Having Prepared….
Cat Trauma Update: Last week I posted that there had been an “incident” with my cat Izzy. (Izzy is the grey tabby, seen here with my other cat Stella, in a photo taken about a year-and-a-half ago.) What happened last week is that Stella freaked out for some reason and tried to attack Izzy while I was trying to put her (Izzy) into a cat carrier. I thought everything had returned to normal that evening, but somehow it escalated during the night. I tried letting them “work it out,” which is what the people at the cat shelter told me to do, but things continued to escalate. So then I consulted my vet, who told me to keep Stella confined to a single room until Izzy feels safe in the house again, let them slowly get used to each other through the closed door, then try to see if they can be in each other’s sight again…but with leashes on, so they can be separated immediately if it looks like there’s going to be trouble. All of this, they say, will take MONTHS. (And sometimes, it never works out!)
So now I am sharing my bedroom with Stella (and her litter box, her food and water bowls, her cat toys, etc.) and I’ve moved my computer downstairs to the dining room table so I can be around Izzy during the day, since she’s still too afraid to go upstairs. Neither of them seems to mind the new arrangements, at least not for now. And I’m feeling less stressed. Although I do worry about what will happen when it comes time to re-introduce them.
But I have done the best I could do. And now, it seems, patience is what’s called for. In honor of which I offer this poem:
Winter Trees
by William Carlos Williams
All the complicated details
Of the attiring and
The disattirning are completed.
A liquid moon
Moves gently among
The long branches.
Thus, having prepared their buds
Agains a sure winter
The wise trees
Stand sleeping in the cold.