New Year, New Friend!

 

Marty!

Our son is home for college break, so of course his kitten is here for the holidays as well. We were all a little nervous about introducing a fourth cat to the house, but things have gone very smoothly!

Puck and Marty
3 Boys in a Tree

Marty is used to living in my son’s dorm room with him, so he had no problem moving into my son’s bedroom here at the house. We kept the cats separate for the first couple of days, and then started letting Marty loose when we were around to supervise. We had a couple of little hissing fights here and there, but overall, they are all getting along. Marty spent the nights locked in with my son for the first couple of weeks, and he was also locked up when we were out, but now he has free run of the house.

My old lady cat, Logan, is being a little cranky with him, but he has learned to keep his distance from her. Logan would prefer to be an only cat. She and Bean often hiss at each other as well. They mostly give each other space and it’s all fine.

Hector D. Byrd

Hector really surprised me this Christmas. Usually she is petrified of anything new. I put her gift on her cage expecting her to check it out from a distance, and she went right over to it and started tearing into the paper! So brave! It took her about a week to open the toy, but she seemed to enjoy the process. She’d tear up some paper and then ignore it for a couple of days, but she finally opened it and I hung it in her cage. I’m thinking I may always wrap her new toys and let her open them. It seems like a great way for her to get used to something new.

Puck loved all the many boxes around the house for the holidays and checked every single one many times over.

It was a year ago this week that I first got the sugar gliders. Sadly, I’m in the process of looking for a new home for them. They just aren’t a good fit here. The cats are obsessed with them. I thought it would be OK with them being marsupials and not crazy little rodents, but my cats still think they are fun to hunt. I can’t take the gliders out of their cage without the cats prowling around. I have to keep the glider cage partially covered during the day and fully covered at night when they are active because I’m worried about cat claws hurting them through the bars of the cage. If one of the gliders ever happened to escape the cage, it wouldn’t have a chance. I’ve been in touch with a woman from a sugar glider group that has a couple of gliders and wants to add to her colony. She seems knowledgeable and willing to put in the time to acclimate the my boys to her others slowly. She’s coming later this month to meet the boys and take them if all goes well.

I hate rehoming pets. I believe in the home forever thing, but there have been times in my life where I have had to make the very difficult decision to find new homes for pets. Yeti, a shelter dog I adopted had to go when he wouldn’t stop biting my kids.

For a few months now I’ve been trying to make a decision about the gliders. They are so cute and soft, but I can’t really enjoy them. Living with the constant worry of them possibly escaping the cage or getting away from me when they are out isn’t fun. They don’t get out of their cage enough because of it. Quality of life for them living in a cage all the time isn’t great. Yes, I give them the best food, they have plenty of toys, and they definitely enjoy each others company, but their interaction with me is limited, and I feel that this other home where her only pets are gliders will be a better fit. Fingers crossed it all works out.