Last Man Standing

There's been quite a bit of shake up in the Shoup cat house and Mr. Morris is not happy - not at all. First, his sister Shadoe (now Artemis) was adopted out as a barn cat. She was a good mom to all the kittens she had as well as any strays that I brought in, but she so very clearly wasn't happy living in a home. If I looked into the basement through the outside, I could see her staring out the window. When I went down to the basement each night, she would hiss and hide. She got to the point she would meow at me when I put wet food down, but she made it clear we would never be friends. In addition, the kittens got less and less socialized as they would hide with her. The family that adopted her to be their barn cat is a very loving family and she will have another kitty companion with which to interact. It was kind of bittersweet to split she and Morris up, but he just couldn't go with her and she just couldn't stay.

A week or so later, an opportunity presented itself that allowed me to swap two of my healthy kittens for two kittens who needed some light medical care. I went back and forth on which pairings I should give up and ultimately chose the two kittens Morris played with the most. While they were great companions for Morris, his son, Sparrow, was the one most afraid of humans. While the other kittens interacted with me, Sparrow would always sit off to the side. I sent Channing, Sparrow's favorite companion as well, and Channing and Morris were always seen playfully romping about. Scout and Banjo have made the transition to the cat population seamlessly, but where Morris was once in the middle of the action, now he sits aparat, aloof.

That's not to say things are all bad for Morris. He has his boon companion, Neko, still and has worked on worming his way into Truvy's heart. I have witnessed Truvy and Morris cleaning each other on several occasions, so it's almost as though Morris is building his harem! ;-) I doubt I will see the day when he wins Satie's heart, but with Morris, I've witnessed many other miracles, so I won't rule it out entirely - yet. ;-)

I'm sorry that it's been so long since there's been an update on Morris. Things have been insane in general at the Shoup house and there really hasn't been much progress on Morris' part. He definitely doesn't take well to change, so he may just be a forever cat. Only time will tell. I promise to try to update more, even if it's just profiles from the ladies of Morris' harem.