But here I am with the promised post about Cooper.
Dear Cooper. Look at him here, snuggled up to my Sylvac bunny bookends. What a gentle, bookish, dignified creature he looks.
This was taken after he made his first escape from the flat, but before he broke my favourite vase.
This is what he looks like when he's worn out from doing thirty-five rounds of the (not that big) flat and wrestled with Louis for a 20 minutes or so, until Louis cries like a tiny baby and I have to break it up. Which usually happens at about 11 o'clock at night.
In other words, Cooper can be as much of a handful, and as wild-in-his-way, as the kitten. But he's also a sweet, lovely, slightly reserved, but also friendly and cuddly (when he's wanting cuddles) boy and I have to admit having a big old crush on him. In fact, and it's going to sound silly to say, but I kind of admire him. Plus, he's a dead-set spunk.
And he's watching me as I type this*. Say hello Cooper.
He was actually sitting up watching my hands move as I typed, but I didn't get to the camera quickly enough. Still, you get the picture—he's interested, and not just in the laptop (although, as you'll see, he's quite the techno-geek), but in TV (an episode of Angel particularly caught his attention) and everything that goes on outside the flat. Which is mostly because that's where he wants to be—outside. But moe of that later.
As I said, it's fair to say that Cooper is pretty computer savvy. He's got quite a dedicated following (via my regular updates about his and Louis's exploits) on Facebook and Twitter and has had a number of requests from fans to set up his own Facebook page, which may or may not have been what he was up to here:
And he's also, as I mentioned, a rather bookish lad. He likes to rub his face against the picture books on the lower shelves of one of the bookcases in the living room, and he likes to sit with the books to. In fact, as you'll see, he's rather gifted at picking places to sit that set him off at his best. Cats have such a marvellous aesthetic, especially when it comes to them!
But enough of this showing off my handsome, clever cat. Here's some news about Super-Cooper, that cat so fabulous ABBA named a song for him years before he was even born...
I've told the story of how I came to chose Cooper and Louis in the first post to this blog. When I was filling out the paperwork at the RSPCA, I asked the woman serving me if they had any records about Cooper, where he'd come from and so on. She was able to tell me that he is 3 years old, born on 12 December 2006, and that he'd been brought by an inspector into the RSPCA with other cats, whch, she said, probably meant that he'd been in a "hoarder's house"—someone with just too many cats. That wasn't to say, she said, that he hadn't been looked after, and he clearly had. He was healthy and cheerful and friendly and obviously well-socialised to people and other cats. And as I quickly discovered, he knew his name and was (is) very responsive to it. So wherever he was, whoever he was with, obviously looked after him really well. (I feel kind of sad for them. He's such a great cat.)
So big Cooper and tiny Louis cuddled together, a little freaked out (Cooper especially), in Bridie's old carry-cage and that's how I brought them home. And they settled in almost immediately. Louis, being a kitten with a wild, confident streak, owned the flat immediately. Cooper was a little more cautious, but while he took things carefully in checking out this new place, he didn't hide or skulk, he didn't ever hiss or back off from me, and I have to say they both settled in remarkably quickly.
And it's been really fascinating watching Cooper in particular settle in. Not that Louis hasn't been interesting, but he's a kitten with a rule-the-world attitude, and having known very little but the cage at the RSPCA (he was fostered, but must have been very young) the flat is now more or less the only home he's known. Not so for Cooper. I guess the fact that he came (most likely, as far as anyone knows) from a house of many cats, accounts for how good he is with other cats, but what's also interesting is that, despite the fact that he's the older cat, he has until recently always backed down from Louis, especially when it came to food. I don't think Louis's necessarily a particularly dominant cat, it's just that he doesn't really know any better, and so bowls up to Cooper any old time he wants to play, and equally will muscle his way into Cooper's bowl when he's eating. And Cooper would simply back off and let the kitten eat.
I've tried to make a point of feeding Cooper first, just as I've tried to "favour" Cooper with being a bit more attentive to him, because the kitten, being a kitten of a particular rambunctious nature, will always demand more attention first. And Cooper is the eldest (although my dad maintains "that cat's not three!"—he thinks he's much younger than that, but I can only go on what the RSPCA told me), and I don't want hm to feel neglected. Plus when he cuddles you, you don't come away with scratches and bites! But if Cooper has been on my lap, and Louis decides to jump up, Cooper simply gets down before I have a chance to sort them out.
So the fact that he does, or did (he's much more assertive these last few days I'm pleased to say) back down to the kitten suggested to me that, wherever he was, and whoever he was with, however many cats he lived with, he wasn't top cat.
He has been happy from the start to give Louis a bit of a bop when Louis got too wild, but that's about as assertive as he got. But as time has gone on, he's really started to come out of his shell. Now when he and Louis play, I sometimes have to break them up—Louis is so much smaller than Cooper, and Cooper really pins him down and gives him a good play-thrashing. And he's not so prepared to back off when Louis shoves his little face into Cooper's food. In fact, they have once or twice eaten from the same bowl at the same time, which is pretty funny to watch but also an indication that Cooper as found his feet and knows that this is his place too. And tonight for the first time I had Louis on my lap and Cooper happily on the red ottoman next to my knees—the closest I've come to having them both on my lap at the same time. (Of course, there's not a lot of room for them both, but you get the idea.)
The other thing that quickly became evident was that Cooper has been used to going outside. I can tell from the way he sits on the windowsill, looking at the Big Out, and he on=bviously knew from the start what the door out to the balcony was all about.
And then on the second or third night he was with me, he got out.
I have sliding windows in my flat, and I don't have screens on all the windows, so I closed the windows to just a small couple of inches, and yet somehow he managed to get out. I guess he shoved the window open wide enough, probably with his head rather than his paw. It was late—after 11—and I didn't realise he was gone until I was getting ready for bed. Well, of course, I had a bit of a panic, and I called out for him, and bless his little white cotton socks, he called back from outside the bedroom window, and he sounded quite freaked out and panicky, if a cat can sound freaked out and panicky. So then I freaked out and panicked and without thinking to close the window—because I thought he might try to get back in and I didn't want to close t0 on him, but then halfway out the door (which I was rtying to get out without a.) letting the kitten out or b.) squishing the kitten, who tries to get out nearly every time I go in or out of the flat—so then I freaked out that the kitten would also get out the window while I was trying to rescue Cooper. Ack! And then I got outside and called for Cooper, who was still replying, still sounding freaked out, but also a bit jumpy and then I realised I couldn't see him, black cat, in the dark, until he moved and I could see his whiter-than-white legs...
And so I was able to pick him up and bring him back inside, and he did fight me, because I think he really did want to be outside, but I really do think once he got out he either realised he had no idea where he was, or how to get back. And the fact that he called for me instead of just taking off means that he knew that this, now, was home.
And so the next day I went out and got them both collars and name tags. Even Louis, with the skinniest neck in kittendom. And just as well, because he made his own escape the weekend my niece came to stay!
And I also bought Cooper a harness and leash, and I have to say that, as with the collar he took to wearing it without complaint. I only put it on him when we go for little test runs in the garden, and he's been really fine about it. Plus the red harness looks fabulous on him.
I have some other pics of him in the garden which you can see on my Flickr account here or on Facebook here.
And while we were out, poor little Louis sat on the window, and oh, how he cried!
Cooper has since been out, under supervision, without the harness, and while he hasn't gone near the road, he has wandered a long way down the side of the building, exploring. Having said that, he did more or less back when I called him, with a quick detour up onto the fence between my block and the flats next door. Fortunately he didn't go over, and he let me pick him up and bring him back inside.
He really is a fantastic cat. He's soft and gentle—he retracts his claws when he jumps up on my lap—and he's also finding his gumption a bit too. He and Louis are great mates, although not cuddle-buddies as yet (the only time I've seen them grooming each other was after they had the Revolution flea and worm stuff applied to the back of their necks! Also, the other day I thought Louis was licking Cooper's ears while he was sleeping, but in fact he was biting him, trying to wake him up for a play).
I have lots more photos; he's such a photogenic cat, but that's enough blogging and photo-boasting tonight. More on Cooper, and little Louis, soon. These two make me very happy.
Cheers.
** And what was Louis doing as I typed this? Chewing his own foot.
