Sunday, June 24, 2007

Obstinate, or Scared?

The cat is still huddling behind the old refrigerator in the basement. The routine the last two days now has been that I go and reach my arm as far behind the fridge as I can, pet her, and try to coax her to come out. So far, she's come out twice. Today I got to pet her, and brush her. But, as soon as I let go of her, she ran back behind the fridge.

My mom keeps saying she'll come out when she's not scared anymore, but...

Is it possible she'll stay back there forever?

1 comment:

jason vande brake said...

It is not possible. I was just talking about this with one of my professors, Annie. Her cat, Masha, did exactly the same thing for quite some time after Annie brought her home. Except it was in a closet. Her friend, one of my other professors, Dudley, is - I kid you not - a cat therapist. What he suggested was that they have a small dinner party in the room adjacent to the bedroom (where Masha was holed up in the closet) and simply have a good time and not directly engage Masha. So they did and eventually, during the party, Masha poked her head out to see what was going on. Dudley played with the cat for a while and assured Annie that Masha liked it at her new home, that she was a little nervous sometimes, but was just getting adjusted.

So, if it's possible, maybe do some positive-vibe sort of activity in a nearby room to get her curiosity going. She'll just take longer than a person might to get used to things.

You should also let her play with the gun you found.