We’ve had the new cat for a month now and I thought I’d give an update.

– We’ve settled on the name Signal. It just seemed like the cutest name.
– He got pretty sick about a week after he came home. Apparently he caught a very common upper respitory infection at the shelter. He was sneezing constantly and had runny eyes. I brought him to the vet and got him on some antibiotics which had him all better within a few days. The vet’s assistant refered to him as “snurfely.”
– Until he got better, we kept him quarantined in the office. That was a real pain. We let him out occasionally while locking Pixel in another room and he loved it. Finally we let him out permanently and let the chaos ensue. Hissing, growling and all that (mostly by Pixel).
– It’s amazing how they adapt in just a week. Pixel no longer seems to care that he’s here and they even seem to ‘play’. Play being laying on the ground and wrestling each other, followed by periods of chasing each other through the house. It sure seems to keep Pixel distracted.
– Signal has taken to sleeping with us. And not just at the end of the bed, but on the pillow right between Anne and me. You open your eyes and there’s a cat 4 inches from your face. This is cute and all until about 5:30 when he wakes up and decided to play with, oh, nothing in particular on the bed.
– This cat has a slight odor problem. If he walks by you with his tail up, you’ll get a nasty whiff of it. The vet seemed stumped, but suggested we could try changing his food.
– I’m progressively moving his littter box and food into the garage, getting ready for the big ‘merge’. Pixel already has no problem using Signal’s litterbox and drinking his water.
– Signal hasn’t seemed to figure out the cat door yet, which is a prerequisite for moving all his stuff into the garage.
– He’s been gaining a ton of weight. When we picked him up from the shelter, he weighed just under 3 pounds. A week and half later he was almost 4.
– His coat went from a thin, smelly mess to a nice, soft coat in a short time.
– His favorite toy seems to be Anne’s nylons. We’ve been finding them all over the house. When it’s dark, they look surprisingly like the cat had an accident.
– I had forgotten how kittens like to chew and lick your fingers.
– He really enjoys chewing on cables, which could eventually could be a problem.
– He’s really a lap cat; he’ll just sit on your lap for hours. Like right now for example.

Overall, the transition has been pretty smooth and the cats are providing lots of cheap in-house entertainment.