Fortunately, last year was not all bad. While we lost some family members, we also gained some new ones. … In celebration of some landmark anniversaries last year, my humans got me a little brother. After all, I too was a birthday present. In fact, my human often says that I was such a good birthday present that she would be okay with not getting a birthday present ever again. But still, in honour of us being together for five years (among some other things), we decided to offer our home to yet another little soul, who will probably be the last furry member of our “nuclear” family.
Welcome to the family, Goliat!
Goliat spent most of the first months of his life at the Life4Cats cat shelter in Transylvania, as our friends there generously offered to take him in after he was abandoned as a puppy. We in fact followed his story from the very beginning (were thus also aware of his challenges with rickets) and fell in love with his sweet temperament early on. But getting a brother was pretty much out of the question due to my social limitations. When the humans finally got serious about adopting a (girl) dog, our friends – worried about his prospects of finding a good home – asked us to consider taking him instead. So my humans said yes.
Not without anxiety though. My humans were worried about how I will react. When he finally arrived after a long journey from Transylvania to Budapest, I did not even get to greet him on his first day here, as my humans wanted to give him a day before he has to put up with me. But as it turns out, there were other things that they should have been more worried about. Goliat was not yet familiar with the ways of the leash, was terrified of vehicles and got puzzled by pretty much everything in his new urban setting. He would barely walk! I will never forget how clumsy he seemed when I finally got to see him from the other side of the road on his second day in Budapest.
But Goliat immediately saw a knight in shining armour in me! The second he noticed me from the distance, his ears perked up, eyes rounded in admiration and started to walk at a more normal pace. He left me with no choice. I had to immediately take him under my protective paws and have kept him there ever since. Nobody messes with my little brother! … After our first walk together, we came up to our apartment, gave him some time to sniff things around and then started to teach him everything.
The felines took much longer to warm up to the new member of the family. Goliat was a bit too overzealous to befriend them. He kept waving his paws at them, to reassure them that he only means play, but our “brave” tiger and panther would just freak out. They were not used with so much attention from me, as I would generally just ignore them. But things got better over time. I am still the reference point to them, but they accepted Goliat as well.
