A Tale Of Two Kitties

OK, today our heroines -- Rio and Hampton -- had their first Close Encounter. Unbeknownst to me, Rio was hiding out under the sofa, probably taking a nap. I opened Rick's bedroom door so Hampton could come out if she wanted to.

Everything was quiet for a while; Hampton was out exploring the house again, trying to get her bearings. All of a sudden, I hear a banging sound, and I see a dark blur disappear into Rick's room. Then I see Rio sitting in the hallway, staring at Rick's bed.

I go out and take a look around and see that Rio's rather agitated, but not aggressive. I look under Rick's bed and see Hampton cowering under there, more startled than anything else.

After pondering the situation a bit, I come to the conclusion that Hampton had decided to take a look under the sofa and startled Rio, who chased her back to Rick's room. One of them had banged into the floor lamp on the way out of the living room, and that was the noise I heard.

After giving Rio a mild scolding for being so unfriendly, I let her just "walk it off", patrolling the hallway as she sometimes does until she settled down. After a while, she got up on the low wall that separates the living room from the stairs, guarding her territory.

Right now, she's lying on my bed (something she never really did until a few days ago, and then only for a minute or so at a time. She's already been there for about 10 minutes, and I suspect she's going to do it more, and more often. She's already roamed all over the house, rubbing up against everything to get her scent all over the place.