This is a slightly modified photograph of Gabriel messing around next to me while I was working in bed. I say “modified” because it is a colour photograph which I’ve turned into a black-and-white one or one which is very nearly black-and-white.
Gabriel has recently learned to come into the bedroom and play on the bed and be around me while I work in the early hours of the morning. It took about a week for him to come into the bedroom and recognise the fact that I go there to sleep. He originally confined himself to the living room and the second bedroom where his litter tray is.
He seems to associate certain locations with me and therefore as safe locations. It takes him a little while to learn it. It is rather strange that at the moment he is more fearful of me when I walk into the second bedroom where his litter tray and cat tree are because that is where I first interacted with him. Although when I walk into any room I give him forewarning by talking to him to announce my arrival and I walk very slowly.
Quick movements of any kind still spook him. Everything has to be done smoothly or slowly. He’s still getting used to the environment and me. Gradually he is expanding his knowledge of the place. He is also expanding his interpretations of what I do and where I am in the apartment.
Although he is much improved from when he arrived in terms of domestication, as can be seen by the photographs, in truth there still a long way to go before you could say he’s fully domesticated and suitable for adoption.
That said, at present, there is very little likelihood that he will be adopted because I’ll be doing it myself 😉 . As expected, I have become very connected to him so much so that I can foresee that at the end of the three months that it might take for Gabriel to become fully domesticated through socialisation, I will be firmly connected to him and at that time highly unlikely to give him up to an adopter.
This is why I have informed the shelter organization of my feelings at this early stage.
Oh Michael its that bonding you have with him isn’t it? that feeling that know one could possibly know him or love him as you do which is quite true in a way because you have coaxed him and been with him through his most frightened times