Dangit Fiona

When I adopted Fiona, Werner was grumpy about it but Fiona was so optimistic that she won Werner over pretty quickly.

Now that I’ve adopted Tyler, Fiona is being grumpy and hostile, while Tyler is trying to be optimistic about making friends. It’s such a weird change in attitude from a cat who previously seemed to be friendly and happy about others.

I mean I know I’m being overly-optimistic here. She’s mostly only seen a single other cat for the last 9 years, and her best friend died 5 days ago. Change is hard. She might miss Werner, and I definitely miss Werner. I can’t help but feel like this was a mistake to readopt so quickly, but on the other hand, Fiona was definitely feeling lonely being the only cat around (and she’s been getting frustrated with how Werner hasn’t wanted to play for the last year or so anyway), and it’s not like she’d be likely to get any friendlier to new cats as time passed with her being the only cat around.

I’m definitely sticking with this decision, even if I’m feeling kind of awful about making it. But I also felt awful about putting Werner through stress when I adopted Fiona (right after the stress of moving to Seattle!), and I also felt awful about “replacing Chris” so quickly and impulsively when I adopted Werner.

Tyler hasn’t even been here for 12 hours yet, and it always takes time for anyone to adjust to change. I’m optimistic that they’ll be friends soon, even if not right away.

I remember it took a month or two for Toby to warm up to Shooby, and then they were the best of friends. Every cat pair has a different dynamic which emerges on its own timeline.

I just want Fiona to be happy, even if that means she’s very upset for the next little while.

Also, tomorrow I need to take Tyler back to the shelter (or maybe to a specific veterinary hospital? instructions unclear) to get some stitches removed; when the shelter took him in he had a very large abscess which had to be drained, cleaned, and sutured. I think the shelter didn’t mean to have him available to be taken home right away, judging by the tone of the phonecall I got an hour after I got home. Hopefully that won’t be too much of an adventure; the electricians are coming to finish up my heat pump installation tomorrow at like 10:30 AM and I have no idea how long that’ll take (hopefully not more than an hour) but I have meetings in the afternoon.

Also, Tyler has something weird going on with his nictitating membranes. They’re either defective or damaged. I don’t think they’re indicative of any major problems with his eyes or whatever but it certainly looks weird and a little bit alarming. I wonder if it’s from an injury while he was a stray, or if it’s just a birth defect. Either way, it’s something to ask the shelter tomorrow.

I also need a reminder from them about when his FVCRP vaccination is due. They’d pointed out a date in his paperwork but I’m unable to find it now. I think the deadline they gave me was three weeks? I’ll have to establish care for him sooner rather than later anyway. Maybe I should just go to the South Seattle Veterinary Hospital (which is where I took Werner back in June) as my first-line vet; they don’t require appointments and they’re pretty close by. But I hear such good things about Cascade Heights, where I’d registered my cats after I’d hit the last-straw moment with Urban Animal. I suppose I could at least ask them about an appointment.

Comments

Before commenting, please read the comment policy.

Avatars provided via Libravatar