Jeremiah and suite-mate Jack continue to have periodic fights. No other cats in the FIV+ suite seem to want to get involved, which is fortunate, as these two are enough trouble on their own when they mix it up! Neither Jeremiah nor Jack appear to fight with any of the other cats in the suite, so our best guess is that it’s a battle for the position of ’top cat’.
In other news, there’s a new girl in town, a black-and-white charmer named Penelope (shown in the photo below). So far, The Big Guy has acted characteristically around her, meaning that he ignores her. She hasn’t ventured far from her crate yet (when we introduce a cat into a suite, we’ll keep the new cat in a large crate for a day or so, until they have a chance to get a little familiar with their new surroundings and the new smells there), but I have to wonder how long it will be until we go into FIV one morning and find her sharing Jeremiah’s basket.
During a warm day a week or so ago, as a treat, I put Jeremiah into the solarium attached to his suite. He’s always loved being out there, and in any case I thought it might be nice if he and Jack had a break from one another (they had obviously fought the night before, as Jeremiah had a new scratch under his good eye). If you can believe it, Jeremiah acted as though he hated the solarium. He stayed up at the top of the ramp; whenever I came into the room, he’d run down to me, squeaking pitifully. But his performance needs work, because immediately after telling me his sad story and rubbing on me briefly, he’d bury his face in his food bowl, the big ham. He did settle down after a while, but we’ll probably wait for more consistently warm weather before putting him out there again.
As always, thank you for helping us care for The Big Guy!