Semi-feral cat + friendly dog = extrapolate to humans?

Is there anything I can do to extrapolate the friendship between Mystique (feral cat) and Dougal (pure bred Vizsla, around one year old, male, not neutered) to human friendship/tolerance? 

As some of you know (http://www.thecatsite.com/t/242725/...ablished-feral-stray-cat-colony-advice-please,)  I trapped Mystique over a year ago (part of TNR) and moved her into my friend's (Trysh) cattery, a room she converted so we can socialize some of the more friendly stray cats I feed.  Over the year that Trysh and I have been working with her, she's shown little progress:  we can walk around her, almost over her and she won't move; but she still runs under the sofa if we approach her and will not let us pet her.  She will sometimes eat fish flakes from our hands.

This week Trysh brought Dougal up to see Mystique just to see how they would get along.  Well, Mystique fell in love with Dougal, head butting Dougal, winding in between his legs, sniffing each others' butts and bodies.  For the first time, she trilled, purred and laid down with a 'soft' face.  When Mystique wasn't looking (she was focused on Dougal), Trysh was able to touch Mystique without Mystique running.

So, does anyone have any advice how to foster this relationship; to have it translate into her being less afraid of humans.  I also think Mystique's behavior is more sexual than friendship, although Mystique is of course spayed and Vizula is much larger.  (She was pregnant was trapped if that makes a difference.)

Thanks.

WOW, Cindy, that is truly a way to get through to Mystique. What a brilliant idea to bring Dougal over to see if he could get through to Mystique. OMG You and Trysh must have been in heaven :9: seeing that exchange take place. Just hearing about it, gives me chills!!!!!!! It is really very interesting with these feral cat's and their relationship with other animals, that bond, and if you can find an "in" through another animal like that to get closer to a feral cat, the progress can be tremendous. The only thing I would do is keep bringing Dougal over, is that possible??? OR find another super cat friendly dog, which might be hard to do. It sounds like Mystique and Dougal had immediate chemistry and I would keep using that to get through to her that a human can give her as much love as Dougal can. WOW, pretty cool realization :nod:

Tremendous development! It has been my experience that some cats will respond to another animal more than a human. Now, our Cleo wasn't feral, however, she bonded first with our big dog. He was the first being in our home that she trusted and even when she was hiding out from my DH and me, he could go up to her and snuffle her and she would love him back.

Conversely, our feral Claire has little to do with the dogs. You've read the dog vs cat diary, yes, Claire would be the cat in that scenario.

If it works, keep it up, you never know what will click with a kitty!

Mystique and Dougal are in the same house (Trysh's house).  When Trysh has time, she will bring Dougal up to interact with Mystique, hopefully several times a day.

Petey (about whom I've talked) precluded introducing any of the dogs to Mystique.  Now that Petey has been adopted into a Forever Home, we have more leeway.

Yeah, we need more cat-friendly dogs to bring up to see Mystique.

Great that Dougal lives in the same house then. He will really be quite helpful in bringing Mystique out of her shell with humans, for sure. Another suggestion would be to have Dougal wear a doggie t-shirt for a day or so. Then you can bring in the t-shirt with you when you go and visit Mystique. Hold the t-shirt close to you when you approach Mystique and see how she will react to you then. She will smell Dougal on that t-shirt and it might surprise her that you smell like Dougal.