It has been a little more than a month since Khaleesi came to live with us. Because of her background, she is not following a typical path of settling in. The first two years of her life were spent in a setting where she had little or no interaction with humans, but was in the company of 40+ cats. When she finally met humans, she was being stuffed into a carrier, poked with needles, given medications – nothing that gave her any reason to trust humans or seek us out.
Mostly, she still makes her home in the basement, among the furniture and moving boxes. She has explored the tunnels and passages from one end of the space to the other. She comes upstairs a few times a day for food and water, carefully choosing times when the rest of us are either asleep or gone. If she encounters Russell or Sadie, she stands her ground and has a loud and enthusiastic discussion with them. If she encounters me, she heads for a hiding place.
So we wait. We let Khaleesi set her own pace, get comfortable an inch at a time. I’ll look forward to the time when she is comfortable being in the same room with the rest of us. And I think it will happen. I just don’t know when.
An Explosion of Color and Texture 