looking ON the cats, because the idea of a cat-cam, while funny, is kind of impractical.
Day 1: Imagine two cats surrounded by boxes, but none of it unpacked because the furniture hadn’t arrived yet. The cat carrier was a sanctuary they refused to leave:
Well, technically that’s not true. I took him out of the crate when I first got to the house, thinking that the living room would be a good first room to get them used to, but Mogget went promptly under the couch, which is just high enough for him to get under, and then he gets stuck. So I took him back into my bedroom, and that’s when he wouldn’t come out of the cat carrier–nothing to run under. I slept on an air mattress the first night, so no bed to hide under yet.
Day 2: After the furniture is moved in, Tildrum decides to venture out into the other rooms of the house, though to get through the dining room he has an elaborate routine of slinking quickly across the dining room to the table and crossing the room under the table to avoid the scary ceiling fan.
Apparently every room in this house has scary things on the ceiling.
(My bedroom has a ceiling fixture that doesn’t work, and the lamp casts strange shadows across the ceiling from the fixture, which also freaks them out. Both the apartments they lived with me in before didn%
27t have anything hanging from the ceiling–you had to plug in lamps to the outlets tied to the switches, except for the dining room, which just had a light, not a ceiling fan. Not sure what’s so scary, but there it is.)
Then he happily plays in the living room, hanging out on the couch for hours, even purring for my roommates. Mogget, however, trades the cat crate
… for the safe place under the bed. Even when I move it, which makes for an interesting room-rearrangement scenario.
Day 3: Tildrum is still making friends, and not quite as freaked out by the ceiling fan, though he still slinks under the table half the time. He’s ventured down to the basement with me several times (this is a good thing, because that’s where the little box will end up–hopefully soon).
Mogget has ventured out of the bedroom once or twice, but at any noise bolts right back under the bed.
Where he keeps constant vigilance from his place of safety.
Evening of Day 3: Tildrum rests on my legs as I write this, twitching in his dreamy sleep–his habit when he was a little kitten, and he often does it still when I’ve been gone for the weekend or he feels a little out of sorts. Kind of hard to let him stay there too long, because my legs fall asleep, but I’m glad to offer him a little comfort in a big change like this. Here’s a picture from earlier this afternoon, of Tildrum in a similar situation–comfortable to nap on top of the bed:
Mogget is still under the bed.
I’ve given up on trying to entice him out with catnip and treats. He wouldn’t even come out for his regular wet food at suppertime. I put boxes under the bed (the same I had under th
ere in the old place) to make the space a little smaller, thinking this might encourage him to venture out at least into the room, but he just hides at the side of the boxes now, under the dust ruffle still. He will reach out and swat at his favorite toy (feathers on the end of a stick with a bell), but he won’t come out to chase it, or the balls or mice he loves.
I’ve given up for the night, and perhaps giving up itself will help him, because then he won’t feel badgered. But I do worry that he won’t get enough to eat or drink. I’m assuming he’ll come out if he’s hungry enough. I’m also assuming he’ll come out tonight like he has the last couple of nights–he’s apparently more comfortable exploring the house when no one else is moving around, because the presence of humans besides me freaks him out (which is par for the course–he didn’t like it when I had visitors in my own apartment, either. He’s just not used to other people besides me, no matter how much I try to help him with that).
So, any suggestions on helping Mogget? I’m hoping it’s temporary, and that once I get everything unpacked and can start leaving catnip out in more places, making the house more kitty-friendly, that sort of thing, he’ll be fine, but especially the idea of getting him used to other humans is something I don’t know how to help him with and nothing I’ve read addresses introducing cats to new humans.
Hope you all had a great weekend. Back to work tomorrow–with probably a week of evenings unpacking and rearranging!
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