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Hello everyone!

How happy I am to find a forum like this! My name is Catinca but mostly go by Catsy. I adopted my girl Ida in 2012 after losing one of my cats, Milla, to bowel cancer a few months earlier. After her death I was feeling like I couldn’t let myself get attached to and love a new cat, only to eventually have to go through the loss again. However, my eldest cat Miisu (now almost 12) became very depressed after losing her lifelong friend, so I knew I had to let go of my own feelings and find a new kitty friend. I searched hundreds of cat adoption profiles before I found Ida, but the instant I saw her pictures and description, I knew she was the cat for us.

Ida (estimated y/o/b 2008) spent the first 3-4 years of her life living, among other places, under a railway platform. Rescuers tried capturing her several times over the years before they finally caught her and her kittens. Living in such a dangerous spot meant that she had unfortunately already lost several kittens from previous litters. She certainly didn’t have it easy and to make things even harder, she had suffered an unknown trauma which left her blind in one eye.

Ida’s kittens all found new homes quickly, but Ida was at the cat rescue for over a year. Given her age and all that she had been through, her chances for rehabilitation were not looking good. I was determined to show her that life can be good, and now after working with her for 2½ years the progress she has made is amazing. She has been able to live in a calm and safe environment on her own terms, and in return she has rewarded me with a great amount of trust. Within half a year I was already allowed to stroke her properly while she eats. Now I even get to slightly brush my hand against her at random times. She is still puzzled by it but no longer instantly hisses or slaps my hand. She follows me around and is already quite talkative. We even take naps together with her just inches away. A few times she has actually slept on top of me!

I’m so happy I found Ida and was able to give her a better life. She brings a lot of joy to our lives and watching her progress is immensely rewarding.

I want to extend a big warm thank you to everyone here for caring for the less fortunate felines!

Welcome to the forums and thank you so much for rescuing Ida.  You have shown her love and kindness she never thought possible. 

A tip that came to mind, is to try a feather wand toy to begin petting her.  I used one similar to this 
I first got my feral to be very interested in playing with the feather wand.  Next I would put the feather above his head so he got up on his back legs.  I then would gently touch the feather to the top of his head.  The idea was to engross him in play so he forgets about the touch.  Gradually I started touching him more and more with the feather.  AT first he was quite freaked out, but then started to enjoy it.  I would move the feather back and forth like I was petting him.  I even did it under his chin.  After more than a week of using on the the feather wand, I gradually pulled the wand towards my body and my hand replaced the feather.  It took a few tries, but he was enjoying the petting so much, he allowed it.  I had been working with him for 7 months.

Ida sounds like pure joy!  Post a picture some time too. 

Catsy said:

 
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Hello everyone!

How happy I am to find a forum like this! My name is Catinca but mostly go by Catsy. I adopted my girl Ida in 2012 after losing one of my cats, Milla, to bowel cancer a few months earlier. After her death I was feeling like I couldn’t let myself get attached to and love a new cat, only to eventually have to go through the loss again. However, my eldest cat Miisu (now almost 12) became very depressed after losing her lifelong friend, so I knew I had to let go of my own feelings and find a new kitty friend. I searched hundreds of cat adoption profiles before I found Ida, but the instant I saw her pictures and description, I knew she was the cat for us.

Ida (estimated y/o/b 2008) spent the first 3-4 years of her life living, among other places, under a railway platform. Rescuers tried capturing her several times over the years before they finally caught her and her kittens. Living in such a dangerous spot meant that she had unfortunately already lost several kittens from previous litters. She certainly didn’t have it easy and to make things even harder, she had suffered an unknown trauma which left her blind in one eye.

Ida’s kittens all found new homes quickly, but Ida was at the cat rescue for over a year. Given her age and all that she had been through, her chances for rehabilitation were not looking good. I was determined to show her that life can be good, and now after working with her for 2½ years the progress she has made is amazing. She has been able to live in a calm and safe environment on her own terms, and in return she has rewarded me with a great amount of trust. Within half a year I was already allowed to stroke her properly while she eats. Now I even get to slightly brush my hand against her at random times. She is still puzzled by it but no longer instantly hisses or slaps my hand. She follows me around and is already quite talkative. We even take naps together with her just inches away. A few times she has actually slept on top of me!

I’m so happy I found Ida and was able to give her a better life. She brings a lot of joy to our lives and watching her progress is immensely rewarding.

I want to extend a big warm thank you to everyone here for caring for the less fortunate felines!

Click to expand...

What you do describe here is in fact friendship.   If she were a home raised tame cat, its not sure all cats are very sociale.  You would perhaps not come longer than this with many "common" cats.   Even this slapping is essentially a friendly step, as they do slap their pals and family members to teach them some lessons.  As long the slaps are made with soft paw, of course.  

A great and fine deed you had done here.  Showing a true compassion and being a true human. Being a Mensch, as they say.

It taking quite some time, patience and love - yes a big effort, but it does pays off - you DID succeed.  Making both hers and yours life better.

Welcome to our Forums!

Thank you for your kind replies! And a big thank you for the stick toy tip - will certainly give it a go. She already plays quite confidently with the kind of stick toy which has the toy attached to a string. She's so curious and will play with just about anything. In fact, yesterday my boyfriend dropped a potato on the floor and Ida thought it was just the best toy ever! She's such a playful girl and sometimes gets so caught up in playing that she forgets everything around her and just goes crazy, but when she realises we're watching she'll freeze, stare, and then bolt into the bedroom to hide for a moment Most of the time you wouldn't even be able to tell she's feral. She walks around with her head and tail up high, and often sleeps belly up, smack in the middle of the room. I couldn't be happier with how far she's come, but i would love it if I could still get her to see how nice being stroked can be. All tips on the matter are very much welcome

Well done for rescuing Ida, is she getting on well with your other cat?

Unfortunately they don't get along as well as I had hoped. It seems they mostly just tolerate eachother, although every now and then they will show small signs of affection (sniffing eachother and a lick or two). Miisu and Milla were practically inseparable and always slept curled up together. The closest I've seen Miisu and Ida sleep together is about a foot in between.

There has been some progress. For the first 4 months they didn't get along at all. Ida would growl and hiss every time Miisu got near or even looked at her. Miisu is very keen and bossy, so she didn't really give Ida her space when she needed it.

I guess there's still hope, after all it took Miisu 8½ years to realise she's a lap cat

And here's a recent picture of Ida (she forgets her tongue out a lot):

Thanks for the update.  Ida is just beautiful!  Cats can take a long while to get used to each other.  When I brought a feral into my home 2 years ago, it took he and my resident cat a full year to live peacefully.  At the year mark, they tolerated each other.  Then about 4 months after the year mark, they started hanging out more.  Then they started to play and finally grooming each other.  They now enjoy each other!   So give it time.