Halley Comes Out of Her Shell

Our new cat, Halley, has been very sweet so far during the week we've had her. She stays in the unfinished part of the workshop, and hasn't been very adventurous.

Doesn't she look serious and shy?



Until you realize where she actually is...



My husband had to get a ladder to get her down.

Yes, Halley has come out of her shell with a vengeance. Last night my mother and sister came over and met her. We told them all about how timid she is...how she doesn't leave the workshop...and how she's just learning to play a little.

Then we went to sit on the front porch to watch Gus the horse in the front pasture.



Halley came bounding over into the front yard, for the first time. She darted around to explore, then suddenly caught sight of Gus. She went on high alert, and started creeping toward the pasture. While we watched in shock, she picked her way through the fence, then started slinking toward Gus, as if he were a field mouse she was stalking. She kept coming, hiding behind stalks of grass, until finally he'd had enough and started walking toward her. She turned and hightailed it out of the field at top speed, with him pacing behind her, just fast enough to scare her but -- obviously intentionally -- not fast enough to catch her.

What did she think she was doing? This morning when I went to feed her, Gus came to the fence to watch, and she puffed up her fur, which looked ridiculous because she's tiny, and ran toward him. At the last minute she called off what clearly would have been a vicious attack...by a cat who may not weigh six pounds on a 1200-lb horse.

So she's gone from a cat who wouldn't venture more than six feet from the workshop, to a cat who thinks she's a match for a horse. Clearly this cat does not have a realistic self-image.

And then we found her on the upper shelf in the workshop.

I wonder what's next?