Happy cats

We lost one of our cats earlier this year. It was sudden and unexpected - he was only 7 years old. I'm not sure if it is possible for someone who have not had a pet to understand how devastating it can be. He'd been with us for 7 years since he was a 3-month old kitten. That's a lot of days of making you smile with silly playing, lots of days of cheering you up with a purry cuddle session and lots of days being greeted at the door by a chirrup and a headbutt.

It left a huge hole in our everyday lives. It was also very upsetting for his litter brother who was still with us. That was a whole other level of sadness, seeing Link look for Max and get all lethargic, not wanting to do anything. It broke my heart all over again to see him grieve and not being able to do anything to help him.
Having never been alone, Link did not take the loss of Max well. He ate less, didn't want to play and spent most of his time curled up somewhere close to us. He also became very, very needy for attention. It must have been awful for him to go from always having company to being alone for hours on end as we were at work.
So in the end we decided that we would have to find him a friend to keep him company. We did a lot of reading up trying to figure if it was better to get a new cat in soon while he still remembered having someone else around or whether you should wait for a longer time. Cat or kitten? Same sex? Same breed? What if he hated the newcomer and we just made things worse? The most common piece of advice to all these questions was: "It depends."

Cats have personalities and they will react to a situation differently, so there is no right or wrong. Just guesswork and hope. So after reading and talking, we ended up with the idea of getting two kittens. That way they would have each other to play with while Link decided whether he liked them or not.

So we went looking for a local-ish Bengal breeders with litters available. (After having Bengals it was impossible to imagine having any other type of cat.) We went to see a pair of almost newborn kittens (snow spotted), but ended up falling in love with an older litter at the same breeder that would be ready to go to a new home in a few weeks. There were 3 available kittens. Two blue seal lynx spot girls and a brown marble boy. Initially we were looking more at the two girls, but the boy just completely stole our hearts. As soon as you approached him he purred like a little tractor, he was unbelievably loud. And when he played it was with complete abandon until he was exhausted enough to simply not be able to anymore.

So then we needed to decide which of the two girls to chose. They were both outrageously cute with their pale fur and big blue eyes, but had completely different temperaments. One was very outgoing and super-curious, one was shyer. Of course we ended up with the shy one. After seeing her sitting on the sidelines when the other three played with the feather toy, one little paw lifted as if she really wanted to join in - how could we not pick her?

When we finally brought them home it took sometime to get her confident enough not to scurry under the sofa whenever we came into the kittenroom, but she has come on leaps and bounds. She still often allows her brother to get the toy even though she could take it herself (she is scarily fast when she does go for something), but she is not skittish anymore. She is shy around strangers, but will tell us off in a very strident voice if we fail to turn on the water tap for her to drink from.

The integration with Link has been hard and slow. We started with the kittens living in their own room, then gradual visits, then they got to be out while we were at home and then finally allowing them free rein in the house all the time. The kittens have been very curious of Link, the boy in particular quite obviously wanting to be friends. Link has not approved of the kittens. However, in spite of hissing and growling at them, he never outright attacked them. They might get a bat if they got too close, but he would then rather stalk off than get physical. Over time both the hissing and the batting has gotten more and more half-hearted and less and less frequent. The changes were so small and gradual that at times we were worrying that we had made the wrong choice and that Link would forever be unhappy with the additions.

This last week or so it has all been worth it though. There might be the odd hiss or bat if the kittens annoy him, but mostly they all get on fine. And the last couple of evenings they've all played chase together! Link is almost back to his old self from before Max died. He is perky and curious and playful. It is amazing. At the weekend he even groomed the little girl kitten. I'm betting we'll see all three of them curled up together this side of Christmas.