Once upon a time, Havelah's daily routines were very simple. Our bed was her throne, morning, afternoon,
and evening. Since the arrival of Brother Leo, she has alternated between the bed and
the sofa in the rec room. If not there, she's almost certainly perched near a
window--most any will do--keeping an eye on all passers by.
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Nibbles has mastered the art of dividing the day among her favorite places.
She splits mornings and afternoons between lounging in the sun and curling up in very dark,
snug places, such as the back corner of a linen closet or under a bed cover. Through the
evening, she devotes at least a few minutes to each available lap, before retiring to her
winged-back chair. And several times a day she stations herself in front of a window, scans the
yard, and reports on any intruding bird or beasty.
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Our read on Brother Leo's body language is that he wants to know why it took us
so long to "rescue" him.
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Havelah adopts this pose to keep an eye on Brother Leo when he is in the room.
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When Brother Leo settles into a hard chair, he is anticipating that someone will soon
want to use that chair and will accept his being in their lap.
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Havelah is our shy lady. Many visitors have only seen her gazing down the steps to take
their measure as they came through the front door; others remember only a phantom slinking
through the kitchen on its way to the lower reaches of the house.
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Nibbles is our sociable lady. She comes out to greet nearly all visitors, including the four-legged
ones. In fact, she has "taught" some dogs how to groom her. Here, Mary Margaret is
teaching Tony how to approach Nibbles.
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Three months after his "rescue," Brother Leo decided that being picked up
by Phil was something to be encouraged, not simply tolerated. His purr motor kicks in
almost immediately. Life at Carol Place, he concluded, is good.
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Havelah is our "devil kitty," who delights in pulling Nibbles' chain and in playing
chase games. We see an extraordinarily affectionate lady, who presses her head through
the railing as we come upstairs to greet us with a nuzzle and a purr motor.
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Nibbles loves to climb atop things--laps, pillows, sofas, tables, bookcases. Here, she
combines her passion for climbing with her love for the sun.
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Only six weeks after his "rescue," Brother Leo showed curiousity about the
outside world but absolutely no interest in returning to it. Speaking up because the
breakfast he felt entitled to was late; leaning his head into a hand stretched
his way to ensure that his ear got scratched; inventing a new game to
play with a cat toy: every day he demonstrated some new evidence of his transition
from "feral" to "domesticated."
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Nibbles also loves to climb into things--paper bags, cardboard boxes, baskets.
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Brother Leo began appearing on our deck in July. He (until the vet told us differently,
we assumed Leo was a female because there was no marking behavior) was a beautiful,
small (maybe 7 pounds) tabby with an unusually bushy tail.
While he had none of the usual signs of feral behavior (he didn't slink; he
understood about canned cat food), he was extremely cautious about people.
We could kneel within a foot of his food dish, but we could not touch him.
Several months of regular meals allowed Brother Leo to put on some weight and us
to become extremely anxious that tomorrow would be the day he showed up injured by
a confrontation with a fox, if he showed up at all. Just after Thanksgiving, with
the first forecasts of snow, we "rescued" Brother Leo and brought him
in from the cold. |
