He is not a ‘stray cat’, as we know exactly where he came from. Tom is still all over every visitor, indeed fussing visitors desperately. Things are definitely improving as the number of fights and frozen standoffs has gone down greatly. For some reason Tom is now sleeping regularly on the window ledge at the top of the stairs, where Janet placed a cat jumper. He used to be on top of a large cupboard in the spare room.
Why the change? Don't know. Speculation: I wonder if it was more difficult for him getting out of the spare room because he never knew who he might meet when exiting the room onto a landing which he could not survey in advance and which could possibly have five cats on it. Now he can see all the other cats so no fear of the unknown or ambush or sudden encounters. He can wait until other cats have gone before he goes outside or goes to his food bowl.
He was in this position all night last night, and I went to to the loo and did not see him. My eyesight is absolutely shot, -4L/-4R dioptres. I was looking out for him but I did not know where to look and he was just a dark coloured blob with my kind of eyesight so I failed to spot him so I was later told. He was not disturbed by the humans coming and going. The other cats know he is there, so Janet tells me, and they have chosen to ignore him.
I am hoping this might be the beginning of a new period of improved harmony. Tiddy Puss / Orange, despite his extreme age, was top cat and he had decided that it was his job to scrag Tom as part of his statutory duty to defend the group against all aliens. With Orange gone no-one feels a desperate need to cause any trouble. Janet has some of this pheromone voodoo juice 'lactating female dope' in a disperser which plugs into a mains plug. With any luck this stuff will help, and now, given where Tom is parked, he is getting a huge dose, which is excellent.
I can dream, that one day they might all integrate and simply live together. It is odd how he prefers this home to his original home. I suspect that he might have several homes, and for all I know their owners may possibly think that they are the only humans in Tom’s life. Perhaps the thing to do would be to put a collar on him with our phone number and instructions.
