Hi all,
I’ve been deliberating getting a cat for years. For various reasons it’s been hard to do but a few weeks ago a good friend mentioned she had stray kittens in her garden. She’d been feeding them and two in particular were showing signs of being possible to domesticate (food motivated, Turning up at dinner times, eating from her hand, coming into the house etc.) we trapped them last week and I brought one home on Thursday. I’ve got a utility room which has become hers. I have scratch post/litter tray/electric blanket/toys/food/feliway diffuser etc in there. I read a lot online about how to gently socialise her and that included leaving her be for 12-24 hours and then having intermittent periods in the room with her. Unsurprisingly I didn’t see her until Friday morning when I had to force her out (as gently as possible) for her first vets visit. I couldn’t go in with her but the vet said she was skittish rather then vicious or anything. She’s about 6 months old so definitely at the older end of possibility to domesticate, but I do want to try.
So since we got back I left her for another 24 hours (with plenty of food and water of course) and then yesterday I sat in with her for an hour morning/evening and I’ll do the same today. She won’t eat when I’m in the room with her, she won’t even come out of hiding. She is absolutely cleaning up the food I leave though. I’ve tried tempting her with sardines in tomato sauce (advice from a rescue) - a couple of metres away from me and partly hidden but no luck until I leave. Both mornings I’ve had the fright of my life when she’s managed to prise an extremely difficult drain cover out of situ and I’ve been terrified she’s been down it! I’ve now covered it with a 10kg weight and I’m sure she can’t get in it now. She’s also pulled the tubing off the tumble dryer - assuming in the hopes of getting out the vent- another near heart attack for me - but luckily it was screwed on pretty tight. She’s not using her litter tray and I discovered today she’s been peeing in blankets/a cushion. I’m washing them now and I’ve filled the litter tray deeper as apparently it can be because it’s too shallow and they don’t like splash back! Who would...
I feel so sad for her that she’s so desperate to escape. Must be such an awful change but I’m trying to reassure myself it will be for the best in the end. She’d have no life outside - especially come winter. She will eventually be an indoor/outdoor cat but obviously I can’t communicate that to her!
She’s beautiful and I love her already. Sorry for the mega essay but I think I just wanted to get it off my chest and see if anyone has any further advice of what I could do? Any experience trying to socialise stray cats of this age- am I doing the right things? Thanks for reading! I haven’t got any good pics of her yet but I’ll share one if I manage. She’s entirely black, yellow eyes, very small and “elegant” 