I just joined this forum, and am grateful for any ideas anyone has.
My husband and I discovered a cute little kitten (maybe about 4 mths. old?) coming to our back deck, after suffering thru our brutal winter here in Michigan. We started to feed her, then decided it was just too cold to continue to see her outside. Long story short, we did trap her, kept her for about 6 days, then made the executive decision to have her spayed, along with vaccinations, deworming, etc. She tested negative for FIV and FeLuk, so all is good there. We have her resting comfortably in an upside- down playpen with litter, food, water, and lots of soft towels to sleep on, also soft relaxing music for cats playing 24/7. We also put in some soft clothing of ours in with her so she could get used to our scent. She is eating and drinking, also very politely using the kitty litter and covering. But will not eat when we are with her. We go into her room (she is quarantined because we have 3 other healthy indoor cats) and sit with her periodically throughout the day. She eats and drinks, but only when we are not there. When we sit with her, we talk softly, sometimes I just do laptop stuff, yesterday I read to her an article on how to work with ferals. She did listen. She does let us pet her when we try, but she doesn't initiate anything, and stays out of reach, so we have stopped trying to pet her if that makes her uncomfortable. I have a trail cam on her and it shows she is active a bit more when we are not in the room, reaching up to see if there is an escape route at the top of the playpen, so I know she is not in as much pain as what we thought. Granted, she did just have a hysterectomy, so we are cutting her a lot of slack.
Our question is, are we on the right track? I have heard some ferals become the best of pets. But this little girl is so very shy, I hope we can turn her around. I have an adoption to a friend who will give her a very loving home lined up for her if we can just get her to be a little more trusting of people.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I have never had a cat yet that didn't love me unconditionally. Don't want to start now! Thanks.
My husband and I discovered a cute little kitten (maybe about 4 mths. old?) coming to our back deck, after suffering thru our brutal winter here in Michigan. We started to feed her, then decided it was just too cold to continue to see her outside. Long story short, we did trap her, kept her for about 6 days, then made the executive decision to have her spayed, along with vaccinations, deworming, etc. She tested negative for FIV and FeLuk, so all is good there. We have her resting comfortably in an upside- down playpen with litter, food, water, and lots of soft towels to sleep on, also soft relaxing music for cats playing 24/7. We also put in some soft clothing of ours in with her so she could get used to our scent. She is eating and drinking, also very politely using the kitty litter and covering. But will not eat when we are with her. We go into her room (she is quarantined because we have 3 other healthy indoor cats) and sit with her periodically throughout the day. She eats and drinks, but only when we are not there. When we sit with her, we talk softly, sometimes I just do laptop stuff, yesterday I read to her an article on how to work with ferals. She did listen. She does let us pet her when we try, but she doesn't initiate anything, and stays out of reach, so we have stopped trying to pet her if that makes her uncomfortable. I have a trail cam on her and it shows she is active a bit more when we are not in the room, reaching up to see if there is an escape route at the top of the playpen, so I know she is not in as much pain as what we thought. Granted, she did just have a hysterectomy, so we are cutting her a lot of slack.
Our question is, are we on the right track? I have heard some ferals become the best of pets. But this little girl is so very shy, I hope we can turn her around. I have an adoption to a friend who will give her a very loving home lined up for her if we can just get her to be a little more trusting of people.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I have never had a cat yet that didn't love me unconditionally. Don't want to start now! Thanks.