Monday they came to hook up my internet. I had an outlet that I wanted it to go to (upstairs in the corner) because it would be convenient to put the modem there, but it wasn’t hot when the technician tried it. It turned out that none of the outlets were, and even the two cables run to the back corner of my house from the utility box had no signal. Rearranging the plugs in the utility box had no effect, so the guy ran a new line to the back of my house. That one worked and even got a signal inside to the outlet that I knew was connected to the back corner of the house. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see a cable in the crawl space going to the end of the house to go upstairs, and when we checked it there was about six inches of cable on the back of that wall plate, then it was cut off. The guess was that there was a satellite mounted on the side of the house that used to go to that outlet, but the Comcast technician doesn’t run wires through walls so my modem is currently at the bottom of the stairs with my long network cable going up the stairs to the router. I’ll have to fix that some time, but this works so no idea when I’ll get to it.
I’d let the cats see each other through a partially opened door a couple times, and while Talore was quick to hiss and try to swat Dash if he made a sudden movement they seemed somewhat accepting. Last night I opened the door and let them into the same area (intentionally for the first time).
Talore wasn’t exactly happy, but she wasn’t aggressive and just growled/swatted when Dash came too close. For his part, Dash had no problem walking right up to Talore to sniff at her, and frequent swattings (I don’t think Talore was using claws, but both cats have trimmed claws anyways) completely failed to deter him. One time he walked right up to her and when Talore started swatting the top of his head he just lay down and got smacked till Talore left.
For a while Talore was trying to ignore Dash but keep track of him at the same time. She’d sit on my desk with her head hanging off the side to watch the rest of the room, but she specifically wouldn’t look at Dash or me when I was holding him. At one point Dash jumped on the desk and Talore glared at him, then turned her back. Dash then quietly walked right up behind her, but he did back off when her ears perked up and she turned to look at him. At least he didn’t pounce on her tail like he acted like he was going to do at one point. Talore also didn’t at all want to be close to Dash, so when he lay down on the top step and she wanted to be upstairs Talore ran up the stairs and jumped over him, which completely panicked Dash, but they just went different directions from there.
After letting them into the same area most of the time I’ve been home since last night (with breaks when one seems overly stressed) they’re doing better, though Dash is playful and Talore is very much not certain about Dash running at her. One of the guides I read said to distract them both with a toy, but with Dash moving around Talore was watching him and Dash completely ignored the fact that he nearly jumped on Talore; or at least he did until she hissed and smacked him a few times. This last time I let them out Talore actually tried to sniff at Dash (without hissing at him or anything), but he was surprised by her move toward him and backed off. I also did get them to both attack a toy together (from opposite sides of the bottom step so they couldn’t see each other), but when they nearly ran into each other head first Talore jumped out of the way and hid under a chair.
Just now they were both lying on one end of my desk facing each other, but when I went to take a picture Talore jumped off the desk.
I took a picture out my bedroom window today:
Talore of course stuck her head in the frame, but she didn’t block much. It’s hard to judge scale in that picture, partly because my fence is short, so I took a picture from a living room window to show that the neighborhood I’m looking down on isn’t too close:
The fence on the near side of the ditch is maintained by the HOA of the neighborhood I live in, but the close fence is mine (and it’s leaning badly). I looked at townhouses in the neighborhood across the ditch, but they were smaller and the garages aren’t attached (or 2-car) like mine. Off along the right of the HOA fence is the common area, where there are a few small trees and stuff. I still haven’t been over there and I haven’t seen anybody out there, but the HOA pays to maintain it.
Dash just wandered around on my desk for a bit (both cats left when I went downstairs for food) and lay down almost next to Talore:
Earlier they were facing each other, but facing opposite directions just now let Talore turn and sniff at Dash without disturbing him. She probably bothered with it because he kept flicking her back with his tail, but there was no growling or hissing involved and neither cat left in a rush, so more progress!
I wanted to turn in the keys to my apartment today, but cleaning was taking forever so I finished the bedroom, closet, and bathroom and called it a day. I had planned to go clean last night, but I had to work late and by the time I got off it was raining and I just wanted to go home. Now the plan is to go finish cleaning tomorrow afternoon (including the floors behind appliances, that won’t be fun) and leave the keys in the drop box.