Update on Astrid

Just wanted to give everyone an update on our new kitty, Astrid!  She is doing very well and is adjusting to her new home wonderfully. After her isolation period was over, we started slow introductions to Olive and E.B. by wedging the door of her room open with door stops so they could look at each other through the crack in the door and smell each other, but not touch.

I was surprised by how mellow and unfazed she seemed to be about the other two cats. I thought there might be more agitation, but she did really well. Olive and E.B. were also well behaved towards her. They were mostly curious about her and anxious check her out.

After a few days of this, we started letting her out of her room for short periods of time so she could have supervised interactions with Olive and E.B. There was no fighting, or hissing or anything of the kind, which was a relief. She was eager to explore the rest of the house as well.

It's now been over a week since she was "let loose" in the house full time and she is doing great. Her first few days she spent a lot of time upstairs in the 'cat room', which is an extra bedroom that has no particular use. It has lots of windows and faces south, so I keep my plants in there in winter. One of the windows faces the back yard where I have the bird feeders and squirrel feeder, so we put a window perch in there for Olive to look at birds and squirrels. I've seen Astrid on it a few times as well, so I'm guessing she'll be an avid bird-watcher too, once spring comes and the birds come back. There is also an old futon in there and a bunch of cat toys and a cat tree, so it's just sort of become the 'cat room'.  After she got more comfortable being out all the time, she now spends most of her time wherever we are, just like Olive and E.B.

Just like Olive, Astrid likes to be where the action is. Here they are "helping" me a couple of days ago when I was putting away Christmas tree ornaments. Yes, my Christmas tree was still up. I had all my other Christmas stuff down and put away three weeks ago, but I got a terrible cold and I had no energy to deal with the big tree until a few days ago.

This is one of Astrid's favorite ways to lay; the " flying frog".  She's a real cuddle bug and loves to sleep on your lap. She does like to play with toys, but she's not as addicted to toys as Olive. With Olive, it's play, play, play all day long. Astrid loves to lounge and nap a little bit more, but she does enjoy playing with Olive. They are the same age and they have fun chasing each other around and stalking each other. E.B, being a stately elderly gent of almost 15 years old now, prefers to watch them most of the time. When he gets feisty and wants to play (which happens occasionally, even for an old guy like him) he prefers to self-play with various toys, rather than participate in chasing games.

Resting after an exhaustive play session with the cat charmer wand and yarn ball toy.

Pretty soon I'll be taking Astrid for her first visit with our vet so they can meet her and check her over. She seems to be pretty much over her URI, but she still seems a little stuffy in the nose and occasionally sneezes, so we might need to get her some antibiotic nose drops.

Thanks for stopping by!