Since she came home on Thursday, Khaleesi has been camping out in the bathroom. That has given her a measure of privacy from the resident cat, Russell, and the very enthusiastic dog, Sadie. It turns out, though, that she is more anxious about humans than about other animals. Because she had lived in a neglectful setting, with almost no human interaction, she was very skittish around me, but didn’t seem at all troubled by the other pets.
This morning I discovered that Khaleesi had been exploring the bathroom. A washcloth had been pulled off the towel rack… right into her water dish. And she had opened the medicine cabinet and knocked a couple of bottles into the sink. I decided that she might need a little more space to play, so I planned a “field trip” into another room in the house. When I got home from church this morning, I was able to pick up her bed/cave, with Khaleesi tucked inside it, and took it into the bedroom. Sadie was eager to join the party; Russell preferred to nap in a sunny spot in the living room.
Russell was the smart one. For a while, Sadie and I watched Khaleesi; Sadie even stuck her entire head inside the opening, but was totally ignored. Remembering that she was active when the rest of us were sleeping, I decided to get in the bed. I read a book, I caught up on Facebook, I took a nap. Khaleesi never came out of her hiding place. From the time I brought her into the bedroom, the only movement she made was to squirm her way beneath the cushion that fits in the bed.
She will stay in a limited space tonight (bedroom or bathroom, I haven’t decided), mainly so that I can find her tomorrow when we have an appointment at the vet. After that, I think I’ll let her have access to the whole house, as much as she wants. And I’ll keep waiting for the day when she figures out that people aren’t so bad, after all.
An Explosion of Color and Texture 