Meet Jack!

 He is super affectionate and has not so much as taken out his claws despite me continuously brushing him and removing almost half of his coat (the pre-summer malt!) and being terrified in his new environment.

He has been with me for a week now, and I have followed all of the guidelines for bringing a new cat home:

(1) I bought a cat carrier for transporting him home and put a soft blanket in it. They recommend that you take a blanket from their old home which will help them to feel more comfortable to put inside, but Jack's previous owners didn't have one. Jack was pretty scared on the ride home, he even peed in his carrier :(

(2) When we arrived home, I closed Jack in the laundry with his cat carrier, food, water and litter tray. I put out the same food and kitty litter that he is used to which is recommended to minimise the already huge number of changes.

(3) I left him alone for an hour or so and then visited Jack regularily in his laundry cave, and gave him plenty of attention. He ate a little bit of his food and used the litter tray on that first night, which made me feel better.

(4) On the evening of day 2, I gave Jack a really good brush and he loved that. I continued showering plenty of attention on him but always in his laundry area.

(5) By day 4, I decided to see if Jack wanted to come out so I left the laundry door open when I got home in the evening. He wouldn't come out despite being coaxed, but stood at the door looking out.

(6) On the evening of day 5, Jack was still too timid to leave the laundry. I picked him up and sat on the sofa with him, where he promptly fell asleep on my lap and enjoyed lots of stroking. After that he ran straight back into the laundry, but it was the start of him becoming more confident.

(7) Days 6 and 7 were the weekend, so I was home most of the day and left the laundry door open. By the evening of day 7, Jack was exploring the house and had come and laid on my bed etc. He was confident around me but remained terrified of my housemate.

(8) On days 8 and 9, Jack would come out of the laundry and explore the house every morning before I left for work and every evening until it was bedtime. I tried leaving him out at night (he still had access to his laundry if he wanted) but he came in to my bedroom and meowed for attention at 1am, at which point he was promptly relegated back to the laundry (LOL)...

(9) On the evening of day 9, I put a collar on Jack. He is not used to wearing one and he was VERY UPSET with me!! I took the bell off so that the sound wouldn't scare him, but the next morning the collar had been torn and chewed, so he had obviously been working on it throughout the night. Lucky I have started getting him used to a collar well before it's time to let him venture outside!

(10) It has now been almost three weeks since Jack arrived, and I think it's time to start letting him outside. He is very confident now and seems to want to explore. We have had some minor issues - him breaking some ornaments and my antique lamp, oh and there is the meowing at night... but overall things are going well and he's super cuddly :-)