Dear Liz and OAR,
As for Ben... where do i start. Well, we were a little nervous when we brought him home because we didn't know how he would interact with our three girls- Caroline, Telulah and Martha Stewart. We kept them seperated for a few days and let them get used to each others' scent. I spent the first night in the office with Ben, sleeping on the floor. Ben was good company and slept on my head while drooling on my pillow. This was the first thing we noticed about Ben- he drools A LOT. But seeing how happy he was in his new home we certainly didn't mind. When we finally made the introduction, things were a little tense. Ben walked rather quickly and confidently straight at our girls, while displaying a mohawk and huge tail. This prompted a call to OAR just to make sure we didn't have to worry about Ben hurting one of our girls. We were assured that this was normal and we went with it... timidly. It took about a week or two before the girls wanted to be in the same room as him but during that time Ben couldn't have cared less. He walked around like he owned the place and went to sleep wherever and whenever he felt like it. Oftentimes, one of the girls would get brave and sneak up to him while he was sleeping to check him out. Ben would open his eyes slowly... and then go right back to sleep. Whichever cat had dared venture so close would usually hiss halfheartedly and then run away.
After a few weeks, we started noticing Ben trying to play with the others. Ben is a pretty big cat (has gotten even bigger since we got him) but he doesn't know it. He will run full speed around the house and it sounds like the walls are coming down. He even has a sort of gallop that i have to assume comes from his long legs. Any time someone is sitting on the couch... Ben is on their lap in seconds. It doesn't matter if he knows them or not, he just assumes that everyone wants him on their lap. (and they usually do!) This is great because all of our other cats are kind of timid around new people. A couple of weeks ago, Ben made a breakthrough and we saw him cleaning Martha Stewart! Martha believes that all others are here to clean her and she made several attempts to convince Ben of this by walking up to him and putting her head down under his chin. The first few times ended up with Martha getting mad but finally Ben got the idea and gave her a few licks. We were so happy.
Well, i don't want to go on too long so i better wrap this up. I did want to mention that Ben is a pretty smart cat. He has figured out a method to get me out of bed if they run out of food in the middle of the night- he sits up and pushes the bedroom door so it slams into the wall. He will do this repeatedly until i get up to feed them- sometimes at 5:30 am. I tried putting a shoe behind the door but he still does it. And if that doesn't work he will walk across my chest until i finally get up. He is extremely smart and even more sweet. He is definitely the most affectionate cat we have ever known. He is forever butting his head on you and trying to rub his face on your face. So, everything here is going great. Thank you so much for yet another wonderful kitty and we will continue to support OAR and spread the word about the good work you do. Pics are attached.
Sincerely,
Michael and Danielle
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