My Totally Wonderful Almost Socialized Feral Cat

This is my cat Michi. She's gotten a lot better since I got her. Born in a barn of a feral mother, she's very skittish and the claws would come out instantly if I tried to hold her, but after a year and a half of being nice to her she'll tolerate being picked up and even held for 30-45 seconds before she has had enough. :) To get that far meant wearing construction gloves and a Carhartt denim construction jacket or leather (both of which she clawed like crazy in the beginning) and always rewarding her afterward while speaking sweetly to her. Carrying her to her food also helped so she would see a benefit to being held. Even though she was born in a barn, she doesn't like to stay outside because there are cars moving up and down the street which terrify her. Sometimes I let her stay in my room while I wear the Carhartt jacket and hood. She'll walk around quietly for a while and then suddenly leap up onto my back and head and launch herself onto the top of my bunk bed (my computer desk is underneath). She only does that when I wear the Carhartt. Whenever she scratches me and I'm not wearing protective clothing I say "Ow!" to her a bunch of times, look hurt, and with a pleading voice ask her why she has to be so mean to me. Anyway, that's how I'm slowly winning over and socializing my feral cat Michi. Some days are better than others.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Feral cat
• feral house pet
• feral house cat

[SHADOW08742]

keep at it, I won over a feral cat and he is now my little baby, sleeps with me , digs until he gets under the covers to snuggle. A real gem. Never thought it would be possible. Knew him from the time he was about 2 months. After a year of living outside he became fierce but still wanted into my house at night to sleep peacefully. Eventually I got him to stay indoors.It was a below zero winter when I said that's it, he's staying inside, he loves it!

[luvdavy]

I have a rescued half-feral tortie almost exactly like your Michi right now. She was hurt and spent 5 weeks in the hospital before she came home and it made matters that much worse. You can pat her head if she's in the mood, but any kind of familiar touch behavior will make her attack me. Funny I have been thinking of buying some kind of glove like that! I thought of the ones they use to train eagles or falcons...LOL. So you think that was a good idea?

[nokomarie1963]

Fine animal.

[MrJackBNimble]

Cool! I love cats. I have 8 cats myself. Nearly all of them are socialized ferals. I find it strange that, from a single litter, some really take to people immediately and others stay mostly feral and skittish. I have two Feral Manx cats from the same litter. I caught both of them on the same day. During the first eight hours one of them wanted to sit in my lap and the other wouldn't come near me.