And there's a banister I like looking through, like this:
And I 've been the only cat in this whole house, and I miss my brother Gerald so much, since I've never had a new house all to myself, so until now I 've really been wanting some cat company.Then last night at about 9:30 pm, Daddy came home with his friend Andrew (he’s babysat me a couple times) and Andrew was carrying a cage with a girl-cat in it! And I figured she must be Andrew’s cat, and I could hear her growling inside her cage as soon as she saw me, and her growl said, “My name is Pussy Galore, and I’ve never met a big black cat before, so get away from me!” And she looks like this:
So I poofed up my tail to three times its size because I was so excited, but Daddy put me upstairs in the bedroom and I wasn’t allowed to see Pussy Galore for a long time so that she could wander around my house first (and notice I said "MY" house!). Daddy told me later that she came out of her cage very, very slowly and sniffed the floor around her cage, then she sniffed a potted plant, and then she sniffed the drapes by my bay window, and then she crouched down by the window and hid behind the curtains. Daddy put out food and water and a litter box for her and let her sit right where she was behind the curtains which is where she felt safe. And here's a picture of her once she got out from under the curtains:
And I was waiting for Daddy in the bedroom, and was very curious about this strange girl-cat in my house, but I didn’t make any fuss about letting me out. Daddy got up after a couple hours and still wouldn’t let me out of the bedroom; but he told me that Pussy Galore had left the curtains and had started to sniff out the rest of the room and gradually the entire ground floor, and she was very methodical, as if her nose was a vacuum cleaner going over every inch of the carpet, and if she ever caught Daddy’s eye, she’d run away. Daddy went back to bed for another couple hours, then finally I couldn’t stand it any more so I tried waking him up by pawing his shoulder, and when that didn't work I bit his ear, and when he swatted at me I sat my butt on his face, and that worked! So Daddy opened the door, and this time Pussy Galore was in the hallway right outside our bedroom, just sitting and waiting for us to come out! But Daddy picked me up and put me in the bathroom and shut me in there, and all the time Pussy Galore was growling because she had seen me! But Daddy turned on the tub so I could have a drink of water, which I did, but what I really wanted was to suss out that new girl-cat! But sure enough, Daddy came back to the bathroom and scooped me up and put me in the bedroom with him and shut the door, but I could smell Pussy Galore’s stank on Daddy’s legs, so she had already started rubbing him and laying claim on him.
Finally in the morning, Uncle Kevin got up and let me out of the bedroom, and I ran straight to the bathroom where I smelled Pussy Galore’s pee on the bath mat, and I found Pussy Galore sitting in the cupboard on top of some clean sheets, and Kevin got the surprise of his life when Pussy Galore started hissing at me from inside the cupboard—so of course I started hissing back. Daddy zoomed in and dragged me back into the bedroom, and Pussy Galore apparently ran downstairs and hid underneath the living room sofa.
It was finally about 10:00 a.m. this morning when Daddy fetched Pussy Galore from under the sofa and took her upstairs, and I heard him say, “It’s time to put these cats together for better or worse, and I don’t want Pussy Galore to feel like she’s in a corner, so she needs the chance to stand her ground when Oscar comes out.” So Daddy opened the door, and I poked my head out very slowly, and Pussy Galore took one look at me and growled and darted down the stairs, and of course I zoomed afterwards, and by the time I got down there, Pussy Galore was back underneath the sofa growling, so I stuck my head underneath to look at her and poofed out my tail, like this:
Now, if you’re not a cat psychologist, I’ll tell you that we cats prefer not to fight with each other if we can help it, and if we’re afraid and sussing up a stranger, most of what we do is posturing, so there was some growling and hissing, but Pussy Galore and I kept our distance from each other, so there was no biting or scratching or fur flying, and after about five minutes of sussing her out, I decided to let her be and proceeded to sniff every inch of the house where she’d been, starting with her food dish—and naturally, I decided to eat her food—plus the spot where she had hid behind the curtains. I was moving as slowly and trance-like as she had done, and she had a very peculiar smell, and after about half an hour I had gone into the other rooms of my house, but then Daddy decided to take Pussy Galore back to her home and let me feel like I had the place back to myself, so he let me suss out Pussy Galore one last time while she was in her cage, where she would feel safe, and where I could see that she was leaving, and it ended up something of a hissing match, but at least we said farewell.
