Strange Bedfellows

Lizzy has almost completed her first week in solitary, and she is not happy about it:

That death stare follows you all the way around the room. 

On the bright side, the move seems to be good for her overall: only a few feathers on the floor of the cage, and we can see that new ones are growing in well (albeit purple). We’ll have to check the other girls to see if they are still being pecked — could there be a different culprit? Or does Lizzy just not play well with others? 

In the meantime, if she thought that cage was undignified before, she’s really grumpy about her living situation now that she has a new neighbor:

The MRFRS called us today with a barn cat for us, and since it’s supposed be cold and (gulp) snowy this weekend, chicken and cat cages are side by side in the heated workshop.

Here’s our new guy:

He’s a five-year-old boy we’re naming Blacksmith, but that we’ll call Smithy. He had a home where he was allowed to play outside and a best buddy cat, but his owners couldn’t take him along when they moved. His buddy got placed easily, but this guy isn’t very social (with people) and he has bad aim in the litter box. 

So the cat experts at the shelter figured life as a (fairly pampered) barn cat with a little more freedom and a lot less litter box pressure could work well, especially since we’re happy to invite him inside once he gets acclimated. 

He definitely does seem sad and scared, though it’s only the first day. And I imagine his new neighbor is something to get used to. 

So this is likely to be a slow road as far is actually making friends, but we’ve been warned about that with our previous barn cats — and they both ended up part of the family soon enough.