It's been awhile since I've posted regularly on here, but I wanted to give an update on my feral cat I took home. We've made great progress and I'm really excited about it.
Astrid came home with me on January 4th, 2016. It's been a long socialization process - I didn't get to take her home on my own terms, because other people involved themselves, so I didn't get to prepare her room or anything. I had to block off the closet and take out the bed well after she was moved in, and wasn't able to completely cat proof the rest of the room. Socialization took a lot longer than I expected. It took almost a whole year to get her to start being okay with being out and about while I was in there. But since then, progress has been pretty nonstop, and its mostly her that's pushing her own boundaries.
Right now, she still lives in a safe room. She has yet to let me touch her, but has otherwise gotten very comfortable with me. If she and I weren't moving in the next month or so, I'd probably go ahead and try to integrate her to the rest of the house, with the other people and animals. But it seems like a better idea to just wait till we move, where, after a little longer in a single room to get her comfortable with her new surroundings, she'll get the whole place to herself.
Astrid has picked up habits I never expected from a wild cat I met in a parking lot. She started talking to me, taught herself to meow again. It started out quiet, squeaky little beeps that seemed to get lost halfway through her trying to make noise. Now she chats and sings to me for the first few minutes of my visits. She has recently also started rubbing her whole body all over whatever is closest to her, and even rolling upside down with her paws in the air, to excitedly rub on things like a typical house cat when she's excited to see me bringing her food. Last night she even hopped off her bed and came towards me to do the excited cat song and dance right in front of me. (I do still have a little barricade in front of the door from the early days, when I was worried about her darting out and getting lost in the rest of the house, so that was between us when she did this. I probably ought to go ahead and take it down.) She also will knead and purr if she's laying on a pillow when she's excited to see me.
Despite all of that, we've been working for a long time on her being okay with me reaching towards her, since before all the song and dance started. She is not at all a food motivated cat, she'd rather starve herself than eat something she doesn't like, which baffles me with her having been feral. I've tried all kinds of tempting treats (baby food, tuna, etc.) and the only thing that she actually cares about enough to use as a food reward for our progress is the feline greenies treats. So every time I visit and go through our normal routine, I slowly reach towards her with very small a handful of those treats. She gets super quiet and serious when we do this part of our routine, and watches me like a hawk. She'll move forward to sniff the treats, but won't take them from my hand. Recently she's added taking a step back after that to wait for me to drop them. It doesn't matter how close and relaxed she is before I try to offer treats, as soon as we get to this point she goes to the same spot, just out of easy reach, and waits and watches.
Astrid is an odd cat, and does lots of funny little things I'd never expect from a feral, and some things that I've never seen in a typical house cat either. She's obviously super smart. (She used to like to sort her toys by shape and color.) She constantly surprises me, and always pushes her own boundaries much further than I expected. I've always approached this that things would go at her pace. Now that we've started making progress, she's set that pace much faster than I would have.
I really love this cat. I'm so glad she came home with me.
Astrid came home with me on January 4th, 2016. It's been a long socialization process - I didn't get to take her home on my own terms, because other people involved themselves, so I didn't get to prepare her room or anything. I had to block off the closet and take out the bed well after she was moved in, and wasn't able to completely cat proof the rest of the room. Socialization took a lot longer than I expected. It took almost a whole year to get her to start being okay with being out and about while I was in there. But since then, progress has been pretty nonstop, and its mostly her that's pushing her own boundaries.
Right now, she still lives in a safe room. She has yet to let me touch her, but has otherwise gotten very comfortable with me. If she and I weren't moving in the next month or so, I'd probably go ahead and try to integrate her to the rest of the house, with the other people and animals. But it seems like a better idea to just wait till we move, where, after a little longer in a single room to get her comfortable with her new surroundings, she'll get the whole place to herself.
Astrid has picked up habits I never expected from a wild cat I met in a parking lot. She started talking to me, taught herself to meow again. It started out quiet, squeaky little beeps that seemed to get lost halfway through her trying to make noise. Now she chats and sings to me for the first few minutes of my visits. She has recently also started rubbing her whole body all over whatever is closest to her, and even rolling upside down with her paws in the air, to excitedly rub on things like a typical house cat when she's excited to see me bringing her food. Last night she even hopped off her bed and came towards me to do the excited cat song and dance right in front of me. (I do still have a little barricade in front of the door from the early days, when I was worried about her darting out and getting lost in the rest of the house, so that was between us when she did this. I probably ought to go ahead and take it down.) She also will knead and purr if she's laying on a pillow when she's excited to see me.
Despite all of that, we've been working for a long time on her being okay with me reaching towards her, since before all the song and dance started. She is not at all a food motivated cat, she'd rather starve herself than eat something she doesn't like, which baffles me with her having been feral. I've tried all kinds of tempting treats (baby food, tuna, etc.) and the only thing that she actually cares about enough to use as a food reward for our progress is the feline greenies treats. So every time I visit and go through our normal routine, I slowly reach towards her with very small a handful of those treats. She gets super quiet and serious when we do this part of our routine, and watches me like a hawk. She'll move forward to sniff the treats, but won't take them from my hand. Recently she's added taking a step back after that to wait for me to drop them. It doesn't matter how close and relaxed she is before I try to offer treats, as soon as we get to this point she goes to the same spot, just out of easy reach, and waits and watches.
Astrid is an odd cat, and does lots of funny little things I'd never expect from a feral, and some things that I've never seen in a typical house cat either. She's obviously super smart. (She used to like to sort her toys by shape and color.) She constantly surprises me, and always pushes her own boundaries much further than I expected. I've always approached this that things would go at her pace. Now that we've started making progress, she's set that pace much faster than I would have.
I really love this cat. I'm so glad she came home with me.
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I've tried everything with her, she is the pickiest cat in the world. I see my original post got linked to another of mine, the one about flying with her, but that one is just the most recent of my posts about her. Most have been about her pickiness. She only eats two varieties of one brand of wet food, one kind of dry food, and two kinds of treats. Everything else I try she turns her nose up at. (
