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- Jun 23, 2015
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This is Sophie. She's an adorable, playful little kitten who can be one of the sweetest cats you will ever in your life meet. When she wants to be.
But 99% of the time, she is a skittish little ball of fur and claws. She won't have anything to do with even being touched, let alone being held and cuddled. My family and I try to give her love and she gives us scratches.
Before I get to the point of this post, let me give you her background and some info on her current home so that you might understand her (and my frustration) a bit better.
She was born in mid-August of last year, so she's about 10 months old. She was born outside to a mother who wanted nothing to do with kittens. Her momma (who we literally just call 'momma') has a very dominant personality. She doesn't take crap from anyone else. She appeared around our house in the winter of 2013 with two kittens in tow, and, against the advisement of my mother, I began to feed her. She became attached to us (or, more accurately, the free food), so about the time that she had another litter of kittens, she came to us. And when the kittens were able to eat solid food, they came too.
We believe that the first month or so of her life was spent with a brother or sister, but we only saw brief glimpses of a second white and orange one, so we have no clue when it might have split from its mother and sister. But the point is, it did, and Sophie was left alone with her mother.
Momma seemed to take good enough care of her. Occasionally played with her (albeit a little too rough), led her to food, and kept her warm by sleeping against her on chilly nights. But momma is really not that great of a mother, and eventually, at what I'd estimate was about 2 months old, Sophie was left to fend for herself.
She was smart enough, and she stuck around our house, ate the easy food. But she wasn't the only cat, and after about a week or so, momma and her older sister (the only one of the first litter to stick around) began to attack her if she was too close to the food when they came around, and she became so skittish that she'd shoot off the deck in our backyard at the rustling caused by a gust of wind. About that time, shewas 3 months old, and she had grown on us. She recognized the hands that fed her, and she'd let us reach out and pet her, and she'd purr up a storm. And so my entire family fell in love with her, and I convinced my mom to let her join our family inside.
She was great at first. She loved being let inside, and we loved bringing her inside even though she brought worms with her. And shared them with our 3 other cats, Sam, Chloe, and Milo. We kept her in a dog cage for the most part for the first month or so until we were finally able to get rid of the worms in all of our cats (because she shared almost immediately). And then she was set free, and her rein of terror began.
She's sweet enough towards our other cats. She and Milo (whose only two-ish months older than her) are best friends. She leaves Sam (the elderly cat) and Chloe (self-pronounced queen bee) alone, and for the most part, they leave her alone, too. She also gets visits (through glass) from her mother and two other kittens that were the result of not getting Sophie's older sister fixed sooner. She has more toys than most children, and an entire house to roam around.
And yet, over half a year after being let into our home, she still doesn't trust us. She has her moments where we can pick her up and she doesn't squirm too much, and maybe once a day she'll let one of us pet her. But she doesn't seem to be getting even the tiniest bit better. No matter what approach we take, she barely tolerates me and my brother, and she hates my mom (the one who cuts her nails). If she isn't in the right mood to be touched and we pick her up anyway, she just claws any skin that she can reach. And more often than not, she claws hard enough to leave scars.
So, to summarize all of this, my entire family is starting to get really sick of this. My mom is ready to throw her back out the door, and my brother doesn't care any more. I'm the only reason that she hasn't been thrown out already. I stand in the way and stubbornly say that I'll just let her right back in the door. But my objections can only do so much. If she keeps pushing it, there's not much I'll be able to do to keep her inside. So has anyone out there in the world got any advice that might help?
Thank you to everyone who bore with me through that babbling mess and has advice to give!
P.S. We're going to be getting her fixed soon. Think that will help even a little bit?