As a quick recap, I rescued Nano when she was near death and it has been a long recovery where things are still evolving. She had lived on the streets for a very long time and is best described as semi-feral. We've been together for almost six months.
Nano is a large adult female, 6-8 years old, who is now somewhat overweight but carries the weight on a fairly large frame. I had to train her to use a litterbox, and there were several adjustments in the first few months, but by this point she appears to be comfortable staying inside my apartment. She escapes periodically but she comes back in a hour or two. Overall she gives off many signs of happiness and appears to like her life as a solitary housecat.
But in the last 2-3 weeks, she has become more physically demonstrative when moving about the apartment. It seems she is much more energetic when awake yet sleeps more soundly when napping. While sleeping in the past, it seemed like Nano was always 5% awake and could sense if I walked around or left the apartment. Now...it is like she is dead to the world. I can walk right over her and she won't even flinch.
Meanwhile she has become much more energetic when awake. She runs around the apartment and spends a lot of time stalking Q-tips or playing with her toys. It's not idle play. She is very aggressive and throws her body around with a lot of exertion. Nano always played these same games in the past but it seemed like she was going half-speed -- now she is not holding anything back and really putting 100% into everything. I'm not sure if she is a true hunter or not, but she gifted me a mouse carcass after returning from one of her brief forays outside so she does have a killer instinct.
Her interaction with me has become even more affectionate. If I am in bed, she will always jump on her window perch to "stand guard". When I sit on the couch to read, she will come sit next to me and rest her head on my thigh. She gives me record numbers of head bumps and seems to trust me almost completely.
While she has warmed towards me, her attitude towards others has cooled. She had allowed two other people to pet her, but now she gives those people the cold shoulder and basically ignores them. She ignores treats or food or invitations to play from anyone except me. If someone holds the Cat Dancer, she will turn her back and go play TurboScratcher by herself. If someone offers her a plate of treats, Nano will give them a look then walk back to her bowl of regular food and eat from that -- as if defiantly not accepting those treats (and up to three days later that plate would still be sitting there untouched if I don't clean it up).
If people are over, she will confidently walk around the living room with her tail up in the air (nonfluffed) but indifferent to the visitors. I coach people to leave her alone, but if anyone tries to talk to her or gives her too long of a look she'll puff out her tail and continue strutting around. During these "showdowns" I can hear her claws on the carpet each time she takes a step -- so her claws are out and her tail if puffed, but she doesn't arch her back or hiss or any of the other signs.
Her aggression has not turned against me -- if anything, she has gotten gentler with me. (She's learned how to sit in my lap without accidently scratching me.) But I see the increased intensity of her play, how she appears to be physically stronger. As an analogy, I watched Nano re-gain her motor skills and progress from barely being able to walk to having to awkwardly lunge-jump up to surfaces and finally being able to make silently graceful leaps. Now it seems like I am watching her recover her aggression and physical hunting skills.
As for environmental changes, I tried to think and all I could come up with is that it is warming up for summer here. There were maybe five new stray cats within 100 yards of the building in the last couple weeks. But they were all tame throwaways who were lonely, hungry and scared of their own shadow...I highly doubt Nano would perceive any of them as a threat.Physically she is fine and continues to show signs of improvement. She eats when hungry, consistently drinks water and faithfully uses the litterboxes. She is fully vetted and current with all shots. I just looked her over -- again, she was fine with me examining her -- and she appears to be very healthy.
Here are the problems:
I am concerned that I don't know how far her aggression might go. If her current level is the max, then I guess that's okay...but what if she becomes even more intense? This is not kitten play we are talking about here. Nano is a big alpha girl running around in a regular apartment practicing her hunting skills.
And worse, she is moving more in the direction of being a semi-feral cat who only cares about me and ignores everyone else. Because she was badly abused in the past, I never expected her to accept all humans but I would prefer that she can warm up to non-threatening people fairly quickly. Or at least accept anyone who makes a sustained effort to build her trust.
So what is the limit of her aggressive behavior? I always channel it in good directions and reward her with treats, but sometimes I wonder if I am training a killing machine. And how can I get her back on track as far as getting her socialized to well-meaning people?
(I'm putting my questions here instead of the Behavior forum because I only want answers from people familiar with the actions of rescued or feral cats. I know some people might suggest taking her to a vet to eliminate potential issues, but I disagree and do not take my pets for an unscheduled visit to the clinic when there are no physical symptoms and it appears to be a behavioral/socialization issue.)
Nano is a large adult female, 6-8 years old, who is now somewhat overweight but carries the weight on a fairly large frame. I had to train her to use a litterbox, and there were several adjustments in the first few months, but by this point she appears to be comfortable staying inside my apartment. She escapes periodically but she comes back in a hour or two. Overall she gives off many signs of happiness and appears to like her life as a solitary housecat.
But in the last 2-3 weeks, she has become more physically demonstrative when moving about the apartment. It seems she is much more energetic when awake yet sleeps more soundly when napping. While sleeping in the past, it seemed like Nano was always 5% awake and could sense if I walked around or left the apartment. Now...it is like she is dead to the world. I can walk right over her and she won't even flinch.
Meanwhile she has become much more energetic when awake. She runs around the apartment and spends a lot of time stalking Q-tips or playing with her toys. It's not idle play. She is very aggressive and throws her body around with a lot of exertion. Nano always played these same games in the past but it seemed like she was going half-speed -- now she is not holding anything back and really putting 100% into everything. I'm not sure if she is a true hunter or not, but she gifted me a mouse carcass after returning from one of her brief forays outside so she does have a killer instinct.
Her interaction with me has become even more affectionate. If I am in bed, she will always jump on her window perch to "stand guard". When I sit on the couch to read, she will come sit next to me and rest her head on my thigh. She gives me record numbers of head bumps and seems to trust me almost completely.
While she has warmed towards me, her attitude towards others has cooled. She had allowed two other people to pet her, but now she gives those people the cold shoulder and basically ignores them. She ignores treats or food or invitations to play from anyone except me. If someone holds the Cat Dancer, she will turn her back and go play TurboScratcher by herself. If someone offers her a plate of treats, Nano will give them a look then walk back to her bowl of regular food and eat from that -- as if defiantly not accepting those treats (and up to three days later that plate would still be sitting there untouched if I don't clean it up).
If people are over, she will confidently walk around the living room with her tail up in the air (nonfluffed) but indifferent to the visitors. I coach people to leave her alone, but if anyone tries to talk to her or gives her too long of a look she'll puff out her tail and continue strutting around. During these "showdowns" I can hear her claws on the carpet each time she takes a step -- so her claws are out and her tail if puffed, but she doesn't arch her back or hiss or any of the other signs.
Her aggression has not turned against me -- if anything, she has gotten gentler with me. (She's learned how to sit in my lap without accidently scratching me.) But I see the increased intensity of her play, how she appears to be physically stronger. As an analogy, I watched Nano re-gain her motor skills and progress from barely being able to walk to having to awkwardly lunge-jump up to surfaces and finally being able to make silently graceful leaps. Now it seems like I am watching her recover her aggression and physical hunting skills.
As for environmental changes, I tried to think and all I could come up with is that it is warming up for summer here. There were maybe five new stray cats within 100 yards of the building in the last couple weeks. But they were all tame throwaways who were lonely, hungry and scared of their own shadow...I highly doubt Nano would perceive any of them as a threat.Physically she is fine and continues to show signs of improvement. She eats when hungry, consistently drinks water and faithfully uses the litterboxes. She is fully vetted and current with all shots. I just looked her over -- again, she was fine with me examining her -- and she appears to be very healthy.
Here are the problems:
I am concerned that I don't know how far her aggression might go. If her current level is the max, then I guess that's okay...but what if she becomes even more intense? This is not kitten play we are talking about here. Nano is a big alpha girl running around in a regular apartment practicing her hunting skills.
And worse, she is moving more in the direction of being a semi-feral cat who only cares about me and ignores everyone else. Because she was badly abused in the past, I never expected her to accept all humans but I would prefer that she can warm up to non-threatening people fairly quickly. Or at least accept anyone who makes a sustained effort to build her trust.
So what is the limit of her aggressive behavior? I always channel it in good directions and reward her with treats, but sometimes I wonder if I am training a killing machine. And how can I get her back on track as far as getting her socialized to well-meaning people?
(I'm putting my questions here instead of the Behavior forum because I only want answers from people familiar with the actions of rescued or feral cats. I know some people might suggest taking her to a vet to eliminate potential issues, but I disagree and do not take my pets for an unscheduled visit to the clinic when there are no physical symptoms and it appears to be a behavioral/socialization issue.)
