First, a little background:
I volunteer for an animal shelter and regularly foster cats. In January I assisted with rescuing five kittens about 6-8 months old that had been living outside of an apartment building in the city I live in. Some tenants had been leaving food out for them so they had minimal human contact but you could not approach them. After we rescued them the plan was to get them vetted and send them to barn homes. Another shelter volunteer took them home and kept them in her heated garage while we arranged for vet work and for a place to send them. Over time, one became very friendly and was able to be tamed (he is now awaiting adoption!), three remained extremely feral, and the fifth showed signs of possibly being able to evolve into a life as a housecat. She is now our new foster cat.
We have had her for a week and are trying to work with her. I don't want her to have to go to a barn home, but she needs to make some significant progress if she is to become a permanent housecat. She has used the litter box 100% of the time since we brought her home, so there are no problems there. She also gets along fine with our other two cats. The problem is, she remains scared to death of me and my girlfriend and rarely lets us get within a few feet of her, and if she sees us coming, she will usually go hide under the bed or another piece of furniture. What is interesting though, is if she goes under the bed and I climb under there with her, she will let me pet her for extended periods of time, and she will even purr sometimes, so it's not like she avoids me entirely, but it seems like she only feels "safe" around me when she's under the bed or somewhere similar. For instance, two nights ago I came downstairs right before going to sleep and she was in our large cat tree, I walked over slowly to approach her, and she almost let me touch her, and then she ran away.
I know that it is possible she will not be able to be fully rehabilitated and she may end up having to go to a barn, but I'm not ready to give up yet. I was hoping some other members of this site have dealt with kitties like this in the past and had advice on how to make them more comfortable around humans.
Thanks in advance for any advice anyone can give me.
I volunteer for an animal shelter and regularly foster cats. In January I assisted with rescuing five kittens about 6-8 months old that had been living outside of an apartment building in the city I live in. Some tenants had been leaving food out for them so they had minimal human contact but you could not approach them. After we rescued them the plan was to get them vetted and send them to barn homes. Another shelter volunteer took them home and kept them in her heated garage while we arranged for vet work and for a place to send them. Over time, one became very friendly and was able to be tamed (he is now awaiting adoption!), three remained extremely feral, and the fifth showed signs of possibly being able to evolve into a life as a housecat. She is now our new foster cat.
We have had her for a week and are trying to work with her. I don't want her to have to go to a barn home, but she needs to make some significant progress if she is to become a permanent housecat. She has used the litter box 100% of the time since we brought her home, so there are no problems there. She also gets along fine with our other two cats. The problem is, she remains scared to death of me and my girlfriend and rarely lets us get within a few feet of her, and if she sees us coming, she will usually go hide under the bed or another piece of furniture. What is interesting though, is if she goes under the bed and I climb under there with her, she will let me pet her for extended periods of time, and she will even purr sometimes, so it's not like she avoids me entirely, but it seems like she only feels "safe" around me when she's under the bed or somewhere similar. For instance, two nights ago I came downstairs right before going to sleep and she was in our large cat tree, I walked over slowly to approach her, and she almost let me touch her, and then she ran away.
I know that it is possible she will not be able to be fully rehabilitated and she may end up having to go to a barn, but I'm not ready to give up yet. I was hoping some other members of this site have dealt with kitties like this in the past and had advice on how to make them more comfortable around humans.
Thanks in advance for any advice anyone can give me.