Tabbymom Jen here with a quick update!
As you can see, Victor and Nina are getting along.
In fact, Victor's a little over-enthusiastic about Nina.
Nina's not timid but cautious and knows Victor is twice her size. She has been hanging out first under the model train layout, then under our bed. But she emerges for us as soon as we find her and spends every night on our bed. And, after the 2nd or 3rd night, Victor decided he could sleep there, too.
However, when Nina tries to leave her hideouts, Victor is soooo excited, he races up, bites at her affectionately, and throws his "arms" around her. Also, I saw him jump over her in the hallway and block her from going to the basement! She reacts by returning to one of her upstairs hideouts. That wouldn't be so bad, but 2 permanent litter boxes are downstairs and 1 temporary one is in the upstairs bath. Victor has been using the upstairs box exclusively (how convenient!) AND preventing Nina from getting to any of them.
She had an accident on her purr pad and snuggle Sunday night. At least those are washable. Last night, she used a brand new, not so washable bed. Sunday, as soon as I cleaned the upstairs box (I didn't realize how much Victor had used it), she did #2 there. So last night I added another temp litter box IN our bedroom, near where her accidents occurred (she goes there because she doesn't have to go through Victor to get there). As soon as I put it out, she did #2 in the box. She knows better, but can't get past Victor.
Victor's not being mean or chasing her away, but he's soooo eager to pounce on her and play with her, he causes her to retreat and she waits as long as she can, but... We have commenced play therapy. Our goals are to wear Victor out and help Nina gain confidence. I found a toy Victor will chase up and down the hall until he's too tired to pounce, and Nina is CRAZY about the red dot.
You can just see above that there are food and water bowls under my bed. That's because Nina has lived in a cage all her life and doesn't know to come find food; it comes to her. Naturally, guess who eats her food and drinks her water? Luckily, he's not one to over-eat and it's easy to make sure she gets enough food and water. We've seen them eating and drinking side-by-side.
Mornings in bed include a disagreement at 5 AM over who can crush my feet - it's Victor's spot! But Nina's there first. But it's Victor's spot! This morning, it got serious enough for me to shove him off the bed. He didn't believe Nina's growling was serious. By 7, we have harmony and Victor grabbing Nina's tail.
I'm about to rename you Victor Troublemaker. Of course, in 2.5 years, I only found Victor and Bonnie on the bed with me once. ONE time. And as soon as Bonnie spotted Victor stirring, she left. What an adorable nuisance!
