About to get a potentially aggressive cat

Hi everyone, this is my first post here as I don't currently have a cat. It's nice to meet you all. I have sort of unique situation that I need some advice about. But first, some background:

A very good friend of mine found a stray young cat about 4 years ago and took her in as her pet. Jazira was never the most friendly and cuddly of kitties, but did learn to be around people and could tolerate being picked up and held with little incident, and would sometimes sit on laps and want to be petted. I knew the cat fairly well as I used to hang out at my friend's a lot during college.

Last year a my friend went to Europe for about 7 months. During that time she left her kitty with another friend of ours. She returned to the US just a week ago and was finally able to go pick up her kitty last night, after which she called me practically in tears and told me that her cat had become much more aggressive and ripped up her hand when she tried to get her into the carrier. She attributes this to the fact that, she believes, the people where the cat was staying had minimal interaction with the cat. She definitely can't keep the cat herself in this condition as she currently has no stable place of her own to live and is going between living at her mom's and house sitting, and can't have an aggressive cat with her (nevermind that these aren't the best living conditions for a cat anyways). But, since I knew this cat fairly well before and have an apartment that won't be changing for a while and have no other pets I offered to take her instead.

Now, it sounds to me that part of the problem might be that my friend was expecting her cat to recognize her and be okay with her suddenly coming in and taking her after 7 months, so it may not be as bad as she was thinking. The people she left the cat with did say she would come out and let them pet her sometimes, at least, so I'm hopeful. That said I am worried that she might in fact be aggressive, and obviously bringing her here is going to be stressful: it's a 7 hour car ride she'll be making this evening. I have owned cats before, but I've never taken in a cat that was already aggressive. I do know that when she first gets here I need to give her plenty of space and time to adjust; for now I'm planning to set her up with litter and food and water in the corner beside the sofa and just open her carrier there and let her take her time.

Oh boy, sorry, that got really long. I'm just wondering if you guys could offer advice tips for me to make her more comfortable and hopefully eventually be okay with being picked up and petted again. How long should I leave her alone? What can I do to make her more comfortable? How hard should I push interaction, if at all? I do have leather work gloves if I need to be pushy (might need them to get her collar off of her anyways). I'm going to be looking around the internet for other tips today. Thanks for reading.

Thanks for the info so far, the feral information is really helpful! Yes, she is spayed and she is up-to-date with her shots as far as I know, my friend is usually very on top of things like that and also will have her vet records mailed to me in a few days. I think I also forgot to mention that we're kind of looking at this as a "foster" situation in which she is planning to take the cat back when she finds herself in a stable living situation- but who knows how long that will be; probably a few months at the very least. I'd rather just keep her, myself, as I think that would be best for her, but it is her cat...well we'll see how it goes.

Unfortunately the apartment is a small one-bedroom apartment- not ideal for a cat I know, I'm going to have to make sure she get's enough exercise- so there is sadly no separate room we can put her in; I'm planning to put her in the living room as we spend most of our time at our desks in the bedroom anyways. I'm looking into the feliway diffuser and it sounds perfect, I'd never actually heard of these before! I'll have to hunt one down before I go pick her up tonight.

Thanks again! I'll keep you guys posted as to how she's doing.

thanks for the site, strange_wings! I think I'll be going to the store today so I can get them before I get her here tonight, but that's great for future reference for sure!

My friend was planning to bring her up in a large-ish cage so that she could have food and a litter pan in the car; I'm planning to put it in the corner and cover it with some old fleece fabric I've had lying around and leave that corner alone for a while.

I was also thinking that this might be situational aggression. My friend only got her last night, so there hasn't been much time for other incidents, but I'm feeling pretty confident that she'll be okay once she calms down. Just wanted some advice just in case! And all her own toys, scratching post, and other stuff is being brought to me as well. I think she actually has a Da Bird, or at least something very similar, and she does respond very well to catnip.

As for the collar, it sounds like the cat has gained a lot of weight in the past 7 months (another issue I'll be addressing, heh) and we're worried it might be too tight. My friend's hands were apparently too ripped up by the time she got the cat home, but I'm planning to check it and take it off if necessary ASAP.

just an update- I got Jazira home last night and she seemed mellow enough so I opened the crate and she immediately came out and started rubbing on everything- boyfriend and I included! She even jumped up on the bed with me and into my boyfriend's lap with no problem. I knew my friend was probably overreacting and it was all just situational! I'm still going to give her some time before I try picking her up or trimming her claws (which are REALLY long!) just in case- she did rip up my friend's hands something awful. But she's eating fine and used the litter box with no problem, so I'm pretty happy.
She is ENORMOUS however! I didn't think it would be possible for her to gain that much weight in such a short time! She was slim- bordering on a little too thin almost- before and now she looks like a balloon. Apparently at the previous house there was some confusion between roommates as to whether she'd been fed or not sometimes. Anyways she'll be on a diet for a while now I think.

But yes, she is doing well and it seems my caution was unnecessary- but better safe than sorry, of course. Thanks again for the advice everyone!

thanks for the feedback everyone!

Yes, she did know both me and my boyfriend before- we've both fed her while her owner was out of town and I' spent a lot of time at her owner's house before so that probably helps. I tend to prepare for the worst myself- pleasantly surprised is always better than disappointed.

I'm thinking she didn't get a lot of interactive playtime. I tried interesting her in chasing a toy, and while she wanted to play with it she kind of flopped over and wanted me to bring it to her. She used to chase things! I think she might just be too fat now. I did eventually get her to run after it a little, though. On the upside, it might also be too hard for her to jump on the counter now as she used to do that and steal food all the time, but hasn't since she got here. Hopefully it'll stay that way as she loses weight.