Meet Molly! We adopted a cat on Valentine’s Day. Em had the idea to adopt a cat for a while now since we are spending a lot of time at home. Also when Myron isn’t able to go to daycare due to covid protocols (like when he has a cold), we thought it would be nice for all of us to have a cat for Myron to play with.

Her backstory is that she lived with an older person who passed away and then the family let her live outdoors for a while. A cat rescue organization then took her in, and someone with many other cats fostered her for a while.

Molly surprised all of us with how quickly she adjusted to our home. We picked her up from an adoption area in a pet store, where she just stayed one morning, but we think she was relieved to get out of there since she doesn’t like other cats. Em stayed with her in our guest room with everything set up for her to stay there for a few days and acclimate, but after less than an hour, she was very curious about the sounds of me and Myron. She pawed at the doorknob, so Em let her out, and she sniffed around the house, exploring every corner.
She reminds us a lot like a young Kepler (Molly is about 3 years old). She follows us around and observes our habits – joins us for Myron’s bath time and when we brush our teeth. Here, Myron was playing bathtub peek-a-boo with her.

For a few days, she was curling up in Myron’s crib (specifically on a very soft blanket with a plush walrus head on it) while he was away. We have discouraged that by taking her out every time, but she persisted. Eventually we took out the walrus blanket and put it on the futon to see if the draw was the blanket or the crib, but I don’t think she has really cozied up on either the crib or the blanket since, so perhaps it was the combination.

Molly and Myron are getting along mostly swimmingly. They each seek each other out. And Myron has been pretty gentle and has given her space when trying to approach. He does kind of a tiptoe up to her with his hands at his side or behind his back. Myron learned quickly that she doesn’t like to have her tail grabbed. And he pets her gently, but usually Molly is not really comfortable enough to let him pet her on his own. She will allow it with me or Em there too.

They are still figuring out the language of playing together. The good news is that Molly is pretty playful, and they are making progress. Once they played a game where Myron put a toy mouse on a stool Molly was sitting on and she batted it down and then he put it back in front of her and so on. Myron got some good laughs out of that. Next time Myron tried putting the mouse on Molly’s back while she was walking on the floor, and she just ignored it or was a little bothered by it. Myron hasn’t quite gotten the idea of dangling a cat toy in front of a cat and letting her approach it. Instead he usually swishes the toy directly in her face and scares her away. Sometimes it works out all right if she is hiding in a crevice or a paper bag and can maintain a little bit of distance.

Also, Myron likes to try to get into boxes with Molly. Shortly after I took this photo, she either ran away or swatted Myron (she has done either of those things a few times).

Molly is a climber. Kepler used to get into this linen closet, and on occasion, she went into the second shelf, but Molly went straight for the third shelf.

She also tries to get on top of tables and countertops. She seems very comfortable doing this, but we are discouraging it. I built this cat palace and designed it to be Myron-proof. in the first day it was available, so far, Molly got up on it once and Myron has climbed it zero times.

She seems to have been fed human snacks at some point – since when we eat or cook, she comes near and looks at us endearingly. I was hoping she might clean up some of Myron’s food droppings, but she has only sniffed those once or twice – I don’t think she has eaten any.

I trained her to use the cat door so that we could keep the litter box on the other side of it in the basement. It took a few days and lots of treats and holding the door partway open, but now she can do it on her own. She usually pushes through with both a paw and her head at the same time. Here’s Myron demonstrating.