Makin' the Grade

[ornoth]

So it’s been three days, and things are starting to settle down a bit chez Grady. Here’s a few notes.

The first thing to note is the name discrepancy. The card on his cage at the kennel said “Grady”, but the info sheet the owner filled out said “Gray”. So he might not be used to Grady, but it’s an infinitely better name than “Gray”, so it’s gonna stick. it’s close enough that even if he’s used to “Gray”, it won’t matter.

The kennel card also said he was around three years old, but the owner’s sheet says he’s one. He looks and acts one, too. He’s smallish, still a bit unsteady on his feet, and has some pretty kitteny behaviors. So I think I’m gonna have a more energetic, untrained cat than I expected.

I’ve had a couple occasions to observe the owner-mentioned “hand clapping” behavior. It’s more like he sits up, puts his paws together, and raises them up and down together. Online references can be found for cats clapping or praying, including specific references to Chartreux, a grey breed. He seems to do it mostly when he wants something. I’ll be sure to try to get pix and/or video for your amusement.

His resppiratory infection is still quite there, although perhaps it’s getting better slowly. I was given a liquid antibiotic to give him for ten days, and fortunately he seems to tolerate my administering it to him, which is a procedure not unlike pilling. So far so good there.

The furniture scratching… is something we’ll work on over time. The good news is that his favorite place so far seems to be the entryway to the living room, which is solid brick. He can scratch that all he wants, but I hope to wean him over to cardboard boxes and a scratching post.

His favorite toy so far? Livestrong-style rubber bracelets. He loves batting them around, flipping them, rolling them, and of course biting them. Fortunately, they’re cheap and I already have a good supply of them.

I’d say the only real difficulty right now is that when he gets excited he nips, but again that’s something we’ll train out of him. So far I’m making plaintive kitty-in-pain noises and leaving him alone when he does that, but if that doesn’t get through, we’ll move to clapping and the squirt bottle, although I’d prefer not to use negative reinforcement with him unless absolutely necessary.