Olwyn Settles In

Our recent kitten, Olwyn, is approaching four months old. The shelter got her when she was weaned too young, and couldn’t digest adult cat food. Devoted care, and human baby food, saved her life. Now her home takes over to do what the shelter could not; give her a life.

She’s coming along beautifully. I feed her canned cat food, supplemented with Brewer’s Yeast, several times a day, and give her fresh water frequently. Her digestive upsets are gone, her fur is growing back, and she’s showing drive and energy.

Her humans, (Dear Husband and I, with friendly visitors,) were immediately smitten. She’s always been cuddly and focused on us. While she’s into everything, she trusted us from the beginning, and is easily distracted to things she’s supposed to be playing with.

She loves keyboards, and already has the “magic paws” which lets her find previously unknown keyboard combinations to make the browser into new shapes and completely confuse a Mac operating system. While a Mac OS is relatively stable, with a PC OS she could probably reorient the Mars lander, so we were fortunate there.

Her cat friends, Mr. Bond and RJ, are slower to come around. But there’s progress. Mr. Bond’s main concern is that when he shows up at a time he’s used to me being alone, I no longer am. There’s a kitten there.

While Olywyn’s baby closeness delights her humans, it is causing Mr. Bond to sulk. So I make a point of taking up the slack for him.

I seek him out several times a day, checking his favorite sulking places. I fuss over him whenever I see him. I grab him up and take him into the bathroom, where we can be alone, and he can relax into my arms without anyone else seeing him making a fool of himself over me.

On weekend mornings, when Olywyn has had breakfast, played, and then conked out, I will get Mr. Bond from wherever he is and bring him to Our Chair, where I am working on my laptop, and he can get his usual lap time and then settle against my leg, as he’s used to doing.

This is to show him that he’s not missing anything. Our special times now come at different times. When I make a point of showing him when these new times happen, he’s grateful I still care. He feels secure again.

This gives him the confidence to hang out on the bed in the evenings, even if Olwyn is there. He hissed at her once; and got told that wasn’t necessary. Everyone is allowed on the bed! So now he’s been seen to unfurl his tail right on top of her, and tolerate with her playing with it. Mr. Bond is still our Supervisor, and wants everyone to get along. We are working together so that can happen.

RJ is the one with the biggest adjustment problem. That’s because he’s torn; he wants so much to play with his new kitten. Yet, he doesn’t know how to go about it. Unlike a lot of kittens who tackle heads whether the recipient wants them to, or not, Olwyn has reacted to the adult cats’ caution with her own. She’ll play alongside them, she’s learning to share treat time, and she’ll play with their tails when they are tempting her. Yet she won’t make the first move; and RJ doesn’t know how.

RJ’s soft heart told him that when she first showed up, she was fragile and should be treated with delicacy. Which he did; and got praised and cuddled for it. Now, as she is getting more healthy and active, we will help him understand that’s okay to play more with her. She wants to as much as he does! But since this is RJ’s first kitten, and his early deprivation slowed down his reasoning powers, he has some difficulty figuring that out.

I use the wand toy to bring Olwyn quite close to him. We get down on the floor and play with her, trying to draw RJ in with his favorite games. This confusion resulted in one conflict; Olwyn was playing with one of his favorite kitten toys, the Rattle-y Rat. RJ reached out and swatted her head, but not playfully; it was a disciplinary cuff.

This made Olwyn scuttle for the shelter of Dear Husband’s arms, who was distressed that his two tender-hearted kittens would act this way. I explained that RJ is upset with her because she will play with his favorite toys, and not with him. Usually, he understands it is partially his fault. That night, his frustration, always expressed physically with RJ, reached the point of acting out.

But I pointed out RJ felt guilty about it, and hid. He knows this isn’t what will work. We need to show him what will.

This is the opposite of the usual kitten problem; when kittens want to play with the other cats, and won’t take no for an answer. But both Olwyn and RJ had rocky beginnings. This makes them less confident than the average. It means they need extra support.

As she gets bigger, and RJ’s understanding grows, they will gradually chase each other more and more. We already see this happening. This will help RJ tremendously. When he sees Olwyn figuring things out, it will help him figure things out.

Unlike Mr. Bond, who already experienced RJ not knowing anything, RJ is astonished that she’s so ignorant of many basics. She plays with the computer wires! She tries to get on the television! She knocks things over!

Applying the same rules to Olwyn as we had taught RJ keeps him feeling less like his world has turned upside down. Both of our previous cats want to know that the new kitten doesn’t mess anything up for them. We want them both to know that this is a plus, not a minus.

We let them know house rules also apply to Olwyn.

We make sure that they get plenty of all the attention and love they got before.

They are starting to see the new kitten the same way we do.

As a gift of great joy.

This post was about how our new kitten is fitting into a family of two humans, and two Beta boys of widely varying age. See all my Olwyn posts.

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