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- May 11, 2006
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Well, last night Ferris came up onto my bed, and for the first time ever, allowed himself to take a snooze in my presence, right at my feet on my bedcovers. Until last night, he would always be on full alert, never allowing his eyes to close in front of me and always hiding somewhere to take his naps or to sleep.
So I was all happy - thinking to myself, yay, he's not feral anymore, he's becoming a housecat!
That euphoria lasted until this morning. I tried to pet him in the kitchen after feeding him breakfast, and he kept ducking his head and pulling away from me.
Stupid, stupid me - I tried to force it, and what started out as me trying to hold him and calmly and quietly tell him how much I love him while giving him scritches turned into him going all feral on me with wild eyes, claws out, hissing and screaming at me!
When he started to get wild, I tried to scruff him, and that was my biggest mistake - I'm now clawed to ribbons, and he won't come anywhere NEAR me.
It seems like it is a bit of a pattern - we make great strides, then something unknown happens to cause him to regress, then days later we have even more progress, so I'm not going to let this bother me too much, and I plan to completely ignore him (well, ok, not completely, and he's so darned cute he's irresistable, but you know what I mean) so that when he's ready, he can come back to me for affection. He's starved for it, so I know he'll be back around within a matter of a few days, probably long before my scratches heal.
But ARRGGHH, I was feeling so happy because he was finally showing real trust, and now this. SIGH...
Well, only 3 weeks until he gets neutered, he'll be approximately 5 months old then, and maybe things will go along even smoother with taming him after that. What a stupid human I am - but I guess I can be forgiven, after all, he's my first feral rescue (leaving that door WIDE open, LOL) and I'm allowed to make mistakes. That's what we humans do, and we do it SO well.
It's really weird how they can be so sweet and loving one minute then totally off-the-wall wild the next.
Have any of you got similar stories with taming your feral kittens within the first couple of months that you had them?
So I was all happy - thinking to myself, yay, he's not feral anymore, he's becoming a housecat!
That euphoria lasted until this morning. I tried to pet him in the kitchen after feeding him breakfast, and he kept ducking his head and pulling away from me.
Stupid, stupid me - I tried to force it, and what started out as me trying to hold him and calmly and quietly tell him how much I love him while giving him scritches turned into him going all feral on me with wild eyes, claws out, hissing and screaming at me!
When he started to get wild, I tried to scruff him, and that was my biggest mistake - I'm now clawed to ribbons, and he won't come anywhere NEAR me.
It seems like it is a bit of a pattern - we make great strides, then something unknown happens to cause him to regress, then days later we have even more progress, so I'm not going to let this bother me too much, and I plan to completely ignore him (well, ok, not completely, and he's so darned cute he's irresistable, but you know what I mean) so that when he's ready, he can come back to me for affection. He's starved for it, so I know he'll be back around within a matter of a few days, probably long before my scratches heal.
But ARRGGHH, I was feeling so happy because he was finally showing real trust, and now this. SIGH...
Well, only 3 weeks until he gets neutered, he'll be approximately 5 months old then, and maybe things will go along even smoother with taming him after that. What a stupid human I am - but I guess I can be forgiven, after all, he's my first feral rescue (leaving that door WIDE open, LOL) and I'm allowed to make mistakes. That's what we humans do, and we do it SO well.
It's really weird how they can be so sweet and loving one minute then totally off-the-wall wild the next.
Have any of you got similar stories with taming your feral kittens within the first couple of months that you had them?