bringing the first cats home

When we brought the cats home we thought it would be best if we limited their experience of our house to just one room to start off with. Not that we lived in a big house, but we thought it might make the transition easier after being at the shelter.


When I said I would take on problem cats who were old, fat or hated children I got almost exactly what I asked for.
They were both huge - big cats anyway but also overweight. They were quite old, at least 6 when we got them. Lucifer was fairly friendly but within minutes the once green carpet was covered in long white fur. Damien simply hated people. We also quickly discovered that he hated his brother as well.
When we let them out into the office Lucifer started exploring while Damien crawled under a desk and growled. We were really careful with everything we did but within a few hours both cats had escaped.
I was totally stressed out. They had only been with us for a few hours and I was convinced I would never see them again. I was cursing myself for being so stupid, and when I went to bed I decided to leave the office window wide open in the hope that the cats would come in overnight, but that no burglars or bogeymen would find their way in.
The next morning I was amazed to see both cats asleep in the office. I closed the window, Damien crawled back under the desk and normal life resumed.


Damien spent most of the next 2 weeks hiding under the desk, occasionally attacking any toes that came too near. Lucifer made himself at home, declared the bed his own and tried to convince anyone who came near him that he was starving to death and needed food, instantly. And he was a cat that would eat anything. Bananas, raisins, cereal, soup, chips, bread...any scrap of food that he discovered he would eat. Damien was more suspicious, convinced that we were trying to poison him. We soon learned that he is a cat with issues.


We soon encountered another problem with the cats. They are far bigger than the average moggy and as a result they would get into the litter tray, make sure all 4 paws were in the tray - and then do their business straight over the edge of the tray onto the floor. I sent the boyfriend to dig around in the attic until he found the plastic base of the old rat cage and we ended up using that as a litter tray instead. We also discovered that even though the cats went outdoors they would come racing home in order to do their business in the litter tray in the house, before racing back outside again. Which I really appreciated.

After a few weeks though they both seemed fairly settled, Damien was less neurotic and we thought we could settle down into a quiet life with 2 friendly cats to share it with us...