Transitioning Zena into the house

[Meowmee]

So things have progressed a lot with Zena…he’s a sweetie, he lets me pet him, he’s friends with Quinn & Merlin now- I’m so relieved that he and Quinn finally became friends! I can comb & brush him and I clipped his claws once. However he is still very skittish and he is off gabapentin and all the meds now. He still gets scared sometimes when I approach him especially when I’m wearing a new coat I have or any coat I think maybe that makes a hissy noise.
I have broken down the cage now and I left him the carrier part he likes to sleep in and a little cat house so he can hide in them, he likes to hide behind my sewing table when he gets scared so he has somewhere he can go if he’s scared.

I wasn’t sure if he was ready for that, that was two nights ago but he jumped right into it and Quinn being there to run around with him helped.

So today I let him come out into the garage because he’s expressed he wants to come out of the studio numerous times which is in the garage. He hates being alone in the studio. But he can be ok there on his own for quite a while too. But if I come in to see him and give him his food he will start eating it, only after saying hellos usually, and then when I say OK I have to go to do something else he comes over to try to stop me from leaving and say hi more.

The thing is he got scared there in the garage and he was hiding behind a bunch of stuff- it’s really overcrowded and it’s not a full-size garage because of a room being built in there. I was trying to show him that he can go back into the studio with the cat door- I opened the part that locks it etc., pushed the flap and Quinn went through it once but he didn’t seem to get that- he just stayed there and I went and left them for a while. When I came back he was still hiding.

I was only able to get him out by shaking a bag of treats but I had trouble getting him to come back in the studio. At one point Merlin came out and said hi to him in the garage and I had the door to the house open but he didn’t show any sign of wanting to go in there. He looked in but he looked like he was scared someone dangerous could be there.

I think part of this may be because he is scared of my brother, we are the only two people he has been exposed to and he has been scared when my brother went in to say hi to him. I usually sit with him and Quinn till about 5 to 6 AM and then I go to sleep. Quinn stays in there for a while and my brother lets him out eventually, so my brother has gone into the room at other times but Zena is still scared of him.

We also had an emergency with our furnace so we had people coming into the house making lots of noise at least twice I think. When I came in to check on him after that he was hiding in my sewing table/ cabinet which is open at the back And he wouldn’t come out for a while. I had to sit in the room and talk to him I think I did the treat thing again.

So I am concerned about trying to integrate him fully into the house and how to do this because I’m scared he’s going to hide in the garage and somehow if someone opens the door which would be highly unlikely of course he could escape or whatever you know. I of course will take all measures to make sure he is in the studio in that event but you never know what emergencies could happen.

I am just wondering if I should put him back on a half a capsule of GABA a day and see if that makes him feel less stressed out while he integrates into the house. I also have to set up a litter box somewhere in the house for him because I don’t think the two in the garage are going to be enough.

I have a Cat Genie which nobody uses anymore- it’s like a toilet, I have a regular hooded box and then I have the open stainless steel box for Zena which is in the studio.

I’m just wondering if I should try having my brother go to feed him sometimes so he will get more used to him or if that may just make him even more scared.

Has anyone had a similar cat intro situation like this where the cat was friendly with the other cats, OK with that one room but still keeps getting scared with people, even me sometimes, and new people etc.

I’m not sure if that is the only factor here. It I could also just be his generalized fear from everything that has happened to him. It could be that his baseline personality has some anxiety in it, it’s kind of strange because he’s such a talkative, sweet guy too. And he came to ask for help when he was initially dumped but then he was too scared to let me help him.

 

[rubysmama]

I'm not familiar with Zena's story, but thank you for bringing him inside. If the plan is to bring him into the house, is there a room you can set up just for him? That's usually the best way to go when bringing ferals, or really any new cat, into a home. That would just be until he seems comfortable, and since he's already friends with Quinn & Merlin, it might not take long before you could let him have full run of the home.

 

[Meowmee]

Thanks He has been in the house for 3 months now, but in the studio. He is not feral, he was a hc who was dumped outside and it took me nearly 2 years to trap him with everything going on in our lives and he had seemed to vanish for a while etc. Then he showed up on cams. When I trapped him he was extremely scared and even fear aggressive but after being put on gabapentin, being neutered etc. and me working with him he’s turned into a love bug.

Yesterday He and Quinn kept busting through the door when I opened it so I left him in the garage on and off. He figured out how to use the cat doors now but he was still too scared to come in the house.

I did get him to come and eat right at the door from the garage to house with the door open from a dish but he kept running back in the garage and would not come on further than the door. The other thing is once he gets out in the garage even though he knows how to use the cat door he doesn’t seem to be able to go back into the studio and it’s freezing right now so I can’t leave all of the doors open or leave him out there for hours. Then he just kind of sits there and looks at me like: can you please help me I don’t wanna be out in this cold garage LOL.

Today when I came down I opened up the cat door again and he is not coming out into the garage he’s just sleeping on the couch in the studio after I fed him and Quinn is in there with him.

I told my brother to put some food in for Zena and Quinn before he went to sleep. Quinn has been staying with him instead of being in the house when I go to sleep which is around 5 to 7 AM usually. I don’t know how that went yet because my brother is still asleep, we are sort of an opposite schedules right now.

I don’t know if I could get him into another room in the house by himself because I don’t pick him up or anything yet and he’s so scared it would be hard to get him there unless I put him in the carrier and carry him. I am just wondering if taking him in the carrier to another room would be too confusing and traumatic for him and make him even more scared because then he’s gonna be like where am I etc. He likes to sleep in the carrier so I can probably get him in there just by putting some treats in there or something although I’m sure that may make him suspicious probably LOL after the first time anyway. He really does like the carrier although his couch in the end or where I sit is his favorite spot now.

I could put him in the master bedroom upstairs which no one is using currently. My plan was to eventually put another litter box in there, there used to be one for Sybil. But when she died I took that one out and we just had the ones in the garage for Merlin and Quinn. When Merlin transitioned into the house I packed up the litter box in the studio because I don’t really want to have a litter box in there but I did have one of those ones that they have to climb on the top of it to go in, just in case Quinn got locked in there. Merlin doesn’t really go in there very much except for now to see Zena and mainly to eat his food

But I can’t get any of them to use that one anymore although Quinn did use it a few times when I first got it. I really would prefer that one for the regular litter box because I think it’s going to have less litter tracked all over the place. I am not sure why they don’t like it.

So basically he has had his own room for at least three months now which is the studio but it’s out in the garage and I am the one that he has interacted with the most. He trusts me but he is still skittish. He actually rolls over on his back for tummy rubs and brushes. When my brother first went in there he was very scared of him and my brother said if he goes in the room Xena hides behind the sewing cabinet and won’t come- out if he leaves some food for him eventually he comes out to eat it but not when my brother is there.

I wonder if he is scared of men, maybe he had a bad experience when he was dumped. When Merlin was transitioned into the main house he was scared also of my brother and father but he seem to get over it pretty quickly and it didn’t stop him from actually coming into the house.

 

[rubysmama]

Awww... poor Zena. Even though he wasn't feral, he probably became more fearful the longer he was a stray. Possibly once he's in the house, and can hear normal home sounds, and smells, he'll relax more.

You could try plugging a Feliway, as some people find they help. Others say they do nothing, so no guarantees.

You may have already read this, but in case you haven't, here's a TCS article that might have some tips for you.
How To Help An Abused Cat Recover – TheCatSite Articles