Do you know that I have so, so many photo files labelled as “Gerald & Misty”? It’s never Gerald alone or Misty alone, it’s always both names together.
And I have a separate folder where I keep memorable photos of each cat, that’s in individual names, but for Gerald and Misty, it’s again, “Gerald & Misty”.
I braved myself and went for a walk this evening. It’s very difficult, walking past the spot where Misty was knocked down, passing the spot when my husband called me on the phone to inform me, and worst of all, walking past that kindergarten from where the car had come. I thought of of going on another route, but for how long am I going to avoid passing through these spots? Isn’t it worse if I avoid these places and each time, I’d be reminded why I’m avoiding them? So I decided I had to just bulldoze my way and plough through.
I also cannot skip my walks as I’m on a 3-month experiment to see if my walks would boost my HDL readings.
So, how did Gerald fare today? I would say, it’s not bad at all, and in fact, better than I’d expected.
I think he understands that something has changed and that it’s better for him to stay indoors now. I think, perhaps, he understood what I’d said to him. We would never know how empathetic cats can be. I just kept telling him it’s much safer to live indoors and I assured him I would be here for him, anytime.
He did mew loudly a few times, but that’s when he got up from a nap. That’s fair enough, he just wants me to know that he’s awake. So I go in and sit with him for awhile, and he’s happy. The mewing stops.
Gerald is a very affectionate (manja) cat. This helps a lot because he likes to receive affection and that’s easy for us to give.
He still made his early dinner (or, lunner?) call at 3.30pm. That’s his usual time. I felt so sad that I was only preparing one plate.
Even during breakfast, I would be preparing four plates every morning, because Tabs, Riley, Misty and Gerald would be fed first. Today, it was only three plates.
I also removed Misty’s water bowl from the porch this evening. The fact that I remove her things does not mean she is forgotten. Not at all. I think the reminders would make me sadder and it would be harder to move on to the next step of remembering her and not missing her so painfully. There is a big difference between remembering her fondly and wishing she’d come back to life. The former is healthy, the latter is asking for the impossible and being in denial.
Samantha is very happy with Gerald’s presence. After all, they were close friends way back during the porch days. But Gerald doesn’t seem to like Samantha anymore now. I actually saw him reject Samantha’s grooming. He pulled away and ran away in a huff. Poor Samantha.
With time, hopefully, Gerald will find a best friend again. Samantha still likes him, but it’s not reciprocated by Gerald.
Gerald has been marking in all three of the litter boxes. Luckily the Blondies prefer to use the sandpit, so there’s no territorial competition the litter boxes. Just more work for me in cleaning up. Gerald marks, so it’s sometimes just a few drops of urine in each box. And he tracks quite messily too.
Taking a siesta after his lunner.
Gerald did not eat again with the Blondies. His lunner was already his dinner. He’s not a greedy or food-crazy cat. Just cukup makan is enough.
The thought did occur to me that if Gerald misses the park, I could take him out in a body harness with a leash. But in my experience, I have never quite succeeded making any cat comfortable in a body harness. They usually wriggle out of it. Or I could take him to the park and supervise him. He’s quite easy to call back. But one thing at a time.
The mission now is to try and get Gerald to be comfortable living indoors.