Our Other Blog: Two Sisters and Two Points of View
by Taswegian1957 & Human59
The other day I was outside taking some doll photos on the front porch and Polly decided to join me. As she is an inside cat she only comes out if I am there and I know that she won’t wander too far away. She did take the opportunity to get a little fresh air and of course a good stretch.
I thought I’d share a couple of photos that I took of Cindy and Polly today. The last couple of weeks have been very strange to them and I’m very relieved that they have adapted well to our current situation.
I haven’t mentioned this in a post before because I have been deeply upset about it but a few months ago Cindy and Polly had a big fight. I don’t know what it was over as I didn’t see what happened. They get on so well that I could usually let them move freely around the house. I would separate them to eat because Cindy will eat the cat food of course. I don’t let Cindy have bones any more because she gets a very bad attitude about sharing and always thinks Polly will take it from her. Actually, I have seen Polly stealing Cindy’s dry food but she didn’t seem to worry about that.
Anyway this particular evening both had gone outside and I had left the back door open so they could come back. That’s when I heard an awful din coming from the passage. As I said I have no idea what happened. Did Polly steal some dog food? did she startle Cindy in the dark? I don’t know but she was seriously upset and had a little scratch on her face. She would not go near Cindy for several days after that.
Then one day after I’d been keeping them apart they met and appeared to be fine. All was good for a couple of weeks then, again when I was in the next room something happened. I did not hear a fight but Polly ran out upset again and this time she did not forgive Cindy. Since then if she even saw her through a glass door she would hiss and stalk away. I am sure Cindy had no idea why Polly was still mad at her.
I had to keep the two of them separate. Cindy had the run of the living rooms and kitchen as well as outside. Polly had the passage and bedrooms. At night I would have to shoo her into the laundry so I could shut Cindy in my room before bed. Polly missed me I think. Sometimes she’d miaow at the living room door for me to come and would just want to be petted. Cindy spent a lot of time lying under the pergola outside. I was miserable because I missed spending time with Polly, Cindy cried if I was away from her too long, and I missed watching them play together.
Naturally, I was worried sick about how I was going to manage them when we had to evacuate. My friends in Franklin have dogs so Cindy had to stay outside a lot or if I brought her to where I was sleeping I had to put Polly in her crate and put it in the toilet. It was far from ideal for either of them.
Then we came here to Matt and Ally’s place. The original plan was for Polly to be confined to the laundry but she soon worked out how to open the sliding door. We moved her to the room Ally uses for craft and she was happy enough but soon she wanted to come out. One day she managed to slip out the door when I was closing it and came face to face with Cindy who would lie outside the door whenever I was in there.
Nothing happened! Polly greeted her as if there had never been a fight and since then she has been quite her old self around Cindy even going up to give her a wash like she always used to. I haven’t seen them play yet but they might when we go home. I have no idea what prompted the change in attitude but it has made things so much easier.
Of course, I don’t take anything for granted. Polly is shut away to eat and I have bought a crate for Cindy and shut her in it at night. Polly sometimes sleeps in the room with us but I no longer have to worry about fights when I am asleep. I will never leave them unsupervised together if I go out or anywhere around food but I feel like it is a little miracle.
A Facebook memory reminder today was a photo of Polly from five years ago. We found Polly on the 6th of January 2013 when she was probably about 8 weeks old. It’s been fascinating to see how she’s grown in confidence over five years although she still does not like strangers and hides if anyone comes to the house only making an exception for Naomi who she has decided to be friends with. I started to blog the same year that Polly arrived so her life with me has been well documented. Here is a look back.
I was going to use this for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge as either Polly or lazy but I changed my mind. However, it is too nice a photo of Polly not to share.
Recently I bought Cindy a new bed with a memory foam mattress but guess who likes to steal it?
Polly, our cat, is supposed to be an indoor cat. She is usually allowed outside only when supervised by one of us. Generally she is quite happy with that arrangement as she’s rather timid. On a sunny day she will come outside and enjoy rolling on the warm concrete outside the back door or exploring a couple of metres away from it but at the slightest scary noise she scuttles back inside to the safety of her “apartment” in our linen cupboard or occasionally under our spare bed. Until today that is.
Today she must have slipped out the back door unnoticed when I let Cindy out or when I went to get the post. It’s happened a couple of times but normally I spot her within a few minutes and as soon as I open the back door she comes back . Polly’s normal routine is to sleep either in the linen cupboard or in the living room at night. When I get up she retires to her apartment until mid afternoon. Usually she’ll reappear around four o’clock demanding dinner so it didn’t worry me that I hadn’t seen her all day. It wasn’t until around 5pm that Hubby asked “Where’s Polly?” she hadn’t come out for her food which is highly unusual so we were a bit concerned. Hubby said that he’d seen her sleeping on the couch at around 6am. Neither of us had seen her since so we started looking in all her hidey holes but she wasn’t in any of them. Not in her apartment or behind the couch, not behind the computer desk, under the spare bed or even under our bed. I even opened the door of the doll room in case she’d sneaked in there but she hadn’t. That meant that she had to be outside. Realising that she could have been out there for hours we became very concerned. Polly has never been outside for more than half an hour since we found her as an abandoned kitten. It had rained during the afternoon so we thought that she’d probably look for a place to shelter from the rain and the scary birds. Polly is more scared of birds than they are of her I’m sure. Hubby checked the garage even though Polly has never ventured that far from the house, she wasn’t there. Then he suggested that she might be hiding under the floorboards of our “rustic” shed. It was a good guess. When I got down on my knees to look I saw her peering out at me.
Unfortunately getting her out was not that easy as she was very upset. I called her and she came closer but she didn’t want to leave the safety of her hidey hole. She made growly noises in her throat, if you have ever come across a feral cat you might have some idea of the sound I mean. She miaowed a few times too but she wouldn’t come out even after I talked to her and tried to tempt her out with a dish of food. I think she was telling me what a horrible time she’d had and how mean I was to shut the door so she couldn’t get back inside. After several minutes Hubby suggested that he have a go at enticing her out. I think Polly likes him better than me so I agreed and went inside to watch out of the kitchen window. Hubby can’t kneel because of arthritis so he sat a couple of metres away on a bench and kept talking to Polly. However, after more time had passed and she still wouldn’t come out he decided that he’d have to try something else. He found a few small pebbles and tossed them onto the floor of the shed. The noise startled Polly and she decided to make a run for it. I saw her come out from underneath and race for the safety of the open back door. She disappeared up the passage before either of us could see where she went.
I thought that we probably wouldn’t see her for hours but a short time later she came out of her hiding place to eat and then back into the living room where we were eating dinner. She acted as if nothing had happened, rolling around on the carpet and later settling down to sleep on a favourite chair in the dining room where we have our computer desks.
Polly may have forgotten all about her ordeal although I won’t be sure of that until I see how she reacts next time I open the back door but Hubby and I won’t forget how worried we were for a long time. You can me sure that I won’t be leaving the back door open for one minute if I’m not watching it!
