Horace has been in our bathroom for a week now and we're disappointed with his slow progress. He's very afraid of people, and doesn't seem to be warming up much to us. I found an excellent essay about what is involved in taming an adult feral cat, and we now realize it is going to be a lot harder than with the younger kitten we tamed in December. Cats need positive exposure to humans at a young age, otherwise they tend to be extremely distrustful of people.He just hides in a cubby in the bathroom and generally seems miserable. He does eat the food we give him, use a litter box, and move around the bathroom when we aren't there. He'll let us rub his head sometimes, but rarely seems to enjoy it; he obviously just wants us to leave him alone. He doesn't seem to mind if we're in the room, but when we look directly at him or move near him, that's when he shrinks away or even hisses. If we try to move things around in his cubby, he panics.
We're taking him to the vet soon, which should be an ordeal. If he's healthy enough, we're going to keep him for a while and try to socialize him. We'll get him neutered and immunized and then give him some space. We'll keep hanging out where he can watch us, but stop pushing him to accept our physical contact and let him adapt at his own pace over several months. Eventually he'll meet our cats. Apparently feral cats learn a lot about how to interact with human from watching housecats, so it will be nice if we can find a safe way for that to happen.
Temperatures here have been in single digits at night and in the teens and 20s during the daytime, so I know he's better off being scared but warm and well fed in our bathroom than hungry and freezing out there.
3 comments:
Do you think he misses his outdoor life, the independence he once enjoyed?
We had two little kittens (and their mother) show up one weekend at the WV cabin. They were about 3 months old. One was very outgoing and comfortable with humans, but the other would not let us touch him, ever. The outgoing one would come in the house and play with us, the other would only come in the house if we left the door open.
As the cold weather came on, we were able to adopt the outgoing one, but the other seemed happier outside. After that winter we've never seen him again.
Your plans for Horace makes sense to me. I hope he eventually learns to overcome his fear of humans. Thanks for the update, my wife and I have already fallen in love with him.
I like Horace! :) -- Kate Vidovich
At this point Horace is a trapped wild animal. I think he'll eventually make progress towards accepting and enjoying indoor life, but it will take a lot of time.
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