Immediately they both made little chirpy meows and touched noses, thereby vindicating the several weeks of isolation... feline leukemia spreads like crazy over cat to cat contact. And just as quickly Zoe attempted to play, and Annie attempted to avoid playing. It's been much the same since. It looked much like this:

For a couple days we returned Zoe to the lockup at night and while we were at work, and this proved terribly trying for all concerned. Zoe, of course, having tasted freedom, was incredibly confused at the regular return to prison. And being suddenly set free around 6pm every evening, she would fly into a tornado of activity, the brunt of which was directed at Annie.

Since we had a long holiday weekend, we sprung her on Friday night to see how she does on the full release, and have kept her out ever since. It's calmed her down considerably, although she still has kittenish phases where she goes after Annie. As we had hoped, Annie is maintaining her dominant role; she has no qualms about tossing Zoe onto her back or chasing her off with a hiss and a yowl. We've only noticed some small alterations to Annie's routine, which is good because I feared that Zoe's continuous presence might push Annie off to hide. We've even had a couple touching moments - Zoe licking Annie's head, the two sleeping within three couch cushions distance - but Zoe's tendency towards spastic attacks makes it rough. Once she grows up a bit, things look like they will be fine.

We even moved her litterbox to the basement already, and bought her a completely new one a couple hours later... but Zoe took to the new poop plan with no trouble. Only once I caught her in the old litterbox location, sniffing the floor and whimpering... so I carried her to the new one and she used it right away. Not long after that, she followed me downstairs and bolted right into the new box, almost as if she wanted me to watch her use it.

We still have to be watchful of her overdoing the fighting with Annie, but she will scatter if I yell (although Annie usually thinks I'm yelling at her too, and gives me a pained "what did *I* do" look.) Cords are also a troublesome distraction, so Nintendo's full-blown wireless Revolution can't get here fast enough. (The Wavebirds have long been a Fourhman staple, but linked-up GBAs for Four Swords is a kitten disaster.) So far, Zoe hasn't been too bad with the claws, but we do have to continue to work on that, because we'd rather not declaw.

And she has no idea what her name is.