We brought The Cat Now Known as Kinikini home for the first time mid-day on Easter Sunday. That was Day #1.

He made it through his first week with flying colors. And now we’re in his second week. Today is Day #9

We’re all still adjusting, but one thing is clear. This cat is nocturnal, and will take a while to adapt. Anytime between sunset and dawn, he is overtly friendly and gregarious, eager to jump onto the futon and wait to get loved whenever I peek into “his” room. He really loves to be petted, and paces back and forth, over and around me to maximize his exposure. Last night I notice that it is so good that he starts to drool! That’s serious happy!

But during the day, it’s different. In the morning, he tends to sleep under the futon, and doesn’t come out if I enter the room. The last few afternoons, he has then shifted to the top of the cat tree, where he can look out windows in two directions. But if I come into the room, he peers down from the cat tree with a worried look, and there’s a 50% chance he will jump down and occupy a “safe” spot under the futon instead of greeting me. I tried it just now, and again he responded by jumping down and retreating under the futon. This time at least he stayed just under the front edge, so I could easily reach under there and scratch his favorite places. I suppose that’s a small bit of progress. I’ll take whatever we can get.

Also, during the day, Kini tends not to eat, although I’ve been leaving a little dry food out all day, just in case.

The first couple of days, he barely ate anything, and only under cover of darkness. However, he now eats everything I put before him. Wait, that’s not true. Yesterday I hoped a leftover can from last summer when I was trying all sorts of alternatives to find something Duke would eat. This was a fancy brand chicken cat food, “no grain” emblazened on the label. Kini looked interested, sniffed, walked away. I left it there, took a break, and checked back later, thinking he would surely return to eat. Well, no such luck. Okay. I threw that one away, and went back with a can of Friskies, one of the brands he would get when living in the Aiea Heights cat colony. He was on it immediately and ate the whole can (in two different sittings). Then I put down a healthy scoop of dry food. It disappeared by the time I made a middle-of-the-night check on him, so I refilled the dish. It was empty this morning.

So I now have an answer to another question–How much does he eat? Answer: So far, as much as I give him. I’ve just got to experiment to find the best quality food that he’ll be interested in eating.

At this rate, he should be filling out pretty soon, don’t you think?