No better

Things aren't improving. In fact, they're getting worse. I stopped for dinner on the way home, and got home about 8:00. Pyewacket was in the living room at the back window, and Dinah was in the dining room at the front window. I sat down, and Dinah sat on my lap, but she was uneasy and couldn't settle down. A few minutes later, Pyewacket walked in from the living room, stopped and looked at her, and Dinah started growling, so I got up and stuck Dinah on the basement landing and shut the door.

I got up and did some stuff--changed my clothes, cleaned off the dining room table, went through the mail--then sat down and watched television for a little while (a totally bizarre program about female body builders), then went to let Dinah out and see if we could have a little peace. No, of course not. She stuck her head out of the basement door, Pyewacket saw her, and they both immediately started hissing.

So I shoved Dinah back into the basement, then got a bottle of water, my book, and a scoop of cat food, and went down to spend a little time with her. Of course, every time I go through the door I have to be sure that one cat doesn't come in and one doesn't go out. What we need is an airlock . . .

I spent about a half hour down in the basement with Dinah. We have a bed down there, and I sat on it, propped up against the headboard, and she curled up on me and purred and purred, and it made me feel so awful, because I still have no idea of what we're going to do. Bob keeps telling me not to worry about it, that we'll work it out, but I don't see how. It will be better when he gets home tonight, because Pyewacket will be upstairs with him rather than wanting to hang out with me, but it's all so tense that I can hardly stand it.

Since Pyewacket spent Sunday night in the basement, last night was Dinah's turn, and I left here there around 10:30 and came up and went to bed. I didn't dare leave them both loose in the house, and although I felt guilty about it, I didn't want to shut Pye out of the bedroom, although I don't actually think she slept in the bedroom, at least I don't remember her being there.

This morning we had the same fiasco--I got up, showered, and dressed, came down and let Dinah out, she sat on my lap for about five minutes before Pyewacket came around the corner and stared at her, and they started hissing, and I stuck her back through the basement door before anything could happen. I try to break the mood by yelling or waving my hand in front of them, or trying to distract them in other ways, but Pye has gotten aggressive and won't back down. I'm not blaming her, I know it's because Dinah has attacked her so many times, but now it seems the roles are reversed.

As far as we know, they're okay at home together, that is, we haven't found any bloodstains, and neither of them are limping or appear to be injured in any way, so this week I've just been opening the doors and going to work and trying not to worry about what they're doing. I mean, obviously they're not just fighting all day long. I assume they head off to various spots and sleep most of the day and avoid seeing each other, but once we're home, they want to be with us, and hence the problems.

Bob has said he's tempted to let them go at it and see what happens--that maybe Pyewacket needs to establish dominance again as the alpha cat, but it's SO scary when they fight, and so dangerous.

Someone said the other day that it would be like having your kids fighting all the time, and I suppose that's sort of true, except it's more like having your kids fighting all the time with knives. And screaming.

I've been listening to The Time Traveler's Wife in the car. I thought it was the unabridged version, so I was really annoyed to find that I had purchased the abridged version from Audible. I never listen to the abridged versions of books, I have a real objection to that.

But I'm enjoying the book, and actually now I'm kind of glad that it's the abridged version, because now I want to actually read the book. I already ahve it--someone sent it to me a few months ago because I had it on my Wish List. Several people had recommended it to me, but I had resisted because the premise sounded so strange. At first, thinking about it was making my head hurt, but now I'm just enjoying the story and not trying to figure out the physics.

previous | next