7 Years at Rescue Facility

[Patty Marlon]

Cheetah was is many generations feral living in the mountains. I got her at 4 or 5 months of age after being trapped in a 30 foot deep dried up well.

She was extremely feral. I took her home and she lived in a cage for a month. It was a big cage. It started out in a side room and then was moved to the “cat room” where Rusty, the sweetest cat in the world lived. Although, Rusty had access to the house when I was home, when I was at work he stayed in the room.
One day, after working all night, I had to work another shift, so it meant that I was gone for 24 hours. I asked my bf to feed plenty of food and just open the cage door and close the bedroom door. Rusty was about 17 lbs and Cheetah was around 4 lbs. I figured no matter what, Rusty would survive.

When I got home from work, I expected to see Cheetah hiding in the cage and Rusty freaked out. I checked the cage and no Cheetah. Rusty was in his cat bed on top of the wardrobe curled around Cheetah. He cleaned her head and her ears and she just hid almost under him. After that she was in the room but could venture out if she wanted.

Cheetah stayed in the room about a week, but then started following Rusty out into the living room. It took about a month before she stopped taking a couple of steps and then bolting back to the room. It took almost a year before she was no longer running and hiding if I looked her way. After 6 months she would actually interact with me, but still was frightened by sudden movements. She did love to play with the wand toy right from the start, but I couldn’t look at her or she would run.
After about a year and a half she would sit on the couch with me or my bf. By 2 years she would jump on my shoulder. Now, 14 years later she isn’t afraid of people at all.

She took it hard when I had Rusty euthanized due to end stage kidney failure and she looked and cried for him for months.

Cheetah was extremely feral, that’s why all this took so long. She also was so untrusting of humans. Your cat isn’t feral, so it should not take as long.
Just be patient and it will all work out.

Do be careful going in and out of the house, because if he escaped, you wouldn’t see him again.
Thank you so much for giving this cat a home.

Thank you so much for sharing your story! We have until August before he needs his next shots, so I am hopeful we will be buddies by then.

 

[Patty Marlon]

First thank you for saving another cat and bringing it into your family. Please be patient, I adopted 2 cats and it took almost 2 years for them to become part of the family. But now they are part of my daily life.

Thank you for your story; it gives me great encouragement.