A Détente of Sorts

 
Image: Willow and Clover eyeing each other on the bed. Clover is hiding behind a green comforter, her ears forward with wary worry; Willow has murder glinting in her yellow-green eyes. Blade of the Immortal lies open between them.

We are committed to a slow introduction.

The friends who were possibly interested in Clover came by on Sunday, had a short, if somewhat unfruitful introduction (more on that in a bit) and still are, but, for reasons, can't take her in for another week, regardless. Meanwhile, we have been having more and more moments like the one above where the two ladies warily regard each other in close proximity with only a small amount of growling and hissing. Our friends are very patient and kind and are willing to remain as back-up in case we simply can't introduce these two no matter what. In the meantime, we have scheduled a spay for Clover on Monday next, with the intention that we keep her. 

So, our friends came by on Sunday around 1 pm. They got a little lost because St. Paul repels anyone from Minneapolis. It's just the nature of the rivalry between the two cities, I firmly believe. (I used to be able to navigate Minneapolis no problem, but after decades of being a St. Paulie, Minneapolis now sees me coming and jumbles up the streets.) We had shut Willow up into the TV room in preparation of the visit. Likewise, we'd let Clover have the run of the house hoping that she'd make her way downstairs. She didn't. In fact, when I picked her up from the bedroom windowsill to show her off to our friends she grumbled and hissed in my arms.

I'm beginning to believe she has decided we are her people and is having none of this being shown off to other people.

Because, wouldn't you know it, the first time our friend very carefully reached for her there were growls and snaps... and then she literally turned tail and ran upstairs to hide under the bed. Said friend later went upstairs with Shawn and had, from all accounts, a much better interaction, but Clover remains very... I swear to all the gods, intentionally unlikable when in the company of other people, particularly other people whom have expressed interested in taking her away from us.

Despite all this, our friends are very willing to remain on stand-by. So, they are the good people we always knew they were.

In the meantime, a fascinating new cat dynamic has emerged in our household.


Image: Like a hidden object game, find all three cats in this messy living room. Hint: big orange tail on the floor, two voids on either chairs.

When Clover is on walkabout at the same time Willow is out, there have been a couple of times when Willow seems surprised to remember that there is an interloper in her household and she will actually make sudden aggressive moves towards Clover. Both times that this happened, I was moving to interfere when.... Buttercup got there first. The first time, Willow had been on the porch and suddenly spotted the smallest little girl out of the corner of her eye and freaked out. She made a mad dash at her. I was standing up to grab her when Buttercup flashed in-between the two ladies and physically blocked Willow's attack, allowing Clover to escape upstairs. He then bullied Willow back a bit before running upstairs to check in on Clover.

I have long joked that Buttercup was a Golden Retriever in a past life, but this is the single most "dog" like behavior I have ever seen him do.

Just to prove it wasn't a fluke, he ended up doing it again when Willow attempted to corner Clover under the dining room set. 

For the record, I am not afraid that Buttercup will hurt Willow. He is similarly fiercely protective of her to the point that, if I am giving medicine to Willow and she squawks at all, he will come up and give me a fierce stare like, "You'd better not hurt her." If any of you remember the story of when Willow swallowed a needle, you also will remember that he was the one who literally brought me to her, Lassie-like, when she was hiding in the basement and alerted us to the problem. 

So, I don't think he has simply shifted his affection. From what I saw (and granted it was only twice) he will made a jump at Willow, but only to get her to back off. They did not fight at all. Fingers crossed their relationship stays this way. I'm not depending on it, but I do think it's kind of amazing that Buttercup is acting protective like this to the littlest one. 

We are, of course, separating them immediately when this happens. We kept them apart for several hours, and we're still making Clover sleep in a shut room. We are trying to be slow and careful with our introductions so that we can have as few of these incidents as possible. Hopefully, Willow will get used to her. I suspect that even if she remains wary the rest of this week, that it all might change once Clover is spayed. 

Fingers crossed at any rate.