and the walls come a tumblin' down

Koa and Theo continue to improve their relationship with each other and with us; we're seeing little changes every day.

A few days ago, Koa let me pet her while she ate treats. And she's been eating dry food in the kitchen with two humans and one kitten milling about. Just last night, I fed Koa, and she came into the bathroom while I was in there (a big step; she seems not to have forgotten a terrible trauma in the bathroom that occurred last May) and she let me pet her while she ate her food.

Meanwhile, Theo has calmed down a lot. He's become super snuggly at night, and instead of sleeping at the foot of the bed, he now snuggles up to a human and stays there pretty much all night. Downstairs, he's still a madman, though he's not scratching the furniture at every opportunity. He still scratches it a little, though. The big word we're trying to teach him is OFF which we seem to repeat every 30 seconds as he hops on the dining room table (OFF OFF OFF) or jumps on the counter (OFF OFF OFF) or leaps over to the sink (OFF OFF). The biggest NO, of course, is the stove (OFFOFFOFFOFFOFFOFFOFF). Sometimes he walks over to a spot from which he might jump, looks hopeful, whimpers, and walks away. We think this shows far more maturity and self control than many humans have.

But the big news is that the function of the Rodney King wall is shifting. The two cats now sniff noses very politely and occasionally blink at each other across the room. Although they're aware and interested, they're no longer horrifically obsessed with each other, nor are either of them fearful of the other. So the wall no longer separates them. Rather, it keeps Theo from going downstairs unsupervised (he still hasn't internalized OFFOFFOFF OFF despite our efforts). Koa will occasionally ask to go downstairs by herself, where I'll later find her peacefully sacked out on a sofa or a chair.

We do hear thundering herds of elephants upstairs and sometimes we witness hysterical interactions that are half playful and half hostile (at least we hope they're at least half playful; there's no crying, growling, or bloodshed involved). Last night, Koa was chasing Theo around the downstairs but was enough faster than he was that she was basically straddling him as they were tearing around.

More sweetly, they have a funny approach to playing. One of us will get out an interactive toy and engage one of the cats. The other cat will come and watch, and as the first cat's attention wanders, will jump in. Then the first cat will sit out for a while while the second cat plays. And they actually patiently take turns.

Because of Koa's previous experience living with hordes of cats, she's actually fairly patient when Theo fake-jumps at her or swoops in on her toy; he usually doesn't faze her much. But then again, last night, when Theo was snuggling quietly on Robert's chair, Koa stood up on two hind legs, rested one foreleg on the armrest, and air-batted at Theo for quite a while. Robert and I almost couldn't sit up from laughing too hard.

We both feel that the cats are better than any television show imaginable. I'm so glad that we took a lot of time to allow the introductions to take place. And of course, I'm delighted that we chose both of them to come live here. I feel very lucky in that regard.