River remains skeptical

River comes up alongside the bed, and she has even jumped onto the stool I put at the foot of the mattress so they can climb up easily. But the most she does is look at us for a moment, then jump back down. I am wondering if it is because Simon is already up here with us.

River and Simon seem to have a pecking order, and as the male Simon is the alpha. He eats first, and she waits until he is done. If we are playing with or patting him, she waits by the side of the room and doesn't approach. She looks at us with those soul-piercing eyes as though she thinks we like him better.

She has always been a little more skittish than he is, at least since they have been home with us. He doesn't appear to enforce this pecking order, she simply defers to him. And they both have been more timid and easily startled since the two days of construction (the second being Friday morning, with no advance notice, so we had to herd them into the bedroom again).

I have to keep reminding myself to be patient. Humans don't adjust to new surroundings overnight, and we can't expect cats to either. They are getting used to a new place, with big changes in the routine just within the past week. Then there's the fact that we've started trying to teach them not to jump on hard surfaces (counter, table, etc.) which has involved some mild scolding. Tonight we got some smell-deterrent spray that hopefully will make the counters and table seem unappealing. We continue to reward friendliness with a few treats and lots of playing.

Patience, patience.