Just wondering why people don't adopt the very scaredy cats

[TillyWithercoat]

When a vacancy appears within my tribe you will not go above 6; you will not go above 6 I always visit the local sanctuaries and seek out the most needy cat - not talking about the serious cruelty case, but the one that others pass by because he's so terrified he's been hidden in a corner for a year, that type.

I've learnt that all these cats need is a quiet room to live in for a few months whilst they get to heal and trust again, and then they can start to enjoy life. Perhaps they'll never sit on my lap, but they'll be able to live life without fear and on their terms.

I appreciate that fok with young chidren may not have the time or inclination for this, but I don't understand why more people don't conisder these scaredy cats.

Any thoughts?

My experience with a scaredy-cat didn't go all that well... He was one of a litter born to a feral mum and I got him from a rehoming shelter at 13/14 weeks. They let me have him because I've had cats all my life but this one was wild, and completely untamable.

After about a fortnight of him living under the bed in my spare room, and with no luck at all in trying to get him to respond to human contact, I took a chair in there and sat quietly reading a book. He went totally berserk and was literally climbing the walls. You know the motorcycle wall-of-death? Like that. Round and round the room about three feet high, and frothing at the mouth, but making no sound at all.

Idiot that I am, I tried to catch hold of him before he killed himself, and he sank his teeth deep into my hand and wouldn't let go, and raked his claws down my arm. I got him off eventually, and took myself to hospital, with blood all over me and really deep bite marks in my hand.

The wounds got infected, and I ended up spending three days in hospital on an antibiotic drip, and nearly lost a finger. My kind friend pushed a bowl of food round the bedroom door twice a day, and when I got out of hospital the shelter sent a trap to catch him in. As far as I know his litter-mate behaved in much the same way and was also returned by the adopter, and the shelter rehomed them both to a farm where they lived in outbuildings.

Be warned - cat bites are really nasty. A while after this happened I asked a vet what he did when bitten, and he said that he usually injected himself with antibiotics then and there!

Oh my God, that's awful. You poor thing!

That's awful taxi

Well done for trying with him though.

i dont see why people have a rescuer complex. Surely scaredy cats would be better off on a farm or something

taxi well there's a difference between 'timid' and full-on feral. It seems that yours was the latter and the rescue shouldn't have given them to you really. It is possible to introduce ferals into a home environment, but you need to know what you're doing and must start with them in a pen for quite a few weeks and you must have a cat flap.

I've done this quite often and the cats generally end up happy to come and go and to sleep in the house and not be scared of me, but I still can't touch them. While a few end up completely tame and soppy.

As I said though ferals are a completely different undertaking to the timid cats in rescues that we were really talking about.

We've taken in ferals and they lived a happy existence in our hayshed, being fed and talked to everyday but even after more than ten years they were not strokable.

We've got a brother and sister in a pen at the moment. My gut feeling is he will come handlable and want affection, she won't.
Luckily they are very attached to one another so I think when we free them she'll stay to be with him.

Mind you, I'm happy to be proved wrong about cats. One of the happiest days of my life was when a fabulous outside boy moved into the house. After ten years of living outside, refusing to come in and being very shy we came home to find him asleep in the dogs' basket and he lived his final years indoors in the lap of luxury.

I knew the kitten's mum was feral, but he had been born at the shelter. They had been socialising him from the beginning, and although he was really timid with the staff there, they thought he would eventually be ok in a domestic setting with an experienced cat owner who was prepared to take the time and effort needed.

Unfortunately they were wrong, he was a wild animal through and through.

DP and I did. Not from a rescue but from someone on Gumtree. They said they were frightened she would bite their toddler, was very violent etc. We just wanted a cat that was happy mind it's own business some times and she seemed perfect. They said she had been found in a bin around 6 weeks old and the woman kept her for company when she was pregnant, now with a 2yo, she didn't want her, they said she had never even learnt her name.

When we got to the house, she was terrified, the "victim" toddler was running riot chasing the poor cat, she was very scared. Managed to get her home, she had awful gum disease, missing teeth, missing whiskers, slit on her ear, unspayed and was really terrified, violent yes, but it was because she was scared.

We renamed her, had her spayed, vaccinated and sorted out her teeth she learnt it within a week, spent a lot of time hiding and would attack if you were within a few feet, she was depressed as well, I didn't even know cats got depressed.

She's now the most loveable cat I have ever met and loves to be held and carried and snuggle in, I have 3 cats and she is the best out of them with my 2 toddlers, she would never even scratch them. She lives with 2 cats too! She does get spooked if you are behind her and gets startled and does scratch if you do this and she gets scared, she's a totally different cat now though.

Just to clarify, DP and I were childless (I was 19) when we took her in.

I had a feral cat, rescued by friends when found in a farmyard with cat flu
She couldn't be handled. For the first month I had to push her food bowl towards her with a broom handle so I didn't get attacked!

I took her to the vet for jabs (can't remember how I managed to get her in a basket!) Told him she was feral and he said he would scruff her...He wouldn't listen to my advice that he wouldn't be able to...when I left he was dripping blood and had urine sprayed all round the consult room he told me to have her PTS
the next time I took her in a crusher cage

The only time I managed to handle her was just before she died
She was a great character though, a good hunter and loved my dogs. My neighbours who weren't animal lovers really liked her. She would sit on their gate post and the husband would be able to stroke her once only as he walked past. They were really sad when she died.

I love black cats but mine was found dead 3 weeks ago in a neighbours garden, I knew she was ill but couldn't find her I am now fostering a kitten with a badly broken leg, but I really miss my black cat, If I had the money I would start a black cat rescue!

I would love to but it wouldn't be fair to the cat. We live in a one bed maisonette so don't have anywhere for the cat to use as a 'bolt hole' and as we both work and go away a lot of weekends it wouldn't be fair.

(BTW in case you think I'm being cruel to Harry he comes with us when we go away!)