Finding her way

Tulip is very slowly starting to find her way around. After a lengthy stay under the nightstand, we decided to flush her out of there. Eve lifted up the nightstand and I took her out. We've discovered that if we walk around with her and pet her while she's exploring she seems less nervous about it. If my knees would tolerate the wood floors I'd crawl around with her while she explores.

Once we got her out from under the nightstand, we worked out way out to the living room. She discovered her bed and her scratching post. She also discovered the stairs. And by discovered I mean she stepped right off the top landing without knowing it was there. She was fine and worked her way down to the bottom eventually, with me coming down along side her and petting her the whole time. All of our living space is upstairs, so the only thing at the bottom of the stairs is a small entryway. She seemed really confused by this. She kept reaching out with her paws trying to figure out why there weren't more rooms down there. She discovered a small throw rug that is in front of the door and decided that would be a good place to relax for a while. I also brought one of her beds down there and put it in the corner. She crawled right in it and napped down there for a while.

Later we brought her upstairs to explore some more. She investigated the living room for a while and finally settled under the couch. She still seems to want to hide a lot. We decided that while she needs some time to herself to do the hiding thing, she needs to come out and learn her way around the house too. We have been splitting her time between letting her hide and making her come out to look around. That seems to be working okay so far. Unfortunately, we discovered the hard way that she didn't know where her litterbox was. She ended up going back downstairs and peeing on the rug in front of the door. I was pretty bummed about that.

After her little accident we took her back upstairs and decided it was necessary to keep her in the bathroom area until she would actually use the litterbox. She has spent the most time in that area and seems to be comfortable there. We've set it up as her "home base". Her carrier is still in there with the door open. She seems to like to sleep in there. She also has some toys and food and water in there with her. I haven't seen her take a drink yet, which has me concerned. I can't seem to force it on her. She did eat 2 pieces of dry food this morning finally. We couldn't interest her in the wet food last night. I'll give it another try in a while.

She spent the night in the bathroom area, sleeping in her carrier. Eve sat in there with her for half the night working on her computer. Tulip seemed to enjoy the company. When I got up this morning I went in to visit her. She came right out of the carrier when I sat down next to her. She rolled around on the throw rug and offered up her belly for petting. That was a trick. She grabbed me for petting it. She was full of love this morning, rolling and rolling on the rug while I talked to her. I moved into the toilet area where her litterbox is and she followed me in there. She finally got in and out of there a couple times on her own. Eventually she used it.

After a successful trip to the litterbox we opened the door so she could come out into the rest of the house. She wanted to come out, but wasn't sure it was a good idea. She stuck her head out into the hallway, then decided it was time to go back under the nightstand. I'm sure she hasn't had much rest since she's been here so I thought I'd let her sleep under there for a while. We'll see how it goes later. I'd really like to get her to eat and drink.