Mary watching time go by.
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A fun picture from this morning. Rascal above, Satin below. There is not a cave under this rock; it’s just carved out a bit from water. When the river is up, this is a very vigorous creek along here.
This is my largest single above-ground boulder in the woods. It is 6 feet 8 inches long. I have measured it with a tape.
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Thank you for posting this pic. I love it. It is wonderful to see cats enjoying the great outdoors, as in my youth.
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Meet Little Bit. Exact age unknown but definitely in her teens. She has been hanging around a farm for at least a decade. Has never been an indoor cat or pet. She and I have been making friends for a few months, and I was worried about her with her age, winter approaching, and a few other complications. I am offering her a warm retirement in my guest room. She can decide whether to join the other cats indoors or not, but first, the house itself is a totally new experience to adapt to.
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You are a rock star! Welcome Little Bit!
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Hello, Little Bit. Purrs of peace to you in your new home. You have got one of the greats among Cat Ladies to love and care for you. We are makin’ biscuits for you tonight.
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I’ve looked in a few times. Just letting her decompress. She clearly has zero idea what a house is. She’s spooking a bit at the furnace and such (which is nice and quiet, not a steam engine). She’ll learn to appreciate that. She’s been in the exact same spot every time I’ve looked in for the last three hours, but she’s not trying to totally hide (there are a few more concealed options in that room), and she did eat a few Temptations. I’ll just give her time, but at least she’s not panicked and bouncing off the walls or anything. She is, by reputation over the years, quite spooky, never was a pet at her old territory, but I’ve been making progress for a few months, slowly making friends.
It gets down to 0 in the next few days. I just couldn’t stand the thought of it. Little (she is quite small) tortie out there on the fringes of life without heat or anything, and she is definitely a senior.
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My torti senior likes me to open the patio door some mornings, even this winter – but these days when we feel that first “breath” of wind she turns tail and seeks warmth. This morning we had a lovely heavy frost on the lawn and she didn’t even ask me to open the door (and we live in Georgia).
Well done you and Little Bit ! She will soon learn the truth about furniture. 
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Day 2. She found the bed overnight. I petted her briefly this morning, but she has a limit on that. She will take it for a few minutes and seem to enjoy and arch, then apply claws, not “seriously” but in a “that’s enough” gesture. Okay, ma’am. Point literally taken. But this morning, she is not frozen in one spot anymore like she was for several hours last night.
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Today, I got my January CatLadyBox. I have noted over the last few days that this little cat has no play concept. I gave her a few toys, and she just looked at them. Toys aren’t in her vocabulary. Today, I got the box, and my main pride of cats in the rest of the house was, as usual, sniffing the box. Atticus got the first toy out and was flipping around in the floor with it, and the other cats went to try to steal it from him. This gave me the chance to dig out the second toy, which was buried deeper under the shirt for me, before it could be played with and smell like another cat. I pocketed that and took it in to Little Bit to see if the very fresh catnip with no cross-cat contamination made any difference.
She sniffed it over, sniffed it again, and then slowly, she rubbed her face on it, once each side, like a person savoring a bite of ice cream in slow motion. Then she abruptly snapped to herself and backed off. I left it there. But those seconds of initial reaction were the most response I have seen from this cat to any toy. I’ll enjoy watching to see if it moves around the room between my visits. But she did react to it. Baby steps.
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Awwww …. yay Little Bit!
Now I seem to have something in my eye …
The toy has moved about a foot this morning.
She’s adjusting well, I think, given her over-a-decade in her previous life. The timetables are way uneven here. She does have a limit on petting, will seem to enjoy it at first, and then it’s just too much and she suddenly will swat, so I’m trying to stay just under the limit. Short visits, some pep talks, a few strokes, occasional dollop of Fancy Feast (but not every time), and then leave.
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A little wild nature here. I was heading to the woods this morning with Rascal alongside and Satin coming with us, too, when a mouse bounced out in front of us. Rascal is like lightning. Absolutely lethal. She turned off to enjoy her dessert after breakfast, and Satin considered making a claim on it and then wisely decided to let discretion be the better part of valor.
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Little Bit is getting several micro visits a day. She has shown a limit that she hits (and hits it with claws), so I’m trying to stay under that. Just a minute or so, come in, talk to her or to the bed if she’s currently under it, a stroke or two if she gets close enough to give me the opportunity, leave before it gets too much for her.
I went in just now, and she was having a sun nap. This is the most relaxed I have seen this cat all week. Note the stretched front end. She did, of course, get up as I came in, but she let me get closer than she ever has this time before hitting her feet. We’re making progress.
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Is there somewhere to sit and read (or craft) for a few minutes? Somewhere away from her chosen place, but in the room? Just to give her a chance to observe you, and think about you, without having to deal with the pressure of your attention.
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I had a very feral cat that I “rescued” from her colony. They had decided to reject her and would not let her near the food so I took her home with me where she lived in the bathroom for several months. When she was released she spent most of her time perched in a couple of different places but really only felt comfortable with me when I was in the bathroom and occupied. (I guess I was “safe” then.) She never really came around to me or a lot of my other cats but did eventually have several toys that she would play with. Her favorite was a wand with a long fleece strip attached to it that she would drag thru the house at various hours mostly in the wee hours of the morning and yell at.
Little Bit will come around bit by bit (no pun intended just happy accident). If she is as old as you think, it may take awhile to overcome all she has had ingrained in her due to her previous living situation.
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Was that a yawn, hiss, or did she talk to you?
I’m glad you got her inside!
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She was talking to me. I was in a hurry to get the shot because I knew she would get up promptly as I came in, which she did.
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