Our New Feline Companion

After nearly three months without a cat in our lives - a true hardship for me - we have a new feline companion. Her existing name is Nala, which an online baby name book tells me is Tanzanian for "Queen".



When we were at the Dane County Humane Society we looked at a handful of cats. We had already figured out that after three males, we were interested in a female, and not a kitten. That narrowed the search a bit. We were in one of their cage rooms when I noticed a towel-covered cage with a kitty meowing and sticking its nose out. Wondering if it was mildly quarantined, I peeked under the shroud to see who was in there. The cat was a big, beautiful domestic medium hair who was having a hard time adjusting to her life at the shelter. Her owners had to surrender her because they couldn't take her to the new apartment. She was quite skittish, trying desperately to hide in a small box in a smallish cage. We had lots of time, so we simply opened her cage door and ignored her. She was willing eventually to be scritched, and CLEARLY enjoyed it. Eventually we had her brought out to roam in the room and she immediately sought a more confined location (but not too hidden). We spent nearly an hour with her and she became increasingly relaxed and interested in interacting with us. We decided to take her.


OK to pet from nose to tail

We confined her to our guest bedroom and attached half-bath with food, water, a litter box and left her alone for a couple of hours. Late in the evening we grabbed books and drinks and settled in the room with her. Pretty quickly she came out and jumped up on the bed to be pet. Still timid and skittish, she frequently retreated to under the bed, but ventured out with increasing boldness every few minutes. Whimsically, we decided to sleep on the guest bed and several times during the night she joined us and cuddled for a while before retreating to a "safe" place.

It's now morning and she has access to both bedrooms and the half-bath. She got a bunch of interaction this morning and is now getting another break from our attention. She is very active and curious, eager to explore the rest of the house. She has used the litter box (good kitty!) but not eaten any noticeable amount of food. If she hasn't eaten by this afternoon, we'll try a dollop of wet food to encourage her.

She loves to be pet, doesn't mind being held (much), and is relaxing visibly as the hours pass. I think we will all do fine.