This is Carl intently watching the helicopter pick up Christmas trees on our neighbors farm. Both my cats seem frightened of aircraft, when they were small they would run in the house anytime a plane would fly over.
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Black Cats Only
- Thread starter segelkatt
- Start Date
This is Carl intently watching the helicopter pick up Christmas trees on our neighbors farm. Both my cats seem frightened of aircraft, when they were small they would run in the house anytime a plane would fly over.
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Carl is absolutely glorious! And I love that one stray white hair on his back!
This is Carl intently watching the helicopter pick up Christmas trees on our neighbors farm. Both my cats seem frightened of aircraft, when they were small they would run in the house anytime a plane would fly over.
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SuperSue, your cat pic is beautiful, a perfect photography for me.
The background, beautiful leaves and your black cat just amazing pic
A nice calendar or postcard pic :-)
The background, beautiful leaves and your black cat just amazing pic
A nice calendar or postcard pic :-)
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Here is a picture of Pete, who lived to be 22 or 23. He was a great cat and lived a very interesting life.
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Yes, SuperSue, go for it, you are a good photographer and you have great eye as they call it.
Cats are one of the best models in the world for they are so cute, adorable and natural beauty.
My calendars all cats and I adore it!
Cats are one of the best models in the world for they are so cute, adorable and natural beauty.
My calendars all cats and I adore it!
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Hi Segalkatt 
Sorry for the delay in my response, been caught up in holiday stuff, etc
Nero, was just Nero, one of the cats that would eat and run off of my back porch, but then he figured out that I was the source of the occasional wet food, and would hang out waiting for it. I have tall windows looking out onto my back deck, and my four indoor girls would hiss and growl at him, until THEY figured out that every time he showed up, I would break out the wet food and it was a party for all. Then they started greeting his arrival like teenage girls spotting a rock star. They'd roll around on the floor, chirp at him, etc -- and they are spayed! Hell, I didn't even have to see him out there -- they would come let me know, "He's here!! He's here!!" At that point he became "Nero The Demigod". That picture was taken last July when I arrived home after a week away (a neighbor kept up with the dry food in my absence). I literally just dragged my suitcases in, and there he was out on the back porch looking at me through the glass like, "Where have you been, and where is my wet food..." The picture is a little blurry because I stopped where I was so I didn't spook him and zoomed in from inside the house on my cell phone.
By then I had been feeding him since February, and had gotten to where I could go out on the back porch with the wet food and he would stay six feet or so away, with only the occasional hiss, if I moved slowly and avoided eye contact, and I could sit out there cross-legged on the other side of the deck. But I noticed that as he licked the wet food off the flimsy little paper plate, it would slide. So I used that to my advantage and put it between us, such that as he ate, he would move closer and closer to where I was sitting, facing a different direction, never towards him and only occasionally looking at him with a slow eye blink and look away again. And I would just talk in a soft voice. Eventually (around the time that picture was taken), it got to where he was okay eating next to me as long as I was sitting and let him approach me, and even to where I could hold the plate still, with his whiskers brushing my fingers. But I couldn't touch him--he would lean away, and look at me as if he was offended that I would even think of trying.
And once in awhile, later on in this "process", he would occasionally make a squeak at me in anticipation. It was because of this that I figured he was most likely a stray, not a feral, as ferals don't tend to vocalize with people. So while I'd TNR'd a few ferals, I thought that perhaps this cat could be brought back into "the fold" and have a better life. So I continued to work with him, but as Halloween was approaching and he's a black cat, I started to get nervous, and decided I needed to trap him. I really felt like I had betrayed him in some way.
The weather was still mild here, so I put him in the garage in the covered trap so he could be neutered in the morning, and he was making this heart wrenching "honking" noise as he thrashed around. I felt so bad. The next morning I brought him to the spay/neuter clinic, and told them I was going to rehab him since he's clearly just a scared stray, so do the microchip, no ear tip, etc. But when I went to pick him up later, I got the worst report card of any cat I had ever brought there, ferals included. "Oh, you're here to pick up the bad one...." This was on his discharge papers:
I learned a new word that day....."fractious". I had never heard it before....but it sounded like something that "breaks apart", like "fracture". They called him "mean" and "vicious". Like a protective mother, I explained that he must just be misunderstood, that he will eat off of a plate right next to me! And he's "meowed" at me on occasion! Still, they insisted that he was 100% feral, not a stray, and these are the people that deal with feral spay/neuter all week long, all day long. They estimated him to be about eight years old, and he was also FIV positive to boot, but negative for FeLV, thank goodness. They cautioned me to be extremely careful caring for him during his recovery, do not try to handle him, do not let him out in my house, and wished me luck.
As you can imagine, on the drive home, my heart was in my throat, wondering what I had gotten myself into, and I was sad--I really had thought he could be saved. I wondered if I might need to turn him back out, and how I would be able to clean the litter box, etc, in the meantime. I already had the setup for caring for him -- the largest dog cage I could get, with a litter box in there and food and water, as I did with other TNR cats. This time though, I had set it up in my bedroom, since my original plan was to keep him. I set the cat carrier in there in it's predetermined spot, opened the door and shut the cage door quickly. And I left the room to give him a chance to settle.
When I came back in later to go to bed, I expected to find him hunched down in the carrier like the other ferals. Hell no. He was sitting in the middle of the dog cage like he owned the room. And he hissed at me. Oh, great.....
The next few days, I donned ridiculous amounts of clothing and winter gloves just to slip food and water in and out of his cage. But I also spent a lot of time sitting next to the cage, talking to him, but not staring at him. And sometimes just being on my laptop. And I had put my bed about three feet away from his cage and slept on that side, and plugged a nightlight in, so he could see me sleeping and I could see him.
For the most part, he hung out on top of the cat carrier and sometimes "hid" in the litter box. I think the fact that he hung out on the carrier rather than in it was because the carrier was a bit small, and he "knew" me already for eight months, and he felt protected inside the cage.
He also would nap briefly a little in the sun after he ate, even when I was outside on the porch, so before long, he would fall asleep on top of the carrier even when I was sitting next to it. One time, while his back was to me, I took the opportunity with one finger to do two quick "drive-by scratches" on the back of his neck. It astonished us both! He immediately flipped over and looked at me with accusation in his eyes, while I quickly looked elsewhere like, "Who me? Wasn't me!" And I was astonished at the feel of his skin--totally covered with flea bite scabs!! OMG!! Every tiny bit!!
He had a Capstar at the clinic, so there were no more fleas, but I just couldn't imagine how itchy he must have felt! So the next day, I did it again. And within a few days, he started to realize it felt good, given how itchy he was. So he was okay with me doing it with just one or two fingers through the bars, and would lean into it. However, if he would lean in a way that made my finger touch him in a way that he wasn't comfortable with, he would let me know with a hiss or a scratch!
Since we were making progress, I decided to hang onto him a little longer, and about the 9th day, I learned about Feliway and plugged one in, not expecting any results until about 30 days, according to the directions. The next day, while I was sitting next to him, he stood up and rubbed on the cage, as if he was trying to rub on me. That seemed to be a sign, and I prepared my room to give him the run of it.
The first night, he had found the comfort of the bed, and settled himself for a bit at the far bottom corner. The next night, he started there, but then moved to my feet. Then I felt him walking up behind me and settling near the small of my back. I didn't dare move, and couldn't sleep, because I was afraid of what he might do if i rolled towards him.
As I found, he would never stay for long. He would jump on top of the covered cage or climb the floor-to-ceiling cat tree I bought him, peering out the window and make those anxious "honking" noises and sometimes claw frantically at the window. I did originally have 2" faux wood blinds, that I kept closed so as not to "torment" him with the "outside", but he tore them down a few times, so I just took them down, mainly for his safety.
It broke my heart to see him this way. And I was tormented. All he wanted was OUT, but he's 8-years-old with FIV. I let it play out a little longer, and one day, while I was sitting on the floor, he rubbed back and forth across my knees. A few days later, I dared to touch him as he passed, letting my hand stroke his back. I definitely had mixed results in the beginning, but now he gets up on the bed and meows in my face for attention. He is definitely more "ok" with things while I'm laying down. But he's also taken to holding me "hostage" at times by rubbing against my legs, so that if I walk and bump him, he hisses at me. So recently one of these times, when I was trying to go to bed, I reached down with confidence and plucked him up and put him on the bed, like before he knew what happened. And then petted him there.
The "confidence" thing is important, because I've found that he is VERY in tune to how I feel. If I'm feeling a little apprehensive, he knows it and responds the same. We have been building trust in each other as we go, and he will "spoon" with me on the bed now (he lays there, but I can't rest an arm over him yet). He still goes through this routine/cycle where he hangs with me on the bed, then goes on top of the cage and peers out the window, then goes on top of the cat tree. The he starts honking with anxiety/upset, but if i talk to him, he comes back to the bed meowing for attention. After about 30 minutes of this, he settles on the dresser, and then we're good for the night, until about 4:30am when he starts again.
But the magic bullet has been the Feliway. At one point he was doing great, and then one day I noticed that instead of him greeting me at the door, he would hiss and run under the bed. Then I noticed that the Feliway plugin was half unplugged from the wall -- he must have rubbed on it and rendered it ineffective.
That felt like a bit of a blow to me. Like, the only reason he liked me was because of the Feliway, and that him in his "natural" state didn't want anything to do with me. But someone pointed out to me that the Feliway helps take away this horrible anxiety he suffers from, so what I'm left with IS the real him, if he didn't have this debilitating anxiety.
Without that anxiety (lip licking, shying away, running under the bed, hissing, swatting at me, etc), he really enjoys and seeks out my attention, and he purrs. And even lately, six weeks into this, he has even started playing with toys that i've left for him. At first, he was scared of the toys, even with the Feliway. While I still tend to think, in opposition of the clinic, that he was a stray and not a feral, the fact that it appeared that he had never seen toys and was not drawn to catnip at all, made me wonder if the clinic was right--maybe he IS 100% feral.
But really, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter if he is or isn't feral. The Feliway ran out yesterday, and he started getting anxious and swatty and hissy again today, but not as much so as the first time when he unplugged it. He still came to greet me at the door, rubbed on my legs, and enjoyed being patted for about 30 seconds, but then got weirded out. So there is progress being made, and I think the Feliway allows that to happen. From what I read, not all cats respond to it, but this one definitely does.
Since buying the refill today, I've checked on him a few times, and he's clearly responding more favorably as the day goes on. So tonight when I go to bed, it will likely be back to "normal" -- he will go through his routine of being "caught between two worlds" -- wanting to be out and wanting some loving -- although he is starting to focus more on cuddling on the bed with me.
He's really a sweet boy, and the only "aggression" I've seen out of him was due to him feeling anxious. He has never been "fractious" or "mean" or "vicious" towards me. Although he has given me a few very superficial scratches, one time he bit me and scratched me and hissed at me and sat down. But he used no claws and no pressure on the bite. It was more that he was just communicating, "I don't like that."
I'm looking forward to the next time I bring a feral in to be spayed/neutered at that clinc, and nonchalantly let it drop about how well "hell cat" is doing and what a lovey boy he can be.
Sorry for the long response, but I'm proud of my baby and how courageous he has been. I'm sure it's been a tougher road for him that it has been for me.
Sorry for the delay in my response, been caught up in holiday stuff, etc
Nero, was just Nero, one of the cats that would eat and run off of my back porch, but then he figured out that I was the source of the occasional wet food, and would hang out waiting for it. I have tall windows looking out onto my back deck, and my four indoor girls would hiss and growl at him, until THEY figured out that every time he showed up, I would break out the wet food and it was a party for all. Then they started greeting his arrival like teenage girls spotting a rock star. They'd roll around on the floor, chirp at him, etc -- and they are spayed! Hell, I didn't even have to see him out there -- they would come let me know, "He's here!! He's here!!" At that point he became "Nero The Demigod". That picture was taken last July when I arrived home after a week away (a neighbor kept up with the dry food in my absence). I literally just dragged my suitcases in, and there he was out on the back porch looking at me through the glass like, "Where have you been, and where is my wet food..." The picture is a little blurry because I stopped where I was so I didn't spook him and zoomed in from inside the house on my cell phone.
By then I had been feeding him since February, and had gotten to where I could go out on the back porch with the wet food and he would stay six feet or so away, with only the occasional hiss, if I moved slowly and avoided eye contact, and I could sit out there cross-legged on the other side of the deck. But I noticed that as he licked the wet food off the flimsy little paper plate, it would slide. So I used that to my advantage and put it between us, such that as he ate, he would move closer and closer to where I was sitting, facing a different direction, never towards him and only occasionally looking at him with a slow eye blink and look away again. And I would just talk in a soft voice. Eventually (around the time that picture was taken), it got to where he was okay eating next to me as long as I was sitting and let him approach me, and even to where I could hold the plate still, with his whiskers brushing my fingers. But I couldn't touch him--he would lean away, and look at me as if he was offended that I would even think of trying.
And once in awhile, later on in this "process", he would occasionally make a squeak at me in anticipation. It was because of this that I figured he was most likely a stray, not a feral, as ferals don't tend to vocalize with people. So while I'd TNR'd a few ferals, I thought that perhaps this cat could be brought back into "the fold" and have a better life. So I continued to work with him, but as Halloween was approaching and he's a black cat, I started to get nervous, and decided I needed to trap him. I really felt like I had betrayed him in some way.
The weather was still mild here, so I put him in the garage in the covered trap so he could be neutered in the morning, and he was making this heart wrenching "honking" noise as he thrashed around. I felt so bad. The next morning I brought him to the spay/neuter clinic, and told them I was going to rehab him since he's clearly just a scared stray, so do the microchip, no ear tip, etc. But when I went to pick him up later, I got the worst report card of any cat I had ever brought there, ferals included. "Oh, you're here to pick up the bad one...." This was on his discharge papers:
I learned a new word that day....."fractious". I had never heard it before....but it sounded like something that "breaks apart", like "fracture". They called him "mean" and "vicious". Like a protective mother, I explained that he must just be misunderstood, that he will eat off of a plate right next to me! And he's "meowed" at me on occasion! Still, they insisted that he was 100% feral, not a stray, and these are the people that deal with feral spay/neuter all week long, all day long. They estimated him to be about eight years old, and he was also FIV positive to boot, but negative for FeLV, thank goodness. They cautioned me to be extremely careful caring for him during his recovery, do not try to handle him, do not let him out in my house, and wished me luck.
As you can imagine, on the drive home, my heart was in my throat, wondering what I had gotten myself into, and I was sad--I really had thought he could be saved. I wondered if I might need to turn him back out, and how I would be able to clean the litter box, etc, in the meantime. I already had the setup for caring for him -- the largest dog cage I could get, with a litter box in there and food and water, as I did with other TNR cats. This time though, I had set it up in my bedroom, since my original plan was to keep him. I set the cat carrier in there in it's predetermined spot, opened the door and shut the cage door quickly. And I left the room to give him a chance to settle.
When I came back in later to go to bed, I expected to find him hunched down in the carrier like the other ferals. Hell no. He was sitting in the middle of the dog cage like he owned the room. And he hissed at me. Oh, great.....
The next few days, I donned ridiculous amounts of clothing and winter gloves just to slip food and water in and out of his cage. But I also spent a lot of time sitting next to the cage, talking to him, but not staring at him. And sometimes just being on my laptop. And I had put my bed about three feet away from his cage and slept on that side, and plugged a nightlight in, so he could see me sleeping and I could see him.
For the most part, he hung out on top of the cat carrier and sometimes "hid" in the litter box. I think the fact that he hung out on the carrier rather than in it was because the carrier was a bit small, and he "knew" me already for eight months, and he felt protected inside the cage.
He also would nap briefly a little in the sun after he ate, even when I was outside on the porch, so before long, he would fall asleep on top of the carrier even when I was sitting next to it. One time, while his back was to me, I took the opportunity with one finger to do two quick "drive-by scratches" on the back of his neck. It astonished us both! He immediately flipped over and looked at me with accusation in his eyes, while I quickly looked elsewhere like, "Who me? Wasn't me!" And I was astonished at the feel of his skin--totally covered with flea bite scabs!! OMG!! Every tiny bit!!
He had a Capstar at the clinic, so there were no more fleas, but I just couldn't imagine how itchy he must have felt! So the next day, I did it again. And within a few days, he started to realize it felt good, given how itchy he was. So he was okay with me doing it with just one or two fingers through the bars, and would lean into it. However, if he would lean in a way that made my finger touch him in a way that he wasn't comfortable with, he would let me know with a hiss or a scratch!
Since we were making progress, I decided to hang onto him a little longer, and about the 9th day, I learned about Feliway and plugged one in, not expecting any results until about 30 days, according to the directions. The next day, while I was sitting next to him, he stood up and rubbed on the cage, as if he was trying to rub on me. That seemed to be a sign, and I prepared my room to give him the run of it.
The first night, he had found the comfort of the bed, and settled himself for a bit at the far bottom corner. The next night, he started there, but then moved to my feet. Then I felt him walking up behind me and settling near the small of my back. I didn't dare move, and couldn't sleep, because I was afraid of what he might do if i rolled towards him.
As I found, he would never stay for long. He would jump on top of the covered cage or climb the floor-to-ceiling cat tree I bought him, peering out the window and make those anxious "honking" noises and sometimes claw frantically at the window. I did originally have 2" faux wood blinds, that I kept closed so as not to "torment" him with the "outside", but he tore them down a few times, so I just took them down, mainly for his safety.
It broke my heart to see him this way. And I was tormented. All he wanted was OUT, but he's 8-years-old with FIV. I let it play out a little longer, and one day, while I was sitting on the floor, he rubbed back and forth across my knees. A few days later, I dared to touch him as he passed, letting my hand stroke his back. I definitely had mixed results in the beginning, but now he gets up on the bed and meows in my face for attention. He is definitely more "ok" with things while I'm laying down. But he's also taken to holding me "hostage" at times by rubbing against my legs, so that if I walk and bump him, he hisses at me. So recently one of these times, when I was trying to go to bed, I reached down with confidence and plucked him up and put him on the bed, like before he knew what happened. And then petted him there.
The "confidence" thing is important, because I've found that he is VERY in tune to how I feel. If I'm feeling a little apprehensive, he knows it and responds the same. We have been building trust in each other as we go, and he will "spoon" with me on the bed now (he lays there, but I can't rest an arm over him yet). He still goes through this routine/cycle where he hangs with me on the bed, then goes on top of the cage and peers out the window, then goes on top of the cat tree. The he starts honking with anxiety/upset, but if i talk to him, he comes back to the bed meowing for attention. After about 30 minutes of this, he settles on the dresser, and then we're good for the night, until about 4:30am when he starts again.
But the magic bullet has been the Feliway. At one point he was doing great, and then one day I noticed that instead of him greeting me at the door, he would hiss and run under the bed. Then I noticed that the Feliway plugin was half unplugged from the wall -- he must have rubbed on it and rendered it ineffective.
That felt like a bit of a blow to me. Like, the only reason he liked me was because of the Feliway, and that him in his "natural" state didn't want anything to do with me. But someone pointed out to me that the Feliway helps take away this horrible anxiety he suffers from, so what I'm left with IS the real him, if he didn't have this debilitating anxiety.
Without that anxiety (lip licking, shying away, running under the bed, hissing, swatting at me, etc), he really enjoys and seeks out my attention, and he purrs. And even lately, six weeks into this, he has even started playing with toys that i've left for him. At first, he was scared of the toys, even with the Feliway. While I still tend to think, in opposition of the clinic, that he was a stray and not a feral, the fact that it appeared that he had never seen toys and was not drawn to catnip at all, made me wonder if the clinic was right--maybe he IS 100% feral.
But really, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter if he is or isn't feral. The Feliway ran out yesterday, and he started getting anxious and swatty and hissy again today, but not as much so as the first time when he unplugged it. He still came to greet me at the door, rubbed on my legs, and enjoyed being patted for about 30 seconds, but then got weirded out. So there is progress being made, and I think the Feliway allows that to happen. From what I read, not all cats respond to it, but this one definitely does.
Since buying the refill today, I've checked on him a few times, and he's clearly responding more favorably as the day goes on. So tonight when I go to bed, it will likely be back to "normal" -- he will go through his routine of being "caught between two worlds" -- wanting to be out and wanting some loving -- although he is starting to focus more on cuddling on the bed with me.
He's really a sweet boy, and the only "aggression" I've seen out of him was due to him feeling anxious. He has never been "fractious" or "mean" or "vicious" towards me. Although he has given me a few very superficial scratches, one time he bit me and scratched me and hissed at me and sat down. But he used no claws and no pressure on the bite. It was more that he was just communicating, "I don't like that."
I'm looking forward to the next time I bring a feral in to be spayed/neutered at that clinc, and nonchalantly let it drop about how well "hell cat" is doing and what a lovey boy he can be.
Sorry for the long response, but I'm proud of my baby and how courageous he has been. I'm sure it's been a tougher road for him that it has been for me.
@CatSnip404 I've just read the story of how Nero came to live with you. I love it! He's so lucky to have found someone willing to put that much time and effort into making him feel comfortable indoors. He's a very handsome boy. I'm glad he's found a home with you.
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Nero is a beauty! Thanks for sharing the heart-warming story.
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@CatSnip404 I've just read the story of how Nero came to live with you. I love it! He's so lucky to have found someone willing to put that much time and effort into making him feel comfortable indoors. He's a very handsome boy. I'm glad he's found a home with you.
Thank you! It'll likely be a few months yet until he can have the run of the house because if the retest in two weeks shows that he really is FIV+, I'm going to have to make the introductions to the others EXTRA slow. But we're getting there one milestone at a time and with a lot of patience with each other.
Nero is a beauty! Thanks for sharing the heart-warming story.
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i looove this thread! i love seeing all these beautiful black kitties and hearing their stories. i have 3 cats, two are black. Here they are in all their midnight glory!!
this is mario, who is most likely an angel in a cat body. he is the sweetest, most ridiculously good-looking old fella.
this is Shadow, the cutest and sassiest lil lady
this is mario, who is most likely an angel in a cat body. he is the sweetest, most ridiculously good-looking old fella.
this is Shadow, the cutest and sassiest lil lady
The only thing better than a black cat is two (or more) black cats. Yours are real beauties!i looove this thread! i love seeing all these beautiful black kitties and hearing their stories. i have 3 cats, two are black. Here they are in all their midnight glory!!
this is mario, who is most likely an angel in a cat body. he is the sweetest, most ridiculously good-looking old fella.
this is Shadow, the cutest and sassiest lil lady
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My baby about to try and spill my coffee.
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Oh, but if course! They like to make sure you always have things to do, lest you get bored! XD
Pretty baby!
Pretty baby!
Off to the park for some exercise with my black senior kitty!
He likes to walk on his leash but he also likes being carried and looking at scenary.
He likes to walk on his leash but he also likes being carried and looking at scenary.
Mmmm..tasty grass!!
Gemma is the sweetest and most affectionate and cuddly kitty I've ever had. Don't get me wrong, she had her moments, but she loves to be held, hugged and kissed more than anything. She cracks me up too when she chases her tail like a dog! I'll have to post a video of her doing that. She follows me everywhere like a dog too.
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@lmsmith Gemma is a beauty! Love the way she has her head cocked to the side in that pic! XD
