Its Been A Week Now.(Misty And Gerald Being .. | AnimalCare News (2024)

It’s Been A Week Now….(Misty And Gerald Being Indoors) Monday, 22nd Apr 2024, by AnimalCareView Pets For Adoption | Visit Website | View Original Article

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Misty and Gerald have adjusted so much better than I’ve anticipated.

Initially, I was so, so worried that they would be miserable without the freedom to roam, or that they would be so unhappy being confined. But it’s now almost exactly a week and it’s been so much better than I’ve expected.

In was on last Monday that Misty chased away the cobra at about 4pm in front of the neighbour’s house. The moment I heard, the first thing I did was to carry Gerald into the house and coax Misty to come in too (Misty cannot be carried, she’ll freak out and I’d probably be bitten).

Then, you will recall what happened after that. Yes, one of the most terrifying encounters of my life!

Misty then made two escapes and it took me two days to “figure out” how she escaped only to be proven wrong when Misty showed off how she did it! Thanks to our very kind contractor, Tony, who came on the very next day to help me out, Misty’s escape route was plugged and since then, she has not found another way to escape!

Gerald started by whining incessantly, but then again, he also whined even though he was outdoors last time. So I think he’s just a very vocal male cat!

Misty bullied the Blondies by intimidating them and that shocked the poor princesses who had never been exposed to any hostility all their preciously-cloistered lives. Well, except for Rey’s recent bullying.

The bullying by Misty has reduced significantly now, which is amazing.

I really have no other place to put Gerald and Misty and I figured Bunny’s Place is the only choice because they will never be able to survive with the Monsters in the Catio. By sheer weight, the Monsters would crush them (figuratively, of course). Gerald is a very peace-loving and friendly cat, so he will be bullied through and through by the Monsters who operate like a wolf pack. Misty is way too small to fight off the Monsters though I might be wrong because didn’t she just fight off a fairly big cobra? Yikes….just typing that already sends shivers down my spine.

What a cili padi!

The challenges I still face is Gerald’s loud whining. It still happens but not as often as the first few days. He is basically triggered by me. The moment I wake up, he whines. When I enter the room, he whines. Of course when he is hungry, he whines and that’s fine, because I will immediately feed him. It is the other unstoppable whining that is the problem because I’m so worried it would disturb the neighbours. So when it gets too incessant, I would have to just go into the room and sit with him on the bed. This stops him.

Totally attention-seeking, I know.

The other challenge of a lesser degree is Misty’s bullying. That’s already reducing and I hope it will reduce to naught soon. Luckily, it’s just bullying and not large-scale fighting.

But the poor Blondies…they have never been bullied before all their lives. Cow Mau and Indy were so kind and protective of them. The Blondies don’t even play rough with each other, unlike the Monsters where there is infighting and all sorts of political fiascos every now and then. Robin vs Smurfy, Smurfy vs Lynx, Robin vs Lynx, Smurfy vs Ginger, etc…

The trouble with Gerald is that the moment I get up in the morning, whether it’s just to use the bathroom at 2.42am (which is what happened this morning), he will start whining. So to quickly quieten him up, I have to give him food. This is actually not much different from the time he lived in our porch, but for that, sometimes he’s sleeping elsewhere and he will not know. Now, there’s no escape for me. The moment I even shuffle about in bed, he knows.

Since Misty and Gerald have been confined indoors, Creamy has come more often too. I still feed him in the porch and after eating, he goes home, so I hope he will be safe.

I am still not sure if Misty and Gerald have other feeding spots, but so far, no one has looked for them. So I really hope that confining them will not cause them too much unhappiness. It’s hard to tell a cat that they are confined for their own safety. They won’t understand this.

At least Bunny’s Place still has grass, soil and earth, so it won’t be too concrete for them. But the amazing thing is that both Gerald and Misty instantaneously knew how to use the litter boxes! If you remember, it took me ages to litter-box the Blondies. Even now, they still occasionally spray urine.

So there you go! The Blondies were born in a bedroom and yet, it was so difficult to litter-box train them while Misty and Gerald lived outdoors and they instinctively knew how to use the litter-boxes! Go figure, right?

Another good thing is that Tabs often asks to go into Bunny’s Place even with the presence of Misty and Gerald. I think Tabs isn’t stressed by their presence at all. That again, was unexpected.

Life is full of unexpected surprises, isn’t it? Sometimes good, sometimes bad, sometimes plain terrifying!! We just have to “keep calm and carry on”, don’t we?

For me, it’s not about keeping calm, it’s more about doing the best I can with the best of intentions, hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.

Advice like “be patient”, “relax”, “don’t think too much” irritate me to the core because I cannot do any of those. “Don’t think too much” is the worst, how can you ask me not to think too much? We are a thinking species, for goodness’ sake. That’s what our prefrontal cortex is for. If we stop thinking, we might as well be dead, right? I think it really makes no sense to give this advice to a human being who’s still alive.

Sorry, I just had to say that!

Have a great morning and….think!

P.S. This is me thinking again, two days ago I’d already checked out which vet clinics have anti-venom for snake bites (they have anti-venom for cobra and viper). Aha, that’s me preparing for the worst.

The post It’s been a week now….(Misty and Gerald being indoors) appeared first on AnimalCare.

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