Anna Comnena Has Arrived

If Davout had known what was up for today he might have been even more worried.  First came a checkup for the furnace, which meant a visitor and a lot of lumping and bumping. At first both cats made themselves scarce in the garage, but soon Rhea was back sniffing at the tech’s tablet computer when he was gathering his things.  By the time he was upstairs puttering around she had joined him and was climbing in his toolbag or peering around corners at him.

The other thing that was “up” for today was me adopting another cat.  Meet Anna Comnena, formerly Hanna and Matilda.

She’s an 8 and a half years old (born 5-14-06) and is a Persian Brown Tabby.  I adopted her from a rescue nearby, Spunky’s Rescue Ranch just down the road in the Malibu Mountains to the south.  She was surrendered by the owner after they had a kid who mistreated her.

The Ranch was a big change for her, lots of cats about and very different from her old life. And she has some trust issues about people after her mistreatment and abandonment. I watched her interaction with the other cats there.  You could she she wasn’t bonded with the others, but wasn’t afraid of them or trying to dominate them.  I think the kittens will not bully her, but I didn’t want her to bully them.

I decided to switch her name a little, because I’ve always liked the story of Anna Comnena. She was a Byzantine Greek Princess, Daughter of Emperor Alexius I, who was also a scholar, physician, hospital administrator and also wrote a full history of her father’s reign that happened to include the First Crusade from the view of the Byzantines.  The last name is pronounced Com-nee-na.

I’ve read her history myself – it is pretty good stuff.

She was very good in the car, even though the road through the mountains and hills is very twisty — part of the road is Mulholland Drive, which everyone knows from TV car chases or scenes where cars run off the road off cliffs.

When I got her inside I did put the carrier down in front of Rhea and they stared at each other for a beat or two.  There was no crisis, and Rhea only hissed when I lifted the box away.

One of the first things I did was give her some food.  She ate well, and even let me do some scratching on her back while she ate.

After dinner Anna went to the door rather pointedly….

And this is what was outside the door!

There was no hissing or growling by anyone at this.

There’s a lot of little nooks and crannies to sleep in and shelves to climb in her isolation room.  Anna went around exploring but was not too interested in hiding away for long.

She isn’t very interested in being touched right now, but is less irritated than she was at the Ranch when she kept swatting my hand back with her declawed front paw after being riled up.

I leave Anna alone for the most part, but check up and find her like this.  The last time I came in and sat down across from her she got up from this spot, walked over to my legs and rubbed against me, arching her back.  Then she went over to the water bowl and drank from it while I watched.

Davout has gone and camped out in the hall outside the door and meowed through the wall at her a bit.  Anna doesn’t seem to mind this at all.