earl 2.0

some of you might remember earl, the cat i accidentally acquired from michele and who was jake's one true love (sorry, nina). last year, at christmas time, i knew i would have to find earl a place to stay over the holidays and reluctantly brought him over to a woman's house, with a dark feeling i would not see him again. when earl and i arrived, she had out two bowls of (bottled) water for him- one at room temperature and one chilled so earl could choose which one he liked best. lined up on the counter were various bottles of hairball meds, ear cleaning meds, and fur- shinying meds, despite the fact that earl was not in need of any of these treatments. this woman scolded me more than once that earl needed to be around people and it wasn't fair for me to leave him at the nature center alone every night. i thought of the countless children who had paid attention to earl during programs, the evening meetings at oak knoll which were brightened by earl's attacking unsuspecting pens and pencils, and the hours he spent curled up across my keyboard, distracting me from my work. i think he had a pretty good time there. but i knew this woman would love earl and would take excellent care of him and provide him with all the love, bottled water, and unnecessary medication he could ever want. so there he stayed.

but now, almost one year later, i decided that both jake and i miss earl a lot. because i couldn't get earl back from his new home, i got a replacement cat who looks exactly like him. we're calling him earl 2.0 and so far, he is almost as good as the real thing. the shelter we adopted him from provided the following tips for acclimating a new cat to our home:
1. once kitty arrives at its new home, keep the cat in the carrier and place it in a quiet room. make frequent visits, praising and comforting kitty. in a few hours, go into the room, close the door, and open the carrier. what we did: set the carrier down on the floor of the kitchen, opened the door, sat back and watched. also, first we had gotten jake all riled up by asking him over and over again "jake, where's the kitty? where's the kitty, jake?" which is one of the few phrases he knows and when you ask him it, he literally runs maniacally around the room looking for the kitty. so here is this new cat, confronted by one hyper dog and jake, who is also totally keyed up, and earl 2.0 calmly rolls on his back, swats nina on the nose, gets up, and starts sniffing around the kitchen.

2. one typical reaction is for the cat to immediately start the search for home. kitty will slink along walls, meowing, looking for a way out of this strange place. what earl 2.0 did: strolled casually into the living room, took another little swat at nina, and plopped down on the couch for a nap.

3. allow your cat to explore at its own pace. many cats will hide for hours or days. what earl 2.0 is like: he has spent the past twenty-four hours either sleeping on the couch, playing with the dogs (picture the cat and nina both gnawing on opposite ends of a stick that someone had brought in from outside), chasing this one uncatchable moth, and basically making himself completely at home and endearing himself to his new owner (by which i mostly mean me, but if he could catch a mouse or two, i think matt will admit that he likes him too).

comparison photos of earl and earl 2.0 coming soon!