The Three Mouseketeers

Chapter Five – Forging Alliances

Aug 29, 2005
9:32 AM

The last few days have seen astonishing progress here at Shadowood. Last Thursday, I decided to start allowing Feather limited access to the bedroom to see how he would interact with Phantom. To my great surprise, Feather immediately went under the bed with Phantom (to intimidate him, no doubt) but did not attack him. As things remained quiet with both Feather and Footsie wandering in and out of the bedroom, I left the gate open all day. Aside from some occasional swatting and a little chasing, there was no aggressive behavior. Phantom, of course, hid out under the bed most of the day.

By Friday, Phantom was starting to come out a bit more, getting more active in the evening. At one point I walked out of the office into the livingroom, only to find Phantom lying on the floor by the old Moondog’s face with Raggie napping beside them both. I was amazed! Phantom’s previous excursions into the livingroom have pretty much been run-throughs. To add to my amazement was Phantom’s willingness to stay put while I walked up and bent down to pet him. As much as Phantom loves being stroked and kissed by me now, he is still very spooky about being approached. I generally have to sit on the floor and call him to me, so I was particularly surprised that he allowed me to walk up to him while he was out of his comfort zone in the livingroom. He didn’t stay there long, but it was an impressive display of courage.

Joe wasn’t feeling well on Saturday so spent most of the day in bed. When he did finally arise in mid-afternoon to get something to eat, Phantom came into the livingroom to find me. Apparently he didn’t wish to be left alone in the bedroom. As soon as he peeked around the end of the couch and saw me, he went back into the bedroom satisfied that he hadn’t been abandoned altogether.

Later that night I was sitting on the couch eating dinner when suddenly Phantom was there beside me! I couldn’t believe my eyes! That little braveheart had jumped up on the couch with me! He walked back and forth across my lap several times, then laid down beside me. Incredible! Gee, you don’t suppose that had anything to do with the SALMON I was eating, do you? 😉

Yesterday morning, all of my kitty boys woke up on the tomcat side of the bed. They were rowdy as all getout, in the “eat flesh” mode, as I have come to call it. Not one of those brats would allow me to pet them without trying to rip my hands to shreds. I figured Phantom and Mew would be in for a hard time until Feather and Footsie settled down some, so I stuck F & F in the basement for a couple of hours to wrestle each other into exhaustion. Didn’t help me with Phantom and Mew, though, who still thought bloodshed was the order of the day. They both beat my hands up unmercifully until they purged the tomcats from their systems for the remainder of the day. Not feeling particularly cuddly, Phantom spent most of yesterday under the bed.

Phantom still spends the majority of his time under the bed, and he is still inclined to avoid Feather and Footsie when they are on the prowl, but he is getting braver about dealing with them as long as I’m there to mediate the interaction.

Making strides at Shadowood!

P.S. Phantom is now occasionally licking me on the lips when I kiss him. Awwww. Ouch!

Sep 1, 2005
10:42 AM

Yesterday my darling Phantom came out and jumped on the couch with me briefly in mid-morning. Last night he came out again and spent a loooong time on the couch with me, at times sharing it with several other cats and dogs, as well. The most amazing feat of courage, however, was his reaction when Joe came home. Daddy’s arrival always elicits much barking and frantic activity among the canine corps – so much so that the felines tend to scatter until Joe is safely in the house and things have quieted back down to a dull roar. Phantom, to my utter amazement, held his ground on the couch during all the hubbub and stayed put while Joe wandered around and eventually settled into the rocking chair in the livingroom.

It verified what I’ve been observing in the bedroom. Phantom has virtually no fear of the dogs, even when they get loud and rowdy and end up jumping all over him … even when Wookie gets it in his silly head that he wants to use Phantom’s ears as chewy pacifiers. Phantom’s fears are centered on the other cats (specifically Feather and Footsie) and on us. The times he spent wandering around yesterday and visiting on the couch were during periods when F & F were in the basement.

I am now removing the bottom baby gate all day, whether I’m in the house or outside doing chores, and allowing Phantom access to all parts of the house exclusive of the basement. I still restrict him to the bedroom at night so that I can open the basement door and let the other cats spend time down there during their nocturnal hours.

This morning when I opened the baby gate, while F & F were still upstairs, Phantom eagerly rushed out to visit. He was in the middle of the livingroom before he realized F & F were there to send him packing back to the bedroom, so back he went. I coaxed Phantom out again a few minutes later and carried him to the couch with me, where he stayed until Feather joined us and made Phantom uncomfortable enough to retreat to the bedroom again.

I wish F & F would just be satisfied with all the rough wrestling they do with each other, which is considerable. They love to tackle each other and roll around the floor. They are great companions to each other. Unfortunately, Feather can’t resist taking advantage of any feline vulnerability he finds. He has only jumped Phantom once (of which I’m aware) in the last week since I’ve been giving him access, but he continues to look for opportunities to aggressively attack Mew. There was a nasty fight that erupted between them the other night that I broke up amid flurries of white and black hair. Although I didn’t see it start, there is no doubt in my mind that Feather initiated the attack. Poor Mew ran for cover when I got Feather off of him, but Feather was ready for round two. I grabbed him and tossed him onto the basement stairs, shutting the door and leaving him down there to contemplate his evil ways for several hours.

I hope our little Feather integrates his Jekyll and Hyde personalities soon. I had to go through this same sort of problem with Weasel. He was an absolute lovey dovey with humans and canines, but he was vicious with the resident felines. Although Weasel has mellowed a lot over the years and developed reasonable friendships will all the strays who showed up after him, the residents who preceded his arrival still hate his guts, and he still occasionally gets into physical fights with Noddy. I hate the thought that Feather and Mew may permanently despise each other like that, esp. when there’s absolutely no reason for it. Mew gets along with everybody, just like Noddy does. Neither one of those boys would behave hatefully toward any cat who didn’t physically attack them.

Whose bright idea was testosterone, anyway?

Sep 1, 2005
5:21 PM

Tracking the wild Phantom on his household adventures this afternoon …

Narrowly escaping a potentially humiliating ear cleaning by the matriarchal Moondog.

Sep 1, 2005
5:23 PM

Rediscovering his inner hunter.

Sep 1, 2005
5:26 PM

And finally surveying new territory from atop a living room chair.

Sep 1, 2005
5:48 PM

Here’s a pairing I’ll not likely see again. Bitsy and Feather, momentarily sharing the “cat chair” in my office. Feather had been happily napping on my lap until Lamie jumped up on the desk and laid down across my keyboard looming over him. Knowing Lamie as a rather nasty force of nature, Feather slunk off my lap and into the cat chair beside me, seeking asylum from Bitsy. Bitsy, of course, didn’t much appreciate the intrusion and muttered a quiet growl, ultimately sending Feather off to find a less threatening location to complete his nap … but not before I caught the moment in digits.

Sep 12, 2005
4:49 PM

I thought you guys might enjoy seeing the scene on my couch at the moment. Phantom and his giiiirrrrrlfriend, BooBoo. Notice how coyly BooBoo has her foot pressed against Phantom’s back. Shameless little flirt.

Sep 22, 2005
9:57 PM

It’s been a while since I’ve provided an update on the progress here at Shadowood. As always, the complexity of the feline psyche creates equally complex dynamics and relationships in our cat-heavy household. Nothing is ever stagnant here.

Though Phantom spends all day every day with full access to the living areas of the house, he is not yet what I consider to be fully integrated because I have not yet given him basement access. Basement access equates with graduation day in this household. Although Phantom has come far in his relationships with Feather and Footsie, I don’t believe he has come quite far enough to handle their advances in the basement away from my immediate intervention. He’s getting there, though.

Feather and Footsie both still like to chase Phantom when they think they can get away with it, and I have caught Footsie on several occasions in a typical “breeding position”, straddling Phantom’s back while maintaining a bite-hold on the back of his neck. Often this behavior sends Phantom under the bed for refuge, but more and more often he is re-emerging almost immediately to come back into the living areas. Feather and Footsie are also getting better about allowing Phantom to leave the bedroom unmolested, and Phantom is getting braver about moving past them, esp. when I’m nearby to keep the Bad Boys in check. Much of each day now finds Feather and Footsie napping or otherwise altogether ignoring Phantom’s movements around the house.

Phantom, though not yet brave enough to actively engage in play with the Bad Boys, has decided that he wants to indulge his own inner Bad Boy by picking on the other cats, primarily Billy and Mew. Poor Mew is now hissing and running from both Feather and Phantom, though he doesn’t really take Phantom’s advances all that seriously at this point. Phantom may get himself into trouble if he keeps trying to push his luck, however. He made the ill-fated mistake of launching himself onto the back of our 24 lb Lion King last week. Noddy jumped back and glared at him in utter amazement, as did I. Phantom’s lucky he didn’t actually bite Noddy during that mock attack. If he had, he would have made a serious enemy of my big boy. As it is, Noddy seems inclined to overlook the incident as a case of harmless insanity on Phantom’s part.

I’m not getting off so easy where Phantom is concerned. As his inner Bad Boy emerges and he longs for some real rough and tumble Tomcat play, I am his “safe” playmate of choice. He knows I won’t hurt him, so he has absolutely no qualms about hurting me. He purrs and purrs and BITES HARD AND HOLDS ON! I have to keep prying his mouth open to get him off me before he breaks the skin. I would rather disallow this behavior, but I’m fairly certain that if I don’t let him take his play aggression out on me, he’ll take it out on Mew and Billy and anyone else he can get up the nerve to attack. At least with me, he can get it out of his system without degrading his relationships with the rest of the family. Hopefully Phantom will eventually develop the same sort of playful relationships with Feather and Footsie that they have with each other. Then the Mouseketeers can joyfully beat the tar out of each other and give me a break!

On a less violent note, Phantom came into the office while I was in here for the first time yesterday to see what I was doing. He’s been checking out the office and spare bedroom quite a bit over the last few days, but never while I was in either room. He’s pretty good about holding his ground while I’m walking in and out of the living room now, but he’s still easily spooked when he encounters me anywhere else. He’ll always be a spooky boy, which is fine. Ferals survive by spooking from any perceived threat. It’s an instinct that will diminish over time but never disappear.

And now for the pictorial portion of this installment …

Phantom and Raggie. Phantom appreciates Raggie’s aged, quiet presence. He will often make a point of snapping snuggled against or very close to Raggie, though Raggie probably doesn’t even realize he’s there most of the time.