Late Thursday morning will mark four weeks since we brought The-Cat-Now-Known-As-Kali home, and introduced her to her new world. And to Romeo. It is, as they say, still a work in progress.

This morning’s photo tells a story (you can click on it to see a larger version). It was taken just a few minutes before 6 a.m., but the story starts last night. Kali has been slowly moving around the house more, and last night she was coming out of her “safe” room for repeated forays into the living room where we were cleaning up after dinner.

She quickly found she could take refuge under the chair that’s just above her in this photo. Romeo could threaten, but couldn’t really pursue her into the small space. Well, he tried, and we discovered that Kali can yowl, hiss, and lunge when circumstances warrant it! At that point, I brought out the squirt bottle to discourage Romeo from escalating the situation. A couple of good squirts of water and he decided to back away and head into the bedroom.

Fast forward to this morning. Kali had been running around the house while Romeo was still asleep on the futon in “her” room. He finally rousted himself, wandered down the hall and looked into the living room as Kali took cover under the chair. As Romeo followed, it looked like it was going to be a repeat of last night.

But instead of going for the squirt bottle, I trotted over to the kitchen and got a package of Temptation cat treats. The bag makes a satisfying crinkly sound that cats immediate recognize and associate with treats. Yes, even rescued calico cats named Kali!

I sat down in the chair next to the squirt bottle. Romeo was sitting to my right, and Kali quickly emerged from her place under the chair and came right over to sit to my left, with not more than 15 inches or so separating the potential combatants. And that’s how we all spent the next couple of minutes as I doled out Temptations one or two at a time, first on one side and then on the other.

At first, the proximity to Romeo made Kali too nervous to eat, but after a couple of rounds she gave in to temptation, and from then on all was well. They got treats and had another positive experience at close quarters.

And then another first. When the treats were gone, Kali jumped up on the coffee table. She then proceeded not only to spread out, but to roll around playfully, exposing her underside, and generally displaying herself to Romeo, who quietly took in the whole show. At least at point I had the good sense to grab the nearest camera and get a couple of shots.

Another day, another bit of progress! Slow and steady.