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- Sep 19, 2012
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Hello fellow cat lovers!
I need some advice with building a stray cat's trust. A little over a month ago a stray cat (she at least seems more stray than feral) started showing up on our porch meowing. After a few days of this happening, we started putting food and water out for her every evening (she would meow to let us know she was here and hungry). Well, in the beginning she wouldn’t let us get near her, but after a little while she’d let us get within 10 feet of her. She also enjoyed chatting with the eldest of my 3 cats (all cats are fixed), Kramer, in the window (I call Kramer the Mother Theresa of cats because he seems to be so loving and accepting new friends ). She started sleeping on our porch overnight and eventually started coming around more often. I made the decision to save her because she seemed to be in need of some love and good regular meals. We also decided to name her Sling, which is short for silver lining because see is the silver lining of where we live. I started moving the food into the doorway until she felt comfortable coming inside to eat. One day while she was eating inside, I shut the door behind her. I had left the garage door open so she could just run right in there – which she did. She was very scared but finally ate some wet food a day later (good sign!) and I believe she peed as I could smell it, but she didn’t use the litter box (not completely unexpected, I’ll be purchasing some attract litter tomorrow morning). She would also meow once in a while in which I would go out there and calmly talk to her from several feet away. Talking to her definitely seems to help calm her down.
Unfortunately, the garage could only be a temporary stay for her because we have maintenance crews going in and out of our garage without warning (we live in an apartment) and I didn’t want her to accidentally get out. I had been hoping to get her to the vet and upon her return put her in the spare bedroom but the vet won’t see her until she can be tamed enough to work with, so I decided to move her to the spare room in the meantime and let her get comfortable in there. The really unfortunate part was transferring her from the garage to the spare room. I know I scared her very much. She was crying and hissing at me pretty much the entire time I tried catching her. I had put on some thick gloves and tried using a thick robe to catch her (I'm sure in here eyes, I looked like a bear at that point) and also had a large tote nearby that I planned to quickly put her in. She was incredibly quick and agile and given her small size, she was able to avoid me pretty easily, but not without letting me know she was very unhappy with what I was attempting to do. At one point, she was behind a box in the corner of the garage, so I set the tote on one end with the lid placed in a way so it could easily be slid onto the tote, and then I came at her from the other end of the box. She must have been exhausted at that point because she just walked right into the tote. I put the tote gently on its side in the spare bedroom with the lid slid to the side so she has an opening. There is an open closet with a blanket, food, and water in it, and a litter box just outside of the closet; all of which are only a few feet in front of the opening of the tote she's in.
The problem is I'm sure she now sees me as a threat and I feel absolutely terrible for how the entire transfer went down. She was scared of me before, but I think it was just because she was unfamiliar with people but now, after this, she’s terrified of me. Is there any hope of rehabilitating her and building her trust? I feel absolutely terrible, but the alternative was to leave this skinny, little cat outside and let the inevitable happen, which I just could not do. Plus with how much she meowed on our porch, I figured it was only a matter of time before the neighbors got annoyed and called animal control (I had already overheard people talking about how a cat just sits in front of our window meowing all night). I know if there is hope for building trust that it will take a lot of time, patience, soft sweet talking, and food, especially food, but I’m hoping someone can shed some light on whether or not I can expect Sling to ever trust me or if I’ve damaged her.
Also, I’ve read several of the threads in this forum for advice and I notice many people have taken feral or untamed stray cats to get them checked out. When I contacted my vet, they said they wouldn’t work with the cat until she was tame enough – which with how long the taming process could take, it could be anywhere from weeks to months from now before they’d examine her. Are there vets that put cats under to do the exam? Or is that something that’s typically done at humane societies? I live in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin and don’t know of where else I could take her that would work with a cat that doesn’t allow human interaction, but I’d like to get her in asap to ensure she’s healthy and spay her. I would also like for Kramer to be able to meet her seeing how they seemed to have grown fond of each other. I think he could help in the rehabilitation process, but of course won’t let them meet until I know Sling’s healthy.
Sorry for the lengthy post! Any advice is super appreciated!
Thank you!
Samantha
P.S. Not sure if this will be helpful, but I think she's a young cat. She's definitely not a kitten, but is so small that I think she must be only a year or so old. Or she could just be a very small adult cat (maybe around 5 lbs, but I'm not the best at weight judgement). Also, when I say "she" I really don't know. She may be a he, but I have just get the feeling the Sling's a she. (My profile picture is a picture of her.)
I need some advice with building a stray cat's trust. A little over a month ago a stray cat (she at least seems more stray than feral) started showing up on our porch meowing. After a few days of this happening, we started putting food and water out for her every evening (she would meow to let us know she was here and hungry). Well, in the beginning she wouldn’t let us get near her, but after a little while she’d let us get within 10 feet of her. She also enjoyed chatting with the eldest of my 3 cats (all cats are fixed), Kramer, in the window (I call Kramer the Mother Theresa of cats because he seems to be so loving and accepting new friends ). She started sleeping on our porch overnight and eventually started coming around more often. I made the decision to save her because she seemed to be in need of some love and good regular meals. We also decided to name her Sling, which is short for silver lining because see is the silver lining of where we live. I started moving the food into the doorway until she felt comfortable coming inside to eat. One day while she was eating inside, I shut the door behind her. I had left the garage door open so she could just run right in there – which she did. She was very scared but finally ate some wet food a day later (good sign!) and I believe she peed as I could smell it, but she didn’t use the litter box (not completely unexpected, I’ll be purchasing some attract litter tomorrow morning). She would also meow once in a while in which I would go out there and calmly talk to her from several feet away. Talking to her definitely seems to help calm her down.
Unfortunately, the garage could only be a temporary stay for her because we have maintenance crews going in and out of our garage without warning (we live in an apartment) and I didn’t want her to accidentally get out. I had been hoping to get her to the vet and upon her return put her in the spare bedroom but the vet won’t see her until she can be tamed enough to work with, so I decided to move her to the spare room in the meantime and let her get comfortable in there. The really unfortunate part was transferring her from the garage to the spare room. I know I scared her very much. She was crying and hissing at me pretty much the entire time I tried catching her. I had put on some thick gloves and tried using a thick robe to catch her (I'm sure in here eyes, I looked like a bear at that point) and also had a large tote nearby that I planned to quickly put her in. She was incredibly quick and agile and given her small size, she was able to avoid me pretty easily, but not without letting me know she was very unhappy with what I was attempting to do. At one point, she was behind a box in the corner of the garage, so I set the tote on one end with the lid placed in a way so it could easily be slid onto the tote, and then I came at her from the other end of the box. She must have been exhausted at that point because she just walked right into the tote. I put the tote gently on its side in the spare bedroom with the lid slid to the side so she has an opening. There is an open closet with a blanket, food, and water in it, and a litter box just outside of the closet; all of which are only a few feet in front of the opening of the tote she's in.
The problem is I'm sure she now sees me as a threat and I feel absolutely terrible for how the entire transfer went down. She was scared of me before, but I think it was just because she was unfamiliar with people but now, after this, she’s terrified of me. Is there any hope of rehabilitating her and building her trust? I feel absolutely terrible, but the alternative was to leave this skinny, little cat outside and let the inevitable happen, which I just could not do. Plus with how much she meowed on our porch, I figured it was only a matter of time before the neighbors got annoyed and called animal control (I had already overheard people talking about how a cat just sits in front of our window meowing all night). I know if there is hope for building trust that it will take a lot of time, patience, soft sweet talking, and food, especially food, but I’m hoping someone can shed some light on whether or not I can expect Sling to ever trust me or if I’ve damaged her.
Also, I’ve read several of the threads in this forum for advice and I notice many people have taken feral or untamed stray cats to get them checked out. When I contacted my vet, they said they wouldn’t work with the cat until she was tame enough – which with how long the taming process could take, it could be anywhere from weeks to months from now before they’d examine her. Are there vets that put cats under to do the exam? Or is that something that’s typically done at humane societies? I live in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin and don’t know of where else I could take her that would work with a cat that doesn’t allow human interaction, but I’d like to get her in asap to ensure she’s healthy and spay her. I would also like for Kramer to be able to meet her seeing how they seemed to have grown fond of each other. I think he could help in the rehabilitation process, but of course won’t let them meet until I know Sling’s healthy.
Sorry for the lengthy post! Any advice is super appreciated!
Thank you!
Samantha
P.S. Not sure if this will be helpful, but I think she's a young cat. She's definitely not a kitten, but is so small that I think she must be only a year or so old. Or she could just be a very small adult cat (maybe around 5 lbs, but I'm not the best at weight judgement). Also, when I say "she" I really don't know. She may be a he, but I have just get the feeling the Sling's a she. (My profile picture is a picture of her.)