Easy Peasy Sunday

Our week was not as calm as we wanted. Putih and Tanaka had a few short spats and bouts of growling at each other. I decided to allow Putih more time to mingle and she discovered that my bedroom was a good place to settle in the afternoons. She slept on the bed for the whole afternoon on Thursday and decided she liked it. Ever since then she had been trying to get on the bed again much to Tanaka's disgust. They had growled at each other several times but that was it. They both had several timeouts as well. Akira has yet to come out of her room in the afternoons. She told Fern that it was a 'safe' place. I am afraid that she is using it to hide from Putih as well eventhough Putih had not chased her again after the last time.  I do not wish to add any more stress on her as her over grooming had also resulted in bald hind paws.  Bujang has been the only calm and steady influence on the cats and I suspect on the human beans as well although I noticed that Putih had been growling at him more. Characteristically, Bujang was not much bothered eventhough she had growled at him when he was at the litter bin. He just looked at her and continued with his business until I told her to stop. She stopped immediately and ran off to sit on the washing machine which has become her new favourite place. 

I thought the most exciting thing to have happened in our quiet lives was that yesterday I decided on a whim, after Bujang's walk, to bring Tanaka downstairs. The last time he was downstairs was when he was 4 and he did not like it. Yesterday, he sat in the carrier for 10 minutes just looking at the outside and listening to the outside noises. Then he decided to step outside and did not look back. He walked about at the void deck, looking and enjoying the new space. The different textures of the floor surprised him, especially the metal grates on top of the drains. But at no point did he step out onto the grass. Nevertheless I thought he had a good time walking and we would be walking more downstairs as it would allow him much more freedom to explore new things. He had a 20-minute walk and then he decided to sit in the carrier. I decided that for the first time, 20 minutes was more than enough and brought him home. At home he spent some time grooming possibly to calm himself down as well. 

Tanaka's 2nd walk downstairs

Oh dear...what is happening?

Tanaka's second experience with walking outside last Tuesday was not quite the success I had wanted it to be. He was nervous and actually snarled at Bujang several times. I think he did not recognise Bujang in his red walking jacket or maybe he was just too nervous. He did not walk about much, slinking against columns and walking in the drain. Since parts of the drain was wet, he did not get a chance to walk continuously.

His walk was only for 20 minutes. Maybe later, we could try a longer walk.

PS: This is my nephew who took the Just Because Friday pics (above)

Bruffers in the park

Tanaka saw Bujang walking and decided to follow him...

Bujang was surprised to see Tanaka and went to investigate...

Hmmm...he is okay so my work is done...

Bujang decided to walk over to the other side where the grass was greener and tasted better...

Tanaka investigating the Outside...

Since Cousin R came to our house earlier, I asked her if she would bring Tanaka downstairs while I bring Bujang. She agreed and so after all the harnesses were in place, Cousin R said that she would just persuade Tanaka to walk but it turned out that she had to carry him into the lift. He was only persuaded that it was ok to walk when he saw Bujang and decided that all was ok. He had quite a good time, except when he got spooked by Minah. Apart from that, all went fine with the both of them. He enjoyed himself tremendously :)

Tanaka Then and Now

Tanaka at 6 months when he was training to use a little harness...

Tanaka this evening, walking fearlessly in his matching blue leash and blue walking jacket...

Blogger is playing tricks on me tonight and the video of Tanaka walking was taking too long to get uploaded. So maybe I would upload the videos tomorrow and just post his pics today. He has come a long way and I hope he takes to walking, like Bujang. Grandma warned me that he might be as impatient as Bujang and might yell when I am late in taking him downstairs to walk. Bujang would yell continuously in the afternoon and after his walk, he would be quite mellow and behave so much nicer to all the kitties and the human beans :)

The Final Countdown

An older picture of Minah...the community cat

Tanaka was frightened by Minah and skulked close to the carrier...

Then he looked around for her...

And looked behind him just in case...

Then he decided to just stay with me and relaxed or a bit...

The one thing I can say about Minah, our female community cat, is that she is temperamental. Today, she saw Tanaka and decided that she liked him. Of course she saw Cousin R and knew that she would be safe from harm. Cousin R said Minah mewed her greetings softly and rolled about in a friendly way. She tried to introduce Tanaka to Minah but he was much too frightened of her and snarled at Minah several times.

So she brought Tanaka to walk near Bujang and I and when Tanaka saw us, he snarled at us too...several times. I think he was frightened and wanted us all to know it. I asked Cousin R to walk Bujang and Tanaka and I just stayed close together. He circled about and finally settled down near me. It took about 20 minutes for his breathing to slow down and for him to stop trembling.

As it was getting late, Cousin R and I got Bujang into the carrier and we persuaded Tanaka to walk to the lift but he wanted to take a detour :) I was glad that he got over his fright but as Cousin R could not persuade him to walk, I bundled him up and carried him to the lift. When we got to our floor, he shot out of the lift and ran home with me walking quickly as I had him on his leash :)

I think he would be ok if I brought him downstairs again and he would not be so afraid but I would have to bring him in his carrier so he can get into it if something bothers him. No more walking from our flat to the park :)