Secrets

What a wild week!  With a schedule change at work and picking up a petsitting job over the long weekend, I've been long absent.  The girls are marveling at the new kitty smells from this moonlighting job and I'm thoroughly sniffed after each visit.  The gig involves feeding, medicating and scooping litter for 2 kitties. Each requires oral medications and one receives insulin twice daily.  A fairly easy job, but the kitties themselves have made me wonder a few things.

1) They're extremely shy and are generally hiding under the bed or behind a curtain when I arrive.  Are they always this introverted, or is my presence that intimidating?  I've tried all my tricks to get them acclimated to me and even after 4 days of twice daily visits, they regard me with disdain and fear.

2) The kitties live with a quiet and shy middle-aged woman.  She adores her kitties!  But the stillness in this house is unsettling when you stop and pet the kitties.  Now, I understand that my comfort zone in a foreign house is far different from that of the home's owner, but aside from the a/c kicking on, the house is silent.  Like mausoleum silent.

So I wonder if these kitties and their shy and quiet nature is a learned state of being, animals feeding off the energy of their humans?  Or were the kitties always shy and they simply fit right in to this lady's life?  Also, as I posted about recently, are they happy?  There's little stimulation for them aside from some foam balls that I see scattered about to play with.

I must add that the key I use to get into the house is a newly cut key just for me.  I have spent almost 30 min at a time fidgeting and finessing this key in the lock.  (Yeah, it's pretty humbling to be defeated by a simple deadbolt, but I digress...)  The kitties have ample warning that I've arrived.  Is it possible that these seemingly reticent and subdued cats are hiding their true wild natures?

"Hide the catnip, Effie, she's back!!!"

Ah, the secret lives of cats.

 And then I arrive home to tails wagging, happy whining and little joyous hops!  The girls are no good with secrets...