Tuesday, June 22, 2021

Rascal is still here

It's been a long time since I posted about my new cat, Rascal.  He is not Daisy, but we are getting along fine.

Rascal no longer hides under my bed.  He is comfortable now in the entire house.  His favorite spot is on his blanket on my loveseat.  At night he usually sleeps on the bed when I do.  Daisy had his spot and he had to lay right against me at all times. If I moved over in bed, Daisy would then move over to continue to be right against me.   Rascal lays near, but not against me at the start of the night, but by morning he lays closer.  He likes his neck rubbed and when he is active at 7 or 8 am often he wakes me and I have to pet him around the neck or side of his head for a bit until I fall back asleep.  Later he goes back to sleep and will then sleep closer to me.  If I have my arm stretched out on top of the covers he will lay against my wrist and hand.  Since my accident in 2019 I sleep more.  Over nine hours.  Now that I have Rascal I sleep even more.  Often 10 hours.  Rascal would prefer if I kept sleeping and laying next to him.  He would be fine with all day.  It seems when I try to get up in the morning Rascal will move around and on top of me to try to keep me laying there.

Rascal now has gotten my routine down a little bit.  Initially he wanted attention almost all the time I was around. Now he will give me a break when I eat a meal. He will go and sit on the floor watching me or go lay on his blanket and watch me.  When I am done eating he will come back to me for more petting..

Daisy would lay on my lap and go to sleep when I was on the computer.  Rascal will jump up on my lap a number of times when I am on the computer.  If I rub his neck he will stay.  When I stop and start retyping he will then jump off my lap and go elsewhere.

Rascal has started to go outside the past few weeks.  For the most part only if I go outside also.  Initially it was only on the porch and near the door.  Now that he would like to occasionally eat grass he will go around the house.  And a time or two last week he started to go around the yard a little bit and check out a few buildings.  He even went to the barn.  So I left open a side door on the barn so he could go inside.  I want him to catch the mice in the barn.  I think he will be a good mouser.  He just need to be comfortable with where he is.

Rascal prefers to have his neck rubbed or the side of his face rubbed.  Not so much back past his front legs and shoulders.  I have to watch that he doesn't bite my hand if I pet too far back.  About the only time I can pet him back behind his front legs is when I am standing and using both hands, starting from under his neck and then go back along each of his sides.  He will turn his head looking up at me or else turn his head side to side watching my hands.

Sometimes I think Rascal has AHAD.  He doesn't keep too still when I pet him.  He changes positions often.

Now that it is hot outside I would like to trim some of his neck fur.  But he doesn't sit still, or like to have his fur cut.

He does like to play with his toys.













1 comment:

BLD in MT said...

I really enjoyed reading about Rascal settling in and your new routine and life together. What a great face! And such great fluff! I'm pretty sure our elderly cat (Johnny is 17 this summer) would absolutely sleep next to me all day long, too. :)