New here / new to feral cats

[dtetrev]

Being a new feral slave, I mean owner

I can agree, it will take time, probably alot of it but the rewards are worth it. It is strange but having a feral come up and rub up against you is truely a wonderful feeling. Just the thought of how much trust their showing you in that one simple action

. Good luck with your new buddy.

 

[jamie100]

Hi. I finally took a picture of Annie (formerly Maggie). I hope I can get it to post here. We've begun introducing our kitten, Lucy, to Annie. We were most concerned with Lucy since she's been the most active with hissing at Annie thru the screen door so we wanted to see how they reacted to each other in the same room. It wasn't bad. Some playing, some sniffing, a couple of times where I wasn't sure if they were playing or having a little spat. Nothiong real bad though so I think they'll become buddies after a while. The two older boys are much more easy going so I'm not too worried about their reaction.

The other day I was out & my Fiancee was able to pet Annie too now. I guess Annie is tranferring whatever she's getting used to with me to Bernadette which is good. Bernadette then won't have to put in as much time as I did to gain her trust.

Thanks again for the advice and I hope you can see the picture.
Jamie

 

[tnr1]

How SWEET!!! She's gorgeous! Good for you to adopt her.

Katie

 

[zinc]

Beau, beau, beau, most beautiful !!!!
You're so lucky to have each other

 

[cassandra_starr]

Wow She is GOREGEOUS!!!!


You will have to keep us updated with Annie as well as post more pictures more frequently in our "Picture This" forum.


I'd like it very much if you started a thread over on that forum sharing pictures of all your kitties. They sound simply wonderful!

I'm so proud and happy for both you and Annie! She's so pretty!!!

 

[valanhb]

Oh, Annie is just beautiful!!!!! What a pretty face she has!

 

[wellingtoncats]

Congrats with all Annies progress!

She's gorgeous!

 

[jamie100]

Hi everyone. Annie said thanks for all the compliments. We've now introduced her to the others & she is free to roam the house during the day. It's going pretty well. She's just a little nervous but there's no fighting.

Cassie, I added some pictures as you requested but I put them on the "fur pictures only" section of the cat lounge. I hope that's the right place. There are some pretty cute pictures of out other cats too if you want to see them.

Thanks again Everybody.
This board was more help than anything else with taking in and socializing a feral. I probably couldn't have done it without the things I learned here. I would've petted her too soon, gotten scratched and thought she was a mean cat.

 

[ldg]

What a beautiful girl she is!!!! I'm so glad to hear how well things have gone.

I'm so so pleased at how quickly this has gone. What a great job you've done!

 

[hissy]

I do love these feral success stories! Great job with her- thanks for sharing her with us here.

 

[jamie100]

Hi. Laurie asked me in another forum where I posted some pictures how Annie is doing so I thought it was time for an update...

We removed the screen door and gave her the run of the house a week ago. So far so good. Lucy, our one year old gives Annie the most trouble... mostly playing but once in a while what appears to be a sneaky but serious swipe at her. She'll sometimes walk up to Annie like she wants to sniff noses then whacks her. Lucy isn't a very good fighter though so I'm not too worried. Other than that they just play. Ernie doesn't growl at Annie anymore so I think he's already used to her. Scooters fine with her as long as she doesn't approach him. Lucy is very jealous, putting herself in between me and Annie every chance she gets. Annie can forget about playing with a toy when Lucy's around since she will fling herself thru the air to get the toy before Annie can touch it!

I still close the door and sleep in the room with Annie at night because she eats best under those conditions. I'll keep that up until she's comfortable enough outside the bedroom to eat. She still runs to the bedroom every time there's a sound or movement and stays there for hours sometimes but she's improving. I'm sure the rest of the house is still strange to her. She's probably wondering..."OK which door is the next one they'll open that has a bunch of other cats behind it?" In time she'll figure out this is it... she's done meeting new creatures in the house.

Laurie, if you're reading this, yes Ernie is real large and very gentle, and kind of whiney. He growls (a deep growl) a lot which at first I found scary but after a while I realized he was all growl and no bite. I think he's just such a wimp that he got used to growling a lot to keep other cats away at the shelter he was in. Lucy picks on him all the time but less now that she has Annie to play with. Lucy is small but not as small as in the pictures I posted as she was still growing in most of those. Annie is the smallest now at 6 pounds. In fact next to ernie she looks like a rat!

Thanks again everyone.

Jamie

 

[buzzy]

Well done - Annie is so pretty and correct me if I'm wrong but that looks like a lovely calm kitten face to me!!