SUTURE REMOVED. THE REAL CHALLENGE HAS BEGUN

Susie here (hope not for long).

TinTin had the suture removal on Wednesday. Guess what?? He peed in the crate! That’s the second time (first time was poop) in 5 car rides within 4 weeks. He doesn’t seem to be scared of car rides. From what we’ve observed in the past month he is even braver than Nemo. I will not rule out medical issues. We’ll discuss with Dr. Liz about this soon.

TinTin’s eyes look good. The cuts are mostly healed. There is sign of inflammation but apparently it’s very common. After a couple of days it will heal itself. We just need to continue with the antibiotic drops until the swollenness and redness are gone. We’ve decided to keep his “cone” on until he is completely well.

As for TinTin and Nemo’s introduction, here’s what we are doing at this stage of the introduction:

Get them to swap rooms—Once a day (more on weekends) for longer period of time each day. We give Nemo treats while he’s in TinTin’s room. I also leave treats near TinTin’s bed, scratch post, and feeding area for Nemo to find. TinTin is a brave cat, unbelievably brave. Against the recommendations from experts, we just put him in his create and drop him in the middle of the kitchen or living room upstairs. As soon as the door is open he rushes out and trots around the house like doing victory parades! He has no problem with strange environments WHAT-SO-EVER. Sometimes I worry he’s too happy to explore that he forgets his mission—sniff Nemo’s scent. Both Nemo and TinTin do well with the room swaps, except that Nemo is a little hissy (at us) sometimes while in TinTin’s room. Last night the room swap lasted an hour. Nemo probably gained a whole pound from all the treats he got!

Oh! Almost forgot to mention one thing. Having TinTin upstairs really puts things into perspective—TinTin is MUCH larger than Nemo! He is, of course, not as wide but boy is he BIG and LONG! I can’t wait to see the comparison side by side.

Swap litter sands—I knew there’s potential danger in this methods. Considering how easy-going these two guys are with litter sands I figured our floors and carpets should be safe. I started off by exchanging only 1 teaspoon, twice a day. Now we’re at about ¾ cup. They have no problem with it at all.

Feed them on the opposite sides of the door—They are both big eaters so I figured doing this probably would be beneficial to the introduction. We started Nemo from about 4 feet away from the door. TinTin dived into his food, about a foot away from the door, right away without blinking since day one. Now Nemo is at about 1.5 feet. Together they’re eating about 2-3 feet within each other at the moment.

Let them briefly see each other before meal—As I said, Nemo and TinTin both LOVE food. It is a very powerful tool to use to create positive results. Before we close the door between them and put the food bowls down, we let them see each other for about 5-10 seconds. We close the door right away just when they become too intensely interested in each other. We’ve only been doing this twice. We’ll increase the time they see each other. It’s important to have these brief meetings end on a high note so we will have to be very careful.

Judging from Nemo’s reaction to the sight and scent of TinTin, I don’t think he is ready to be in the same room with him yet. He is still very intense and a little hissy. TinTin needs another 3 days before his eyes are completely well anyway. We’ll see how it goes with Nemo. Maybe we won’t let them be together until after next week.

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