Zipper and Zoom: Peace in our time?
The relationship between the two cats is going swimmingly. They spent much of the morning chasing one another—but in a playful way (with just a frisson of fear remaining to make it extra exciting). No hissing, no claws, and in fact barely any physical contact. But following one another over and around furniture and from room to room. Lots of hiding and jumping out and plenty more face to face sniffing. They even joined in on playing with a single cat toy—without snarling at one another. This is happening! They’re becoming friends! And it’s adorable.
Zoom is enjoying her cat toys, while still wanting to attack us delicious humans. She’s still having accidents outside the littler box, but they seem to be in the bathroom… so at least they’re close?
I have a harness and lead designed for teaching a cat to walk, and British Shorthair cats (like Zoom’s mother) have a reputation for being (a) smart enough to learn how to walk on a lead, (b) incredibly good hunters—so that’s more reason to keep her inside, and (c) inclined to obesity… so they need exercise. Ideally on a leash.
Clearly, teaching her to walk on a lead is an excellent plan. So today I put the harness and lead on her for the first time, and managed to walk her from the living room to my room and back again, and I opened the back door to let her out (on the leash). It was a couple of minutes, but she handled it really well—most cats simply flop to the ground and refuse to move. She walked—walked, not ran. I was easily able to pace myself to her, and since she knows her own name (or thinks it means ‘food’, which works just as well) I was able to get her to follow me a little.
She likes me way more than the others, which is highly gratifying while also being perfectly fair. With greater energy, she’s getting harder to photograph.
Incidentally, if you’re here for cat-related education I think I’ve covered pretty much everything I know. But we’re not running out of cute pics anytime soon.
Attacking the couch, as is the duty of kittens. 
Felicity Banks 
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