Hi everyone, I’m the BFF mentioned in one of Lisa’s follow-up posts about this Persephone situation – I am “Auntie Amy” to her cats, and come over twice a day whenever she and her husband are both gone to feed, medicate, cuddle, play with, etc. the cats (and come over at some point when only she is gone for more than a few days, since all he – never having had pets until now - can do is report they’re all still alive and eating <g>). That now includes Persephone, who obviously comes with her own needs. I want to give you feral experts my background and my interaction thus far with Persephone, to get guidance on how I, as the back-up caregiver, should proceed as we help Sephie (as I call her) through this regression period and get her back on a forward track.
I’ve lived with and loved beyond reason cats since the day I was born and friends/family call me The Cat Whisperer – I indeed have a lot of experience and cats tend to quickly like me (on a couple of occasions more than they like their owners, heh). But my only prior experience with a feral cat was as a kid; it wound up an incredible success, but in spite of us rather than because of us – there was no info (or internet to find it on) then and we probably did at least half of it wrong. When Lisa told me she’d saved one of her job site ferals from same-day euthanasia, I started reading various feral cat guides, so I know the basics, but I haven’t actually lived with a feral since that childhood experience. And the fact Sephie was relocated (yes, a known no-no, but necessitated by circumstances; if not for Lisa, this poor cat would have been dead by the end of the day) puts me in completely new territory right alongside Lisa.
When, after a week at the shelter, she was set up outdoors at Lisa’s home, I came over to visit Sephie a couple of days later. She was as you’d expect, hidden the whole time. I talked in normal voice, in the baby talk I only use with kitties, roamed around the yard, etc. and just introduced myself to her from a distance for about half an hour. When I came back two or three days later, she was more receptive, ultimately sticking her head and front legs out of her little house within the crate once I plopped down in the grass outside the crate, and she’d briefly make eye contact, even doing “blinky blinky” a couple of times as I hung out for an hour or so.
Once brought into the house, she seemed to stagnate, but that was obviously another big change, and a couple of weeks after that Lisa and her husband went on a long-scheduled vacation and it was just me for nearly a week (twice a day, the door to her room always shut), so another change. But she’d let me get my hand – I kept my body perpendicular to her and my face several feet away always – within inches of her if I moved slowly, and she never spooked, would just inch back.
After they returned, I continued to come over at least once a week, with no further progress in our interaction, but no regression. Unfortunately, in the last three weeks, I have only been able to visit once. I can commit to at least one visit per week going forward, and can aim to make two or three whenever possible. But I don’t want to overwhelm her now while she’s learning to trust the door will again remain closed, denying the other cats access, as we deal with this setback. Should I resume visits now, or wait?
At this point, my plan is to go over Monday and just sit in front of the loveseat she hides under, reading to her as I did once before, so she gets used to my voice and smell again without me being in her face, and then go again on Friday and re-assume my perpendicular position from a safe distance and take it from there. But if I should alter that, please let me know.
I’ve lived with and loved beyond reason cats since the day I was born and friends/family call me The Cat Whisperer – I indeed have a lot of experience and cats tend to quickly like me (on a couple of occasions more than they like their owners, heh). But my only prior experience with a feral cat was as a kid; it wound up an incredible success, but in spite of us rather than because of us – there was no info (or internet to find it on) then and we probably did at least half of it wrong. When Lisa told me she’d saved one of her job site ferals from same-day euthanasia, I started reading various feral cat guides, so I know the basics, but I haven’t actually lived with a feral since that childhood experience. And the fact Sephie was relocated (yes, a known no-no, but necessitated by circumstances; if not for Lisa, this poor cat would have been dead by the end of the day) puts me in completely new territory right alongside Lisa.
When, after a week at the shelter, she was set up outdoors at Lisa’s home, I came over to visit Sephie a couple of days later. She was as you’d expect, hidden the whole time. I talked in normal voice, in the baby talk I only use with kitties, roamed around the yard, etc. and just introduced myself to her from a distance for about half an hour. When I came back two or three days later, she was more receptive, ultimately sticking her head and front legs out of her little house within the crate once I plopped down in the grass outside the crate, and she’d briefly make eye contact, even doing “blinky blinky” a couple of times as I hung out for an hour or so.
Once brought into the house, she seemed to stagnate, but that was obviously another big change, and a couple of weeks after that Lisa and her husband went on a long-scheduled vacation and it was just me for nearly a week (twice a day, the door to her room always shut), so another change. But she’d let me get my hand – I kept my body perpendicular to her and my face several feet away always – within inches of her if I moved slowly, and she never spooked, would just inch back.
After they returned, I continued to come over at least once a week, with no further progress in our interaction, but no regression. Unfortunately, in the last three weeks, I have only been able to visit once. I can commit to at least one visit per week going forward, and can aim to make two or three whenever possible. But I don’t want to overwhelm her now while she’s learning to trust the door will again remain closed, denying the other cats access, as we deal with this setback. Should I resume visits now, or wait?
At this point, my plan is to go over Monday and just sit in front of the loveseat she hides under, reading to her as I did once before, so she gets used to my voice and smell again without me being in her face, and then go again on Friday and re-assume my perpendicular position from a safe distance and take it from there. But if I should alter that, please let me know.