Jillcat Roundly- my drama queen

This is Jill. I'd introduce you in person, but she'd probably run and hide until you left. She does that whenever anyone sets foot in the house. And she stays hidden until they're safely out the door. 
 Strangely enough, her sister/littermate Cindy is just the opposite. She's there to greet whatever visitors pass through the portal to the inside. When I give guitar lessons here at the house, she always comes in the room and hangs out. If they want to pet her, she's glad to let them. And then(depending on the season)she sheds all over their coats..

Here is Cindy. She's calmer and steadier(but of course still a feline with all their jumpy excitability) and less given to drama. Much more gregarious than her xenophobic sister, but not quite as demonstrative toward me. Not a lapcat, even though she loves to be petted(providing you're a certain distance from her).  Cindy is everybody's cat, where Jill is strictly a one-person feline. 
Most of the time with these two, things are pretty even keel. They have their occasional spats, but they're always short-lived, and peace is restored. The few truly dramatic incidents we've had seemed to have centered around Jill. As you might figure.

When I first got them, back in 2009, I'd just emerged from a brief rat problem in the house. I'd had glue boards all over the house, and had been getting rid of them prior to my cats' arrival. But there was one I missed, and sure enough they found it! Jill found it, and  I found her impaled on it coming home for lunch. So I had to rush her to an Animal Hospital, where they managed to extricate her. A very stressful day for all involved. 

She also got out of the house once and ended up underneath the front porch. Not quite as white-knuckle intense as the Glue Board Incident, but still with enough stressors to kick in those adrenals. 

Jill is a very affectionate animal, and is usually on my lap when I'm sitting, or curled around my legs when I'm sleeping. She has her moments, though, when something frightens her(besides just strange people coming to the door!)or offends her, and she has to withdraw. 

Normally, like her occasional sibling spats, these are fairly short-lived, and I'm able to coax her out of her shell. Just coming off a doozy right now though, one which went on for the past two days. 

Animals don't have a Borca's Area and a Wernicke's Area  in their brains to give them the language to tell you what's wrong- nor the right muscles in their mouths to form the words. They can't even point to where it hurts! Most of the time it's just some kind of Animal Heebie Jeebies, but it can be a sign of illness. They hide that stuff as best they can. 

When the withdrawal runs into hours, you start to wonder. Jill's predecessor would do the disappearing act for long periods and it turned out to be a serious lung and kidney problem. So I've been through the Worst Case Scenario here. At least a Worst Case Scenario..

In this case, thankfully, it seems to be benign. Just Jill's perennial fear of damn near everything! After much coaxing and finally ignoring her ass(well okay not really..)I think we're back to norbal. I'm crazy about both these cats, but Jill is probably the one I dote on, and who dotes on me. Which is what makes these separations so tough, that you're used to all this attention(sometimes more than you'd like)and when it's taken away, it smarts a little. 

Whether you have kids or not, pets become members of the family after awhile. Like kids, there's the potential for great joy, but also the ability to really take it out of you. So I'm relieved that we're back in business, but a little worn out by it. 

Well if there is a saving grace here, through all the worry and irritation over my cat's antics, it's that( if the energy is channeled right) my house ends up being a lot cleaner!