New Kitty Adopted in Bastetsmum Household!
Hi Guys,
"This is a long post - I do apologise - no photos in this post - hopefully some being uploaded soon!"
I know it has been a very long time since I chatted here. Its lovely to see famililiar faces and to read your stories.
To fill you all in though - we are living in a remote location in Tasmania, Australia that doesn't have proper telephone lines let alone a decent internet connection - our satellite here is capped at speed and how much we can download and upload. We love where we live but we have had work related problems (lack of work) and health issues as well - nothing serious. We also had two serious car accidents in less than 6 months (neither were our fault I would like to say) so life has been a bit on the hectic side. It is settling down though (we certainly don't want anymore car accidents if we can avoid it!).
Our two dogs (Mandi and Charlie) are enjoying chasing rabbits even though at 11 years old (both of them) they have no chance of catching them. They have also been very nawtee and have dug up the gardens to bury bones.
Bastet is her usual wonderful aby self. Although she did escape from being indoors for a little while until she killed a bird. So she is now indoors for good. I didn't like the fact she killed a bird when some of our native species are endangered. So being indoors and meowing at the dogs to play with her we considered getting another cat.
It wasn't until a month later when my partner went to pick up the post that he saw a message in the post office window. Wanted: a good home for a sweet natured long haired tabby approx 2-3 years - just had kittens - owner unable to take care of her.
My partner called me and said if he could have a look at her. I said of course that ignoring the sign was not an option in my books. So he went and had a look at her. And fell in love with her. Her kittens (4 in all) 2 found a good home and the other 2 were so ill they had to be put to sleep. She was in dreadful condition (I have never seen a cat so thin before with matted fur and looking like hell - she wieghed about 2.5kg when we got her just to give you an idea of how tiny she is). So we packed up her stuff (not much - a dirty bowl and grubby mat) and took her home. (The woman who owned her is dying of stomach cancer and didn't think to even ask her neighbours to feed her. She is proud and stubborn - but Zac suffered for that.)
I remembered from here with all your expert advice to keep her isolated from Bastet until we got her desexed, vacinnated and tested for FIV and FLV. We couldn't do that until she actually put on more weight. The vet was horrified at the neglect. So we fed Zac up (now called Zaicha which is a north african name meaning "gentle spirit" ) for 7 days and booked her into the vets for the op.
It was a tense few hours to find out whether or not we would have to put her down if tested positive for FIV and FLV but she tested negative so we got her desexed and vaccinated. She goes back this week to get the stitches out (all of 2 - the vet said she had been half starved all her life and she is not normal size for a 3 year old female cat who has had kittens - she is about half the size she should be ).
So once she got back home, we thought to formally introduce her to Bastet. Well that went ok up until today when now Zaicha is "guarding" the room where we feed them. She hisses and spits at Bastet and she can't get any food without fighting through the Zaicha line to get it. I am wondering how we should deal with this situation. Bastet isn't territorially threatened by Zaicha but Zaicha is threatened by Bastet. I don't want to have to give Zaicha away and I want this to work. So I was wondering if any of you had problems with this and what to do to ease the transitition into the household for both cats.
Hopefully I will post more often now that things have settled down here. I have missed you all.
Merry Christmas and a safe and prosperous new year to you all.
