Kitties meet Bingo

*Burp!* Excuse me.

I brought Morty and Eli back to my parents' house (the house where I grew up) this past Wednesday. Bingo was very excited to meet any feline cousin, and was super excited when he found out that there were two kitties to play with. The cats were so upset by the car ride that it was best they be left alone in my room. When my brother got home, Bingo went nuts sniffing his bag, thinking, "Did YOU bring home a kitty too??!!"


Morty would back away and hiss at Bingo, and also hisssed at my parents. I was so embarrassed. Bingo never barked or growled at the kitties; his tail never stopped wagging. One time when Morty hissed at Bingo, I hissed back at Morty to discipline him, and Bingo barked at me in defense of Morty, even though the little bugger didn't deserve any help from Bingo.



Eli never hissed at Bingo. Now, Eli is a real scaredy cat, even on his home turf. If someone comes to the apartment, he will run behind the couch and stay there for a goodly portion of their visit. So when he was plopped into a brand new place with this waggy dog running around, he ran for cover.... except there wasn't anywhere to run in my room. He took to hiding under the blankets (all three layers) and inside pillow cases. Look at his unhappy face in the above left picture when I was taking pictures of him in his hiding place. They say cats can't make facial expressions, but I do believe Eli is frowning at me and glaring.

Despite Eli's scaredy cat ways, he left the room (with me supervising closely) and walked up to Bingo and sniffed his butt. That is very courageous for Eli. True, he ran back into the room when Bingo turned around, realizing that his much beloved kitty cousin actually stepped toward him. At home, Eli will take the long way around Josh, rather than entertain the possibility that he'll be in grabbing distance of Josh. However, Eli would jump onto a bed right next to Bingo with no problem because I think he knew that Bingo would not hurt him. I love the picture of him and Bingo looking out the window together. They're so cute it hurts! When the kitties were packed up in their crates, Bingo freaked out at the sight of Eli in the soft-sided carrier. He kept pawing at the sides and tried biting the top. It was like he wanted to free Eli. When my dad opened the carrier a little to let Eli poke his head out, Bingo was quiet and sat down, glad that Eli was out. As soon as Eli was locked back up, Bingo would start trying to rescue him again. Please note that this entire time, Bingo did not try to help Morty, who was sulking in his carrier.

On our last night, Bingo kept scratching at my door, so I let him into the room. Otherwise, I wasn't going to get any sleep and we had to leave early in the morning for NY. Bingo was good and jumped on my bed to sleep. However, he'd look up once in a while when one of the cats walked around. Overall, he was very well behaved. Bingo was actually instrumental in preventing something really bad from happening. The previous night, Morty had escaped and run downstairs to the living room, and my dad thought that I hadn't closed my door, which I didn't think possible. So the night that Bingo was in the room, he woke me up with his whining. I heard a click, and it was Morty opening the door! Apparently, he'd figured out that if he stretched out against the door and put his paws on the lever (thank goodness my apartment door has a knob), he could get the door to open. I grabbed Morty and put a doorstop to keep him in the room. I didn't hear anything else all night, and in the morning, everyone seemed to get along better. I even managed to snap this picture of all three on the same bed.

Of course, Morty has to be ensconced in the bed my mom bought them. Notice the way he's positioned in the exact middle of the bed, so Eli has to squeeze into the sides if he wants a piece of the bed their grandma bought them. From the way the picture looks, you'd think all got along after that, but Morty hissed a little while later and I put him in his crate early for the trip home. Hopefully the next visit will go better, but at least I know that the kitties can travel to NJ, even if they don't really like it.