Day 313 - Ceasefire Agreement

mutually assured dozing

A tentative truce has been negotiated over the last few days, and so far, it's holding up well.

For her part, Loz unilaterally laid down her arms over a week ago, having only felt the need to demonstrate their efficiency and effectiveness once. 

Unfortunately, that event led Robin to feel somewhat unsure of the cat, and he's since taken quite some convincing that she is, in fact, harmless (as long as he behaves, natch).

However, in the presence of a uniting force such as Anna or a fire, he's gradually relaxing.

It's funny, he learns most things very quickly indeed, after only a couple of repetitions...but this one is proving more difficult for him to assimilate.

Loz is having to give him many repetitions of being close to him (either passing through under his nose, or sitting within a couple of feet of him), and displaying clear calming signals to him - squinting her eyes, looking away, purring, being very calm herself - to try to persuade him that she means him no harm.

Robin doesn't feel 100% sure about that all the time, but under some circumstances he's doing really well.

In this photo you can see how, when the forces of Anna and fire are combined, this has a very powerful effect, and Robin is able to mirror the cat's behaviour back at her...

Notice how they are both facing the same direction...both have closed eyes and a minimum of tension around their face...both have front paws tucked under, a clear signal that there is no intent to either move, or strike.

In this way they reinforce their truce, and with patience, they should learn to happily coexist without supervision. 

It's been really fascinating to see the transformation in Loz over recent years. 

Prior to coming to live with Jazz, Bluez and I, she had only ever been terrorised and chased by dogs...suffice to say, she was extremely un-trusting of the labs, and really not happy about having to share space with them. 

However, over a few years she learned to appreciate the presence of the dogs, and the safety they bring...just having a big dog around saves you having to be on the lookout for intruders, for a start. 

Eventually she learned to really like their company...if a fox needed seeing off, she'd come and get them, and try to lead them back to the poor creature...who was only passing by, after all!

Over the last year or two, we gradually realised that she actually followed Jazz around quite a lot.  Although he never looked at her, and they didn't interact at all, she could nearly always be found within a few feet of him...they seemed to have a nice little mutual company thing going on. 

When we brought Robin home, we were a little concerned over how she'd take it...but she's been the perfect role model, giving Robin all the right signals about how to behave.

She's very calm with him, and likes to be close - she's starting to follow him and sit near to him like she did with Jazz. 

I'm really hoping a similar companionship will develop...it would be lovely for both of them.

Now the photo above was taken at around 11.30pm last night, so doesn't really count as a photo of the day...

But this one was taken a few minutes after midnight...

shadow

Having worked so hard to keep Robin calm, once he'd gone to bed Loz had a little energy to burn, so partook of a fun few minutes catching (and killing) the lure that Anna was directing.

Thanks Loz, for showing a wisdom borne of experience, befitting of your Queenly status!

B-)