Feral or stray?.. its in my linen cupboard...

[outofmydepth]

Ok, so Minnie and Sylvester are treating the house as their own, coming and going when the door is open but not settling inside except when they eat, lazing on the deck and there most of the time,  How do I go to the next stage? I would love them to jump on the couch or to be able to stroke them, do we just keep doing what we are doing and let them do it by themselves or do we start a new regime?? Advice please

 

[jmarkitell]

Cats have their own schedule and usually have to make the first move. In my experience, nothing makes a cat friendly like an empty stomach. I like to get them to have a solid correlation between myself and getting fed...at least they seem to look forward to seeing me! Another thing I have noticed is that cats like to play and my less than friendly warmed up when I played with him, a laser pointer was his favorite toy. After playing, I noticed a big difference in his attitude and he seemed to stay friendly after play time was done.

   You are doing well but it will take a little time. I have also noticed that cats seem to get friendlier after they are two to three years old. I guess they need to sow their wild oats, then they settle down and get cuddly.

Jim

 

[outofmydepth]

12053211_10206247443079354_1037156684_n.jpg

• outofmydepth
• Sep 23, 2015

We have come along way from the cat down the back of the washing machine!

 

[Norachan]

Oh, that's great! Sylvester looks so sweet, almost like he's waiting to be invited in too.

I coaxed most of my feral cats in by opening the window and leaving food just inside. It takes a while, but they come round eventually.

 

[dahlia]

What great progress!  Any luck getting them to play with a wand toy?  That seemed to help my wild kitten Cheddar warm up to me.  He also like the laser toy.

 

[dahlia]

How are things going with Sylvester and Minnie?

 

[kskatt]

I miss your updates and pics! How is everybody?

 

[outofmydepth]

Its been a while since I posted, and progress has been slow... but we do have progress none the less!  Minnie and Sylvester are waiting at the door every morning, spend the day snoozing and playing on the deck (its coming into summer here in NZ) and uness its raining they sleep on the outside chairs. They know their names and come when I call them. They purr when they come inside to eat and will eat inside when we are moving around. I have included a couple of pictures of Minnie, eating in the kitchen (you can see a little black mound under the table!) and taking some food outside... past us as we sit right there.....Slyvester nearly head butted my curled up hand today but not quite... we are really keen to touch them but still very cautious about ruining the progree made so far... and looking back to my first post we have come so far!!! so do you think they will just progress to making contact? I tried to get a laser to play with them but they are banned in NZ...

IMG_0427.JPG

• outofmydepth
• Oct 16, 2015

IMG_0426.JPG

• outofmydepth
• Oct 16, 2015

 

[Norachan]

That's great work. 

It took me months to get some of my feral cats to come indoors. That fact that they feel comfortable enough to eat and sleep while you're there is huge. I bet they'll have moved in by the time the cold weather starts.

You could try some home made toys. A bird feather tied to a long piece of string is a good thing to start with. Just don't leave them unsupervised with the string,  if they start to swallow it they can't spit it out because of their rough tongues.

Thanks for the update.

 

[kskatt]

Your progress has NOT been slow, it's been awesome! I wish you would stop being so hard on yourself. This is not like making friends with a tame animal, you are reaching out to creatures who were taught to be wary of humans from birth. Mama cats teach their babies how to survive, how to avoid humans just as much as how to avoid Dingo's. There is no telling what kind of contact these cats have had with humans, it may not have been pretty. You are closer to Australia than any other large country (I think). I only hope that NZ is friendlier to cats than Australia is!

You are doing a wonderful job of taming wild creatures!