About 4 months ago, I adopted Princess. She's a very adorable, 1 and a half-year-old domestic longhair. Unfortunately, I don't feel like I have made good progress with her.
At this point, she will walk around when I am within her view, but only if I am moving relatively slowly and making generally little noise. She'll get fairly close to me when I am sitting on the couch but won't initiate anything beyond the occasional short sniff. She will be very vocal with me, usually in the morning into early afternoon, as in when I talk to her she'll meow back. Right away in the morning when I get up to give her food, she will approach me, meowing, and wait for me to set down the food. After that though, she gets progressively reclusive. If I approach her, she generally postures herself to be as inaccessible as possible (between a table, chair, etc). She will let me start to pet her (once she's in this defensive spot) but will get progressively more grumpy the longer I try to pet her. I generally try to give her a few seconds of incredibly gentle strokes on her back and a bit on the side. She sometimes seems to enjoy it a bit, by laying on her side and purring a bit, but soon after she starts to get scared it seems, she starts flattening her ears and looking very concerned and twisting her head around to look at my hand, and will occasionally run away or hiss depending.
So far, steps/habits I've set up between us is: I schedule feeding her, where I lay out the food, wait for her to finish, and then pick up the food bowl. I talk to her daily, anywhere from 10-25 minutes normally, and offer her treats every time I interact with her. When I attempt to pet her, I speak very softly and give very gentle strokes. I don't try to move or lift her. When she starts getting upset I back off and walk away after a bit. I've tried simply playing with her with toys on strings, etc. but trying to use toys to play seems to scare her as well. She'll play with a toy mouse on her own, but not with me.
What am I missing? She seems okay when I keep well enough away. She's eating and drinking, will be vocal with me, and she's curious and will explore around, but she hates interacting with me! Some days seem better than others, but overall, she seems exceedingly scared of me, or at least more so than I would hope for. It's quite saddening!
At this point, she will walk around when I am within her view, but only if I am moving relatively slowly and making generally little noise. She'll get fairly close to me when I am sitting on the couch but won't initiate anything beyond the occasional short sniff. She will be very vocal with me, usually in the morning into early afternoon, as in when I talk to her she'll meow back. Right away in the morning when I get up to give her food, she will approach me, meowing, and wait for me to set down the food. After that though, she gets progressively reclusive. If I approach her, she generally postures herself to be as inaccessible as possible (between a table, chair, etc). She will let me start to pet her (once she's in this defensive spot) but will get progressively more grumpy the longer I try to pet her. I generally try to give her a few seconds of incredibly gentle strokes on her back and a bit on the side. She sometimes seems to enjoy it a bit, by laying on her side and purring a bit, but soon after she starts to get scared it seems, she starts flattening her ears and looking very concerned and twisting her head around to look at my hand, and will occasionally run away or hiss depending.
So far, steps/habits I've set up between us is: I schedule feeding her, where I lay out the food, wait for her to finish, and then pick up the food bowl. I talk to her daily, anywhere from 10-25 minutes normally, and offer her treats every time I interact with her. When I attempt to pet her, I speak very softly and give very gentle strokes. I don't try to move or lift her. When she starts getting upset I back off and walk away after a bit. I've tried simply playing with her with toys on strings, etc. but trying to use toys to play seems to scare her as well. She'll play with a toy mouse on her own, but not with me.
What am I missing? She seems okay when I keep well enough away. She's eating and drinking, will be vocal with me, and she's curious and will explore around, but she hates interacting with me! Some days seem better than others, but overall, she seems exceedingly scared of me, or at least more so than I would hope for. It's quite saddening!