20241114 214315 Tux Roaming Small Panic

Much to my low-level terror, Tux is venturing farther and farther away from the building. The fear is that something is going to scare him and he's going to bolt -- in the middle of the night when he's at his maximum camouflage potential.

Although you don't get to see it here (because I stuck the camera in my pocket so that I had both hands free to deal with him), this was his first real encounter with anyone walking around while we were out, plus the fact that they had their little, old dog (probably incapable of hurting anything) with them. He panicked about as much as any cat would, but was very good about staying calm. He doubled back to me instead of continuing up the steps to return to home base, because that's the direction that they were coming from.

So, Test #1 was a substantial success. Given how much craziness Tux had to endure before he finally came to live with me, being an urban street cat, he kept it together and didn't freak out. Knowing him as well as I have in both environments, he performed as well as his high level of composure should have.