hello.
after having a fluffy feral in my house for 10 months and her slowly - and i mean SLOWLY- coming around- she has regressed and i am wondering what the next best steps are that i should take.
here is the story......
she came to us fixed and with all her shots from a friend of mine who trapped her from her back yard..the winter was already in full swing and we were worried about her and her sibling. unfortunately, she was seperated from her sibling, but we had high hopes for finding her a long term, happy home - i was simply here to foster her and her transition. so, she had free range of our home for the first few weeks (this is back in feb'08) until she peed on our beds numerous times. we then simply made sure that we always closed our doors. she adapted to using the litter just perfectly otherwise (i'm guessing she was marking territory on our beds, or pissed off at us for having her inside). she mostly just slinked around the apt, but learned to come out and make her presence known when we were cooking. if we ever tried to approach her, or even thought about it, or if she ever thought about it, she would back up and run away, looking as if we were going to strangle her. fast forward 8 months and its much of the same. she would eat kibble off of my body if i laid down and placed it on random places, but again, she NEVER let me even attempt to touch her.
well recently, i decided that maybe a bit of a different approach would be better..you know, pick her up and hold her until she relaxed. show her that i won't hurt her and then let her go. i have heard of a few people who try this approach have found that it worked with there cats.
unfortunately, there has also been a lot of change in the house (a new roommate moved in) and a fair amount of stress in general. as she is a very sensitive cat, i'm guessing that she is picking up on it as i then found that she peed on the couch...twice. just for safety, i covered the couch in plastic thinking that a) either it would freak her out and she wouldn't jump up on it and b) that at least the couch is protected. well, she peed on the plastic. three nights in a row. on different sheets of plastic.
i guessed that either she is TOTALLY freaked out or she has a medical condition. i think its the former. i have since placed her in a very large kennel to give her private, safe space and to protect the house from her peeing. i don't want to take her to the vet as i was trying to get some other kind of touch with her before she had to go back to that scary place where she first experienced human hands.
what step should i take?
i'm wondering if she would simply be happier on a farm where she could be a barn cat and have contact with humans only when SHE wanted and she could run freely (well , as freely as possible). i'm stuck here. what should i do to help her be happy?
after having a fluffy feral in my house for 10 months and her slowly - and i mean SLOWLY- coming around- she has regressed and i am wondering what the next best steps are that i should take.
here is the story......
she came to us fixed and with all her shots from a friend of mine who trapped her from her back yard..the winter was already in full swing and we were worried about her and her sibling. unfortunately, she was seperated from her sibling, but we had high hopes for finding her a long term, happy home - i was simply here to foster her and her transition. so, she had free range of our home for the first few weeks (this is back in feb'08) until she peed on our beds numerous times. we then simply made sure that we always closed our doors. she adapted to using the litter just perfectly otherwise (i'm guessing she was marking territory on our beds, or pissed off at us for having her inside). she mostly just slinked around the apt, but learned to come out and make her presence known when we were cooking. if we ever tried to approach her, or even thought about it, or if she ever thought about it, she would back up and run away, looking as if we were going to strangle her. fast forward 8 months and its much of the same. she would eat kibble off of my body if i laid down and placed it on random places, but again, she NEVER let me even attempt to touch her.
well recently, i decided that maybe a bit of a different approach would be better..you know, pick her up and hold her until she relaxed. show her that i won't hurt her and then let her go. i have heard of a few people who try this approach have found that it worked with there cats.
unfortunately, there has also been a lot of change in the house (a new roommate moved in) and a fair amount of stress in general. as she is a very sensitive cat, i'm guessing that she is picking up on it as i then found that she peed on the couch...twice. just for safety, i covered the couch in plastic thinking that a) either it would freak her out and she wouldn't jump up on it and b) that at least the couch is protected. well, she peed on the plastic. three nights in a row. on different sheets of plastic.
i guessed that either she is TOTALLY freaked out or she has a medical condition. i think its the former. i have since placed her in a very large kennel to give her private, safe space and to protect the house from her peeing. i don't want to take her to the vet as i was trying to get some other kind of touch with her before she had to go back to that scary place where she first experienced human hands.
what step should i take?
i'm wondering if she would simply be happier on a farm where she could be a barn cat and have contact with humans only when SHE wanted and she could run freely (well , as freely as possible). i'm stuck here. what should i do to help her be happy?