Trapping for 2nd time?

Kind of a disappointing end to the weekend. Nothing new to report. I did get the chicken baby food and I put a dab on dish - I think I messed up by putting it the carrier she was in, instead of out of it. An hour later, she hadn't touched it, so I went to carefully take it out - and she hissed at me. First time she's hissed at me actually. I just feel bad. It should've been obvious to me that I was getting too close to her, but sometimes hindsight is 20/20.

Hoping things will get better over the next few weeks. If not.. well, at least she is eating now! And it's only been 17 days I think. I just feel bad I made her hiss at me.

Actually, at this point, I'd consider hissing at you as a good thing! It means she's comfortable enough that it is "her" space and she's letting you know that.

Right now I'm going in a few times a day to change/give food/water/litter box and then I sit in with her for 1 hour at night. Should I split up that hour so it's 2 half hour sessions? Or just add another half an hour session with her? Kind of tricky to do this during the work week, hmm.

Should I bring in pinecones from outside for her to bat around? (I don't think her cat toys have been moved.) Would it be wise if I put some catnip on the scratching posts or anything? I just worried she's bored out of her mind right now. I hear her jumping up and down furniture, but she doesn't have a lot to do in the room, especially if she doesn't understand toys. She does have the window to look out of, but there is no tree in view. She can see the street. Too high up to put a suction cup bird feeder.

I was wondering if it would be helpful if I slept overnight in her room. It would be in a sleeping bag... But I could rough it. My concerns would be - is that too early in the process? She doesn't eat in front of me yet (she did outside). I wouldn't want my presence to make her ignore food/litter box if she needed to eat/potty. I wouldn't make sleeping in her room permanent, but I could probably do it a couple nights a week if that would help at this stage.

Or should I just sit tight and keep doing what I'm doing.

Thanks all!

I would give her another week of what you are doing. This is a big change for her, its better to take it slow. It won't hurt to bring in some pine cones but she might not pay attention to them You might try a lazer light. Just shine it right around in front of her so she doesn't have to come out of her hiding place to play with it. That is how we finally got Sabrina to relax.

Don't get discouraged. Sabrina has been a tame kitty all of her life. But she spent the first four years of her life at the shelter so the change to a home was very different to her. It took her over two weeks to settle in and be comfortable with us and our house. I imgaine if it takes a tame kitty that long it will take at least twice as long for feral kitty.

I'd go the other way... I'd sleep in there.

Do you have a sweaty t-shirt under her food dish? I'd do that too.

For entertainment... yeah, try some pine cones. Sure can't hurt to have them around. Catnip is good. And maybe get her a treat ball - you know, those ball things that only let one treat out at a time and they have to roll around to get it out?

BTW - look at the windowsill. Is there a little lip outside the window? On our 2nd floor windows, we were able to pour bird seed right on the ledge. We were able to open the window from the top and pour the birdseed down onto the ledge. Yes, a lot bounced off... but enough stayed to attract both squirrels and birds.

Sleeping in there probably won't hurt a thing. She might even like the company. Either way you go I don't hink you will hurt anything.

Nothing really new to report. Friday we go back to the vet for shots - it will have been 4 weeks already! I feel in some ways she is less curious of me now. She hasn't moved in my presence in a long time... no more peaking out at me when I sit there and read. I'm washing my sleeping bag so I can start 'camping out' in her room at night to see how that goes.

So it sounds like I need to get her combo tested again in a month? (We have another kitty, one of her babies.) To make sure in case anything is incubated, that the tests are done 2 months apart? We have seen her with other cats in the summer so it is possible... I could get her combo tested on Friday, but that is only 1 month after her first test and it sounds like 2 months is the way to go?

She's ignored the chicken baby food.. I am trying to find her soft spot.

So yeah, nothing new, but just wanted to update.

I don't have answers on the testing. We always just had them tested the once.

...but I think sleeping in there is a great idea. You'll have to let us know if you wake up and pretend you're still sleeping with her investigating you!

I attempted to camp out with her last night but I did not plan this right! We have hard wood floor. Thin sleeping bag on hard wood floor? OUCH. I tried to sleep in there but gave up after about 90 minutes. She stayed put the whole time as far as I could tell. I'm going to look into getting some type of support/rug/foam to put below the sleeping bag and try this again!

I'm so sorry, but I got a giggle out of that.

Should I be concerned that she is depressed (if she is?) I don't want to break her spirit during this journey.

I decided to start reading in a spot closer to her - not scary close, but basically positioning myself across from her in the room, but me facing 90 degrees away from her (so not directly facing her). I know not to look her in the eye, but gosh it's hard not to. I do the slow blink if I do and look away, and I yawn, etc. She'll watch me for a while, then she'll close her eyes, start to drift off, then she'll put her head down and fully sleep in the carrier. She eventually got used to the page turning sound and was able to fully sleep even with slight noise. I don't know if that is more trusting of me or if she's just hoping I'll go away when she wakes up.

She's actually somewhat of a picky eater! She doesn't like the loaf style chicken anything (wet food). I'm still figuring out what brands and types of wet food to feed both cats but I know to rotate lamb/beef/turkey/chicken so they don't get finicky - but she seems to be finicky already.

Well, I just hope she's not getting depressed. I know she does explore the room, but I don't think she understands her toys, not sure about scratching posts. So she probably has long boring days of just wondering why she's imprisoned. Maybe I am sadder about this than she is, but I don't want her to die of depression, if that is possible.

I'm still trying to figure out tasty treats she likes. She isn't a nut for the usual things - doesn't like KFC.. doesn't like chicken baby food.. doesn't like the moist cat treats I got for her (she'll eventually eat the crunchy ones when I'm not around). So I'll just keep trying different things til I hit the jackpot.

Perhaps I should get one of those cat grass things? Something green and outside-like for her to nom on?? I'm up for any ideas.

We go to the vet again on Friday! It's been almost 4 weeks already.

So what happens Friday? You bringing a poop sample to make sure she's rid of worms? Distemper follow up? At this point.... if she's free of parasites, I'd consider thinking about working towards kitty intros. Not so much because she's ready to be out and about - but because her ability to watch you interact with Batman may help her along.

Because you have to take her to the vet Friday, I'd bring two wash clothes or clean rags or something, and wipe her all over with each. Put one under Batman's dry food dish, and use the other one to put treats out on for Batman when you're done with a play session or something. This gets him to start associating her smell with good things. And if you have a sweaty t-shirt under her food dish, then maybe start leaving treats out for her (if you've found any she likes) on the one that smells like Batman.

Our kitties never self-regulated on grass when we used to feed it to them, so we'd have to clip it and feed it to them. But you can always give it a try.

... her falling asleep while you were there and doing stuff is actually really good. It is a big trust hump.

...and as to a special treat, maybe try shrimp. It's not the greatest thing for cats, but in small amounts, it's not bad. Especially warm. If she doesn't got nuts for that... I don't know what to suggest! At this point, you really need food to lure her to interact with you, I think.

But yeah.... I think sleeping in there is a good idea. And maybe moving a little closer to her carrier each day when you go in there to read - see how she reacts. If it doesn't bother her, just keep going until you're next to the carrier! That is.... if you haven't found a treat to lure her out of there while you're in the room.

But if your vet thinks it's OK (I'm pretty sure it should be fine by now), I'd do that scent swapping thing for a few days... and then maybe consider starting intros. Is there a wand toy that Batman goes nuts for? Does he like being brushed? Because either playing with him a little bit in there or brushing and petting him in there if he's up for it may really help her along.

Laurie, you are awesome. Thank you again for your help.

Friday's apt is that stuff plus I am going to get another combo test done and ask them if they need to test for giardia/anything on the poop aside from parasites. I read online that FIV/FeLV can incubate for 8-12 weeks. Which makes me nervous. I know she's been around other cats - I've seen cats (then don't see them again) in the neighborhood. I don't have a plan B at this point if shes does test positive so I'm hoping everything is still clear. I will talk to the vet about the incubation and if I need to go in again in another month! for Patches.

Great tips on the towel scent stuff! Yep I have shirts with my scent and my husband's by food so I can leave a Batman scented one there too. Batman is already very interested in her scent - he tries to get a sniff before I change clothes when I go in/out of her room. He actually sleeps by her door a lot too.

Shrimp! Great idea! I'll let you know how that goes, unless I eat it all.

I sat with her again last night and read. She actually curled up in the carrier and ignored me after a while, her head completely tucked in and relaxed. She'd pick up her head if I made too much noise turning a page, but fall back asleep. I guess that is good! I give her a handful of treats in front of the carrier whenever I'm in there and lately she hasn't been retreating back an inch when I do that. She doesn't seem terrified of me - she seems a bit indifferent and suspicious... It's frustrating she was getting trusting of me outside, but regressed inside - but I knew that would happen. Still am frustrated though

I know toys won't be her thing for a while - but I did have a little feather wand I was moving around and she was following it with her eyes. Not sure if that scared her of if she was intrigued. She didn't move farther back into the carrier - she just watched the feather.

I agree - her watching me interact with Batman has to be helpful. I hope that can happen sooner than later to help her adjust better - will find out on Friday if scent swapping is good after getting her checked out. Hopefully the vet will be less scared of her this time... But they'll ask if I touched her and I'll say no... then they'll be unsure how much they can handle her. We'll see how it goes!

I'll probably have a billion questions after the scent swapping about how to handle the intro I have read up on regular cat intros, but this will be a bit different. Not sure if Batman will play normally if he's in her room with me, for example. He may be too interested in exploring her digs and her, but I'll bug you about that later

I'm not going to have a lot of advice on that, because we never had the space to separate kitties for intros. Well - that's not exactly true. We lived in a house when we rescued Ming Loy, and we kept her in a separate room for all of a week. She wasn't scared of us (very young when rescued and had to stay at the vet for about a month before the vet gave her the all clear to come home - we have a kitty with an autoimmune disease). ...and the other kitties didn't bother with her, so we just opened the door and that was that.

Quick funny story. She ignored all the boxes and carriers and such we had in there, and slept under the cedar chest. She had to squish down and wiggle under there - and she'd go to the far end, near the door. We'd open the door and call "Where's Ming Loy?" and we'd hear this THUMP (as she hit the bottom of the cedar chest), and she'd come wiggling out and run over. When we opened the door, and brought her into our bedroom, she'd wander around exploring. We'd call "Ming Loy" and she ignored us. After a while, Gary and I looked at each other - and could tell we were thinking the same thing. We called "Where's Ming Loy?" - and she came running! It took a few weeks to switch her name - because she thought her name was "Where's Ming Loy" !

.... But yeah.... I can see Batman wanted to head straight for her carrier - and her hissing and swatting back at him, so not necessarily being a good thing.

I don't know if you want to go this far.... but what a number of people have done is to temporarily replace the door on the "separation" room with a screen door. This accomplishes a lot of things - kitty can hear the rest of the house better, resident kitty and new kitty can see and smell each other better (and you can guage reactions to how they interact through screen).... her interest in Batman or what goes on outside her room may perk up and she may sit at the door... or it may be scary, and she'll just stay in her carrier. But it would enable you to interact with him so that she can see it, but he can't get at her.

But one thing is for sure. Getting them familiar with each other's scent in a "positive" way with the food or treats on the "scented" clothes definitely won't hurt.

Poor Patches. She had a ROUGH afternoon. I flipped all her hiding boxes upside down so she only had her carrier to hang out in for the past several days. It should've been a simple matter of closing the carrier... but... I didn't factor in the little handtowel that she was slowly pushing out of the carrier. So when I went to close the carrier, I couldn't... the little bar wouldn't go in the hole because the towel was blocking... so when I slowly tried to move the towel, she freaked out, darted past me - which startled me and I let out a girlish scream (which probably scared her) - and I got a couple minor scratches, and then poor Patches, jumped onto the nightstand, tried to climb up the window... and was just frantic. It was sooooooo sad. There was 1 little hiding area she found (in this fur lined cube I thought she was ignoring). So.. I got the towel out, then nudged her cube enough to encourage her to get out... (which made me feel awful...) and she got out, looked around, went to carrier... and then I finally had her. It was NOT GOOD and I knew it wasn't an easy start to a stressful vet trip. Next time... no towel in the carrier...

So at the vet, the vet assistant started opening up the carrier - and I'm like 'uhhh you may want to leave her in there until the vet is here to not freak her out' but she wanted her out... so poor Patches was just sitting on the bottom part of the carrier, no lid on, exposed, just shaking... the vet tech was going TO PET HER and I warned her not to.. I told her she was a former stray that I have not yet touched.. and I said I was worried she'd freak out and dart out of the exam room but she wanted her out. Please keep in mind everyone when walking into exam room got her life story up to this point in 30 words so I don't know why they wanted to pet her!!!!

The vet was awesome though... She and another lady got their gloves and towels and gave her a really good exam - and I was there for it this time. They of course wanted to pet the pretty kitty - Patches hissed. Not surprised.. but they wanted to try. However Patches did great with them... I mean, she was freaking out, but she was not ballistic. They kept telling me she was being wonderful too. They were able to check her teeth, her heart/lungs, temperature, everything - last time the team there was too uneasy about her to do that - these ladies were very gung ho. They said her lungs were a little wheezy but probably from the stress. Some plaque, but not bad. They said my 3 year guess seemed right on.

So the bad news is... they advised me to do a combo test 3 months after the first 1 - so that is February 4th. So 2 more months of full quarantine. I'd rather be safe than sorry though... although I have no idea what we would do if she WAS positive. If we had to keep her in a seperate part of the house, she might get depressed. Being a basement cat would stink... bedroom cat would stink... but I'm not going to think about that unless I have to!!!! So let's hope Patches is negative in 2 months

The other handler told me deals with ferals a lot - she compared them to possums. I didn't know what to think about that but she did say as far as Patches' disposition goes, she thinks she will come around soon enough. Everyone gushed over how pretty she was.

Anyways... so yeah, looks like Patches is stuck just hanging out with me for 2 more months. I know today was a bit set-back for her on trust... but since I wasn't actually touching her at the vet, maybe it won't be TOO bad. Will get some tasty shrimp this weekend and see if I can find her weak spot, although I'm sure tonight would not be a high probability of her coming out, after today's stress. Poor baby.

I'll keep you posted!

Laurie, that is hilarious Ming Loy's first name in his mind is "Where's" Maybe your signatures need updated with his full title

Oh poor you and poor Patches! Things like this happen, so don't (well, try not to) fret.

....can you talk to DH about maybe trying the screen door on the room? Sounds like a great (rather inexpensive) Christmas present, doesn't it?

Originally Posted by killerapple

Laurie, that is hilarious Ming Loy's first name in her mind is "Where's"

Maybe your signatures need updated with her full title

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I love that story about her - it really is too funny!

Originally Posted by LDG

I love that story about her - it really is too funny!

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Oops, I called her a he didn't I.

I did bring up the screen door idea to my husband. He seems open to looking into possibilities but said it would be a lot of work. He was thinking though - mentioned plexiglass too soooooo we'll see!

I'm leaving Miss Patches alone tonight other than food/etc. She ignored her wet food tonight but did use litter box - figure she's going to move as little as possible after her scare today. Poor little girl. Honestly though it could've been SO much worse. That's what I keep telling myself. She only hissed. She didn't do that scary low meow or spit or lash out, so maybe as bad as it was for her, she did not react that bad - more defensive and being scared than acting aggressive. And she's really healthy all things considered (living outside 2+ years!) So I'm trying to tell myself all of that over, instead of focusing on the awful scary experiences she went through.

We got her a Christmas stocking last weekend.

I'll let you know how the shrimp goes. I figure I'll wait a few days until she is less traumatized before I try that.

Originally Posted by killerapple

I'll let you know how the shrimp goes. I figure I'll wait a few days until she is less traumatized before I try that.

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Yeah, that's a good idea.

Thankfully all the vets around here are used to working with feral cats. If they're freaking, they just tranquilize them in the trap or crate. All of them have needles rigged on these long stick things for just that purpose. ..but really, most of the ferals we've ever taken in are SO completely freaked out, they just hunker down and go completely quiet. It's the semi-ferals - like Patches - that are the problem.

Patches is finally "over" the vet visit. She was on a hunger strike the rest of the weekend, but she ate like a champ yesterday. We're on the 2nd Feliway diffuser now. So now that she's eating, I'll be gracing her with more of my presence and Operation Shrimp will be under way very soon. I will keep you posted

I don't even know what to suggest if she doesn't like shrimp! it'll be her "magic" food too.