We have three cats *:
 Harvey Quinn |
 Blackberry / Scrappy |
 Fifi Toupe |
- Boy, Insistent
- Boy, Hesitant
- Girl, Kick yo ass
Fifi just got spayed, so needed to stay from her brothers. Just in time – Harvey has matured, and, his biology is calling for him to be very very curious about female cats. Even if it’s a litter mate.
Harvey and Blackbery have their dates with the vet next week Wednesday.
In the mean time – Fifi’s stitches came out, but Harvey would just NOT leave her alone. So, when unsupervised, I needed to continue to keep them separate.
We have this setup:
- I had to keep Harvey and Fifi Separate
- One partition of cats could roam the hallways if we let them. Either by opening the bedroom door or the bathroom door.
- All cats must have access to litterboxen. (There’s also drinking fountains in each Hab.)
How many combinations could I come up with?
I think the way this breaks down is as follows:
- 2: Either we have F, H+B or F+B, H.
- x2: Either we have F in bedroom or F in bathroom. (and the other pair on the other side)
- x3: Either we have the bedroom open to roam, or the bathroom open to roam, or neither.
Yielding a total of 12 combinations.
Oops. I don’t think I have tried all 12. Some things to narrow it down:
- F HATES being alone – LOVES Human company. Not so much other cats – maybe because they’re smelly boys. So really, access to roaming doesn’t mean much to her, she just hangs with us humans. This brings it from 12 down to 6.
- H HATES being alone; he loves to roam. He views closed doors as challenges to open and sneak past as soon as you open them. So always giving him roaming, same as the above, still at 6. No! down to 4, because H should always be roaming, that rules out the both-locked-in version (which is the “dogs are out” configuration).
- B loves to be near another cat. I think he roams mostly to follow H around. Although he has sneak attacked me at the screen door to the outside in the Family room. Still at six, cause he’s either with H or F.
So the four workables are:
- F+B in bedroom, H in bathroom roaming
- F in bedroom, H+B in bathroom roaming <—Usual
- F+B in bathroom, H in bedroom roaming
- F in bathroom, H+B in bedroom roaming <—no, she cries.
Aha! ruled out another one. So, 3 good combinations.
The standard arrangement has been (at night) F with me in the bedroom, and H+B roaming with access to the bathroom litter box.
The one time I kept H with me, and F+B in the bathroom – he snuggled with me a bit, then went off into the closet and ignored me. Quite cat-like. If I ain’t got the pettings, he aint got time for me.
I think tonight we’ll go with F+B with me, and H out to room with the bathroom.
*Yes, I’m using cat pictures in a blog post. I’ve been told that cat pictures are what makes the internet keep working.
Love my life.
