A Black Heart's Romance

My cats have a love-hate relationship with one another. Zissou was the "only child" for a good 9 months before we adopted Cowgirl. He gets jealous and irritated with her quickly, but she's just a kitten and doesn't know any better. So when Zeez gets some loving, Cowgirl feels the pressing need to make her presence known, as if by spending 5 minutes away from her means we've forgotten she exists. This, of course, irritates Zeez even more. Gosh, mom, can't I have just one minute of private time without her interrupting?!

When we first brought Cowgirl home, we didn't know what kind of behavior to expect out of Zissou. He'd always been a fairly independent cat. If he wanted attention he'd let you know, but he was over and done with it and would go about his business quite quickly. He has never been a "lap cat." He's very content to just be left alone. Zeez isn't a very social cat. He's leery of new people and it takes him a while to adjust to having a new person around. If a strange new person comes around (the plumber or my dad for instance) he spends a good deal of time under the bed until he feels it's safe to emerge. Zeez has always been more of a scaredy cat than one to stand his ground and protect his territory.

The day we brought Cowgirl home was the first time I had ever heard Zeez hiss or growl. And this continued on for quite some time. In fact, the hissing and growling still presents itself to this day, though it has greatly subsided. I can understand where he's coming from. He was used to having dominion over the entire apartment, used to getting all the attention to himself, used to things just the way they were. But Cowgirl was new. And she was rambunctious, curious, unafraid, and wanted to explore everything there was to explore - including Zissou. She was unrestrained and the boldness of this tiny kitten intimidated my large 14 pound cat. He immediately disliked her.

For a week we kept Cowgirl separated from Zeez by locking her in our bathroom while we were at work. I was terrified that, unsupervised, Zeez would destroy her if she got in his path. After monitoring their limited interactions while we were at home, we realized that Cowgirl was pretty tough for a 3 month old kitten and she could hold her own against Zeez. For the most part he just hissed and ran away from her if she approached him anyway. So they were both free to roam the house together.

It took a long time for me to feel fully comfortable leaving them alone together without worrying. Zeez didn't seem to be taking to her at all, though she persisted to make him a friend. Eventually Zeez began to come around to her and we would catch them wrestling every now and then, or tearing through the apartment in pursuit of each other - at first rare occurrences, now commonplace. I can't say that Zeez actually likes Cowgirl, but at least now he tolerates her, and they find enjoyment in terrorizing each other. Sometimes they even share the bed or the couch for a nap. And they can often be found grooming each other before or after a wrestling match.

Just this afternoon, I was sitting in my rocking chair contemplating Christmas gift ideas when I noticed that the blanket covering the couch was moving. Zeez had crawled into the blanket that I keep tucked around the couch and he was trying to make himself a cozy bed for a nap. Cowgirl found this unexpected movement thoroughly entertaining, however, and began an attack. They played and wrestled for quite some time, Zeez nice and snug under the blanket, Cowgirl happily trying to untuck him. It's these moments that I'm grateful for, because there were many times in the beginning where I believed they would never get along. It's these moments that give me hope that maybe they will get to be such good friends that I will come home to find them snuggling together. But for now we just take things one day at a time.