10.10.10

I pissed everybody off over breakfast today.

The normal routine involves me going downstairs, shutting Big Yellow Hallway Monster in the bathroom so he doesn't try and play whack-a-mole with Electric Mayhem while he waits, then feeding EM and then bringing BYHM's plate of diet fishy pudding into the bathroom for him. Then it's fix plates for Big Acoustic Kitty and Little Grey Kitty and take them upstairs so that they can have their breakfasts on either side of the (open) studio door. BAK and LGK have been doing pretty well with their breakfast time, with only a few incidents here and there. (And those, I'm sorry to admit, have been because one or the other or both of the humans weren't paying enough attention.)

This morning, the plan was to harness up both BYHM and LGK and let them see each other over breakfast. However, that involved NOT feeding BYHM downstairs. That wasn't well-received. I had to take three plates of fishy pudding, the harness and the leash and one very upset kitty upstairs. Then we had to feed BAK without letting BYHM muscle in on the action. Then, we had to safely stow the food while we hooked him into his bright blue S&M outfit. Then, we had to keep him in the hallway while I went into the studio and harnessed up LGK (who had been howling and throwing himself at the door ever since he heard the baby gate open when I went downstairs). Only after all that could we open the door and put everybody's food down so they could eat.

However, things went pretty well after that. BYHM, as expected, tucked in to his breakfast with not more than a brief glance at LGK. LGK was a little freaked out when he saw BYHM and his tail was at about half-puff all through breakfast. But, he finished his food with only a few breaks to look up and check out his new companion. And nobody charged at anyone.

So ... good news on that front. BYHM then went in to see BAK (who had been shut in the master bedroom for all of this, eating his breakfast in peace) and there was no residual aggression or frustration to be seen. Another positive.

Unharnessed, BYHM went back downstairs and got an ear full of Amitriptyline, and to this point in the morning, all is well. (knock wood)