When Zharo Met Colby

We walked into the house with Colby and found Zharo lounging in the bedroom. It took him a few minutes to realize we were holding something that was making adorable kitten noises, but once he did, he was at full attention.

They tentatively assessed each other, on high alert.

Colby was a nervous little purr machine. He was trembling at times, but just purring non-stop.

Colby had been an outdoors kitty up to that point, so one of our first tasks was giving him a bath. Luckily, he was small enough to just bathe in the sink. And he was a remarkably good sport. Also, you may have noticed in some pics he had a scrape on his nose. That was apparently from a recent scrape he got into with his brothers and sisters.

After his bath, we warmed a dish towel in the dryer to comfort him and help him dry off.

There was still much exploring to be done after we'd gotten a little food in him.

Somehow the most comfortable place he could find when he snuggled with us on the couch was sinking into the back of the cushions.

In the days to come, there was much tension in the house. I saw a side of Zharo I'd never seen before. He had suddenly gone from being the youngest cat to being the eldest. These may have been the first times I really ever heard him hiss and grumble. In so many ways, he was reminding me of  my grumpy Travyss, so I think I comforted myself by imagining his spirit had inhabited Zharo's body. :-P Zharo was always my playful, sweet kitty, albeit shy...now he was constantly on edge, easily irritated.

But they've adjusted better to each other as time has gone on. For the first couple of weeks, Colby had been stashed in the guest room while we weren't at home and at night, but now he has full run of the house.

Well, he's still working on his sleeping skills. And we have early mornings in this house, so we've been shutting Zharo IN the bedroom and Colby OUT until he learns to calm down and not attack all of my appendages that move under the sheets.

Are they best buds yet? No, but they're getting there. In my mind, Zharo's buddy will always be Travyss. But Colby's growing on me. ;-)

He's a sweet kitty, always meowing at my feet when I come home from work. He's learning so much from Zharo. Like how to be a good assistant to his papa.

He's learning how to drink water from what Zharo has appointed as the best water source in the house. Zharo learned this from Travyss years ago.

And he's learning that humans are weird and sometimes you just have to go with it.

They've come a long way in the past few weeks,and they're much more tolerable of each other. And I hope it just keeps getting better.