Fratenizing Felines
Cory's been getting better. He has started to become more active and now the quarantine room is too small for him and he caterwauls to be let out. I left the window open to air the room the other day and stepped out for a while. When I returned, Cory poked his head in from where he'd gone to rest on the external window ledge (!!!) and greeted me with his characteristic "rrrrrreow" before jumping in.
I'll digress a little and write a bit on the characteristic 'voices' of the Spice Meows. Saffron has a staccato "wau, wau, wau" which he uses liberally, Pepa's sounds like "I waaa(nt), I waaa(nt)" especially when she wants a door to be opened and Ginger used to go "wah-au!" when we grabbed him for a cuddle.
Anyway, it's getting harder to contain Cory but we are reluctant to integrate him with the others because he hasn't finished his antibiotics or been vaccinated or given the all-clear by the vet. We were also concerned that meeting the others will trigger male-aggression behaviour in him since he's an intact (that is, unneutered) tom. He cannot be neutered until he complete his vaccinations which are on hold until he's cured of his respiratory diseases. All in all, it may take another two months before he can be safely introduced to the others.
But Cory's running out of patience. He's been quarantined for nearly four weeks (albeit with an Illicit Weekend Escapade). For a cat who's used to roaming the streets, jumping in and out of drains and running across roads, a ten-metre square room can hardly be adequate, especially when he's feeling frisky. So last evening when his howls approximated those of an indignant baby, I decided to bite the bullet and let him out of the quarantine room.
I felt confident enough to let him out because we'd Taken Precautions in the preceding weeks. When Gravitas first formulated the idea to rescue Cory, he'd brought home pieces of tissue paper with his scent on it for Ging and Pep to inspect. They had sniffed the tissues with interest and showed no aggression towards Cory's scent. Cory's a cat's cat, I thought.
Before Cory was brought into our apartment for the first time, we locked up the other cats and took him straight to the quarantine room. We then stuffed a rug under the door to the quarantine room so there wouldn't be a free-flow of his scent from the quarantine room. After Cory's re-rescue, we did away with the rug under the door as the others had already made a sights-and-smells inspection of the quarantine room during his Illicit Weekend Escapade.
During the succeeding week or so, the meows passing outside the quarantine room would either sniff under the door or ignore it. Saffron would sometimes stick his forepaws under the door (he probably learnt this from Ging and Pep as this is how they'd sometimes play with each other) but when Cory responded, he'd hiss and run away. Very undecided sometimes, cats.
So last evening when Cory caterwauled such that I was afraid the neighbours would come banging on our door, I let him out (after Taking the Precaution of locking up the others, naturally). When I opened the door of the quarantine room wide, Cory immediately stopped caterwauling and instead wore this look of astonishment on his face, if indeed cats can look astonished.
He stepped out cautiously and made a tour of the apartment in his cautious, crouching walk (head down, ears pricked, body and tail lowered) making soft little "eow? eow?"s the whole time. When he'd almost reached where the other cats were sequestered, the upstairs neighbours made their usual noisy evening ascend up the stairs just outside our main door and scared the bejabers out of Cory. He scuttled back to the security of the quarantine room and following behind him, I closed the door, and that was that for the day.
I'll digress a little and write a bit on the characteristic 'voices' of the Spice Meows. Saffron has a staccato "wau, wau, wau" which he uses liberally, Pepa's sounds like "I waaa(nt), I waaa(nt)" especially when she wants a door to be opened and Ginger used to go "wah-au!" when we grabbed him for a cuddle.
Anyway, it's getting harder to contain Cory but we are reluctant to integrate him with the others because he hasn't finished his antibiotics or been vaccinated or given the all-clear by the vet. We were also concerned that meeting the others will trigger male-aggression behaviour in him since he's an intact (that is, unneutered) tom. He cannot be neutered until he complete his vaccinations which are on hold until he's cured of his respiratory diseases. All in all, it may take another two months before he can be safely introduced to the others.
But Cory's running out of patience. He's been quarantined for nearly four weeks (albeit with an Illicit Weekend Escapade). For a cat who's used to roaming the streets, jumping in and out of drains and running across roads, a ten-metre square room can hardly be adequate, especially when he's feeling frisky. So last evening when his howls approximated those of an indignant baby, I decided to bite the bullet and let him out of the quarantine room.
I felt confident enough to let him out because we'd Taken Precautions in the preceding weeks. When Gravitas first formulated the idea to rescue Cory, he'd brought home pieces of tissue paper with his scent on it for Ging and Pep to inspect. They had sniffed the tissues with interest and showed no aggression towards Cory's scent. Cory's a cat's cat, I thought.
Before Cory was brought into our apartment for the first time, we locked up the other cats and took him straight to the quarantine room. We then stuffed a rug under the door to the quarantine room so there wouldn't be a free-flow of his scent from the quarantine room. After Cory's re-rescue, we did away with the rug under the door as the others had already made a sights-and-smells inspection of the quarantine room during his Illicit Weekend Escapade.
During the succeeding week or so, the meows passing outside the quarantine room would either sniff under the door or ignore it. Saffron would sometimes stick his forepaws under the door (he probably learnt this from Ging and Pep as this is how they'd sometimes play with each other) but when Cory responded, he'd hiss and run away. Very undecided sometimes, cats.
So last evening when Cory caterwauled such that I was afraid the neighbours would come banging on our door, I let him out (after Taking the Precaution of locking up the others, naturally). When I opened the door of the quarantine room wide, Cory immediately stopped caterwauling and instead wore this look of astonishment on his face, if indeed cats can look astonished.
He stepped out cautiously and made a tour of the apartment in his cautious, crouching walk (head down, ears pricked, body and tail lowered) making soft little "eow? eow?"s the whole time. When he'd almost reached where the other cats were sequestered, the upstairs neighbours made their usual noisy evening ascend up the stairs just outside our main door and scared the bejabers out of Cory. He scuttled back to the security of the quarantine room and following behind him, I closed the door, and that was that for the day.
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