It’s been a few weeks since I’ve written about my adventure with the new kitten, Spriggan. Two days ago, he went in for his neutering surgery and final kitten booster shots. Everything went well, and he’s recovering like a champ. In fact, he had no down time as far as I saw at all.
Due to the surgery, I’m keeping him separated for a few days from Sebastian. When they’re together, they tend to rush around the house like mad cats, and I want Spriggan to take it easy and heal up first. I’ll probably re-introduce them again this weekend. I’ve heard that neutering sometimes makes the kitten smell like a new cat, so I want to make sure I have plenty of time at home during this process.
Before that, I was still keeping Spriggan in his own room at night and while I was at work. I allow the two of them to romp when I’m home and all day on weekends.
Sebastian’s attitude has significantly improved over time. While he still does dominate over Spriggan when he gets in the mood, most of their interactions are chasing and playing. In fact, there’s almost too much cat energy going on around my house! When I have to focus on stuff, like art or raids, I separate them. Usually, Spriggan is pretty patient if I put him in his room for short times… just as long as he gets to romp again later.
Right now, he’s fussy because he wants out, and I’m not letting that happen.
The cats are still working through ownership of things. The cat tree by the window, for example, tends to be Sebastian’s spot all day long. Spriggan instantly took to it, so sometimes Sebastian gets whiney that his spot was taken. I’m going to have to invest in another cat tree, it seems.
I’m also working on catifying the guest bedroom. I’ve made it so that this little cat condo I bought is set up in that window for the kitten to use. This has gone over well.
I have an old, rickety desk that I need to get out of that back room to make more space. I’d also like to change out the curtains in there since the drapery is super old now, and quite enticing for a kitten to climb. Some of this is going to have to wait until tax returns, though! But it’s a project for sure.
I still think Spriggan is such a great name for a little black cat! I love seeing the kitten chronicles and I’m glad he and Sebastian are working things out.
Thanks! I was going back and forth on what to name him for a while. Then, one night, we were running Copperbell Mines in FFXIV, and fighting spriggans. I realized they’re fluffy and black like my kitten… and that was that.
As a plus, “kitten” has some similar ending sounds to “spriggan,” and he does respond to me when I call him “kitten.” So I’m hoping he’ll learn his name by sound association. 🙂
He will, you just have to keep using his name. All animals are like that. I did that when I got Raven, she was a lost dog that no one wanted, so we kept her, and I renamed her Raven, took about a week for her to get use to it, but now she answers to that, and “Rave”, and whatever other cute name I think of up for her. I’m so glad to see you kept him. I’ve noticed in our area that Black dogs and cats rarely get adopted due to some off the wall superstition about black animals.
Yeah, we have the same issues here with black cats and dogs. It’s part of what made me decide to rescue him, rather than see him go to the animal shelter. I knew he’d have a long wait there.