Well, last night we had a small first that's actually a really big thing.
Raj stays close to us, but usually somewhere nearby on the floor or a chair. He'll take all the head scritches we can throw his way, but it's at arms length rather than snuggled in your lap or next to you in bed. He's jumped up with us of his own accord maybe, oh, three or four times at most. We can put him on the bed or couch and he'll stay for a few minutes, but it usually doesn't last long. We watch TV in the basement and he'll follow us down, but it's usually for just a few minutes of nosing around and then he's back upstairs.
Last night it was more of the same, or so we thought. After an hour or so of being downstairs we saw the tip of his tail making it's way slowly around the end of the couch. Not unusual as he'll make occasional trips down to prowl. This time, though, the tail stopped for a few seconds and then a whole cat suddenly appeared on the couch with us. SWMBO and I looked at each other with "Wow!" expressions. We loved on him a minute or two, expecting him to jump back down at any second. Instead, he eventually plopped down between us and "Wow!" turned to "Awwwwww...". Stayed there for a good half hour, purring away. Even let me touch his paws a couple of times without incident.
That's the kind of progress we've been hoping for. Shows he's gone from being comfortable around us to feeling safe with us. It's a big acceptance and bonding step, especially for a cat previously in a longtime home and then abandoned for several months.
Brad
