Cat Lovers Take a Look...The Rest of You...Let the Video Load and Fast Forward a Bit or What Not, But It Has Something For All of You...

Angus and Stilton meet for the first time...on VIDEO!

The Meeting of the (Little) Minds....

So, we finally bite the bullet and open the kitchen door.  Leaving Stilton free to roam.  And Angus free to hunt.  The initial confusion is plain stupid.  Stilton more afraid of the new space afforded to him than another cat in the mix.  Angus, big talker, stares, puffed up, but all show. 

Stilty steps, ballerina like, past a stoic Angus. 

"You don't belong here..." Angus seems to say. 

"But check out the place..." he concedes. 

Baby steps.  Looks like this eventually might work.  Fingers crossed....

Sooo Stilton Wants Me to Lift His Furry Ass Up Into the Windowsill, Even Though He Can Get Up There Himself...!...

Jaime swears Stilton is calling for his Daddy.  'Meuw, Meuw...'

Jaime is right.

After a half hour of time in the kitchen with Stilty, he finally feels comfortable enough coming out of his 'zen' spot.  He hesitates to jump up onto the windowsill.  Mind you he can easily make this leap.

But looking at me, big eyed, and sacrificed, he stretches his limbs as if to make the move.  Only to tense himself and again just give me those ridiculous needy eyes.

Leaving for a minute I feel for my little old man.

Upon return, Stilton leaps off the sill.  Kid in a cookie jar.  Teenager in the liquor cabinet.

Stilton is either too old, or too much of a cat to feel remorse.

Smacking the Door, Smacking the Door! Meuw, Meuw...

It is getting closer, a week or so now, until Angus an Stilton will meet, strictly under parental supervision at first.  Stilt is clearly getting a little fed up being stuck in the kitchen.  He is taking now to smacking the accordion door we installed, "meuwing" all the while.  Angus creeps up and peers under the door where there is an inch or so opening.  He growls/hisses/spits.  The "meuws" instantly stop!  Poor Stilty...

And so I kinda figured Jaime would try to install this door on her own...

And I was right!  And while I read the Sunday Times, she reads Home Depot instructions.

Eventually we succeed in installing the door.

Stilton has a new home.

Meuw...meuw....

Angus is just a bit curious...

Hiss...Hiss...

Long Story Short...

Perhaps I overreacted when Stilton jumped the gate,  calling cat behaviorists across the country.  Sure,  I can see now how that can be seen as obsessive.  I did not see an option for him to live in this new apartment.

I was hysterical.

I was not forward thinking.  Or, perhaps, as Jaime not so delicately points out later, was not really thinking at all.

"Let me out now, please...meuw..meuw..."

After the gate fiasco, we realize we need a much more secure situation.  I am at a loss.  Jaime, in her infinite wisdom suggests a sliding accordion style door that we can put in the kitchen doorway.  The local Home Depot does not sell them.  Convinced, that no matter what we are installing we will need help, I text some other friends. 

Meanwhile, Angus camps out by the bathroom door, presumably seething at the unfamiliar smells creeping into his apartment.

Ultimately the next day we have to go to Jersey anyway for Jaime's neice's birthday, so we borrow a car and hit up a Home Depot, Jersey style. 

Stilton has one more night in the bathroom at least.  Soon a  friend will come over and help us put this door in.  Get the furry little guy a bit more space and even a window...