Hi, I haven’t posted on here in many, many years. Sorry in advance for the long post.
At the end of last year we lost the last of our 3 kitties. Our female was 20 and the two boys were in their mid teens. Forward to two weeks ago, my husband and I found our house way too quiet and wanted to adopt again. We were looking for an adult lap cat but kept going back to one shelter to see a boy who was labeled “under socialized”. Since we both could not stop thinking about him – we adopted. Needless to say, he’s not quite yet a lap cat .
His name is Dawson.
The back story is that he was trapped for TNR in coastal Texas in late November of last year and was deemed at that time an “aggressive feral”, neutered and ear tipped. However, for some reason they didn't release him back to where he was trapped. At the beginning of May he was transferred to another shelter in central Texas to be a barn cat, then shortly after that was deemed to be adoptable and moved indoors to the “spicy” cat kennel where we met him. Both my husband and I knew he was the right one when we adopted, even though he was the exact opposite of the cat type we were searching for.
He’s been living in our guest bathroom for two weeks now and has come along faster than I expected. Within 3 days he was begging to be petted and loves to be brushed but I’m still not able to pick him up. I’ve started the process of lifting him up a couple of inches off the ground while petting him so hopefully soon he’ll be easier to handle.
Two days ago he kept trying to get out of the bathroom so we opened the door to let him out into our house. He does come out and walk around and will play but then starts vocalizing along with a strange wide-open mouth (not the smelling/stink face open mouth) and an occasional hiss when his mouth is open while he is just walking along by himself. I know he probably smells our last kitties, but he is the only cat here now. We put another litter box on the opposite side of the house in our master bathroom and every time he comes out he does go in there to use it.
I now have a couple of issues for those that have dealt with an under socialized kitty:
Today I don’t think I'll let him out as maybe the stress is too much. We have an open floor plan house with very high ceilings so it would be impossible to let him out into smaller rooms at a time.
Our vet has him on the ProPlan Calming Care powder once a day and we have a couple Feliway diffusers in the main room of the house that he does the most vocalizing in.
Overall, I’m very pleased about his progress. I would have been happy if he was just allowing me to pet him after two weeks and am now over the moon that he is already wanting out in the house. It’s the vocalizing and that weird walking around with an open mouth and hissing when no one is close to him that is odd.
Any thoughts or tips on how to get him less stressed out while exploring his new home would be really appreciated.
Thanks.
At the end of last year we lost the last of our 3 kitties. Our female was 20 and the two boys were in their mid teens. Forward to two weeks ago, my husband and I found our house way too quiet and wanted to adopt again. We were looking for an adult lap cat but kept going back to one shelter to see a boy who was labeled “under socialized”. Since we both could not stop thinking about him – we adopted. Needless to say, he’s not quite yet a lap cat .
His name is Dawson.The back story is that he was trapped for TNR in coastal Texas in late November of last year and was deemed at that time an “aggressive feral”, neutered and ear tipped. However, for some reason they didn't release him back to where he was trapped. At the beginning of May he was transferred to another shelter in central Texas to be a barn cat, then shortly after that was deemed to be adoptable and moved indoors to the “spicy” cat kennel where we met him. Both my husband and I knew he was the right one when we adopted, even though he was the exact opposite of the cat type we were searching for.
He’s been living in our guest bathroom for two weeks now and has come along faster than I expected. Within 3 days he was begging to be petted and loves to be brushed but I’m still not able to pick him up. I’ve started the process of lifting him up a couple of inches off the ground while petting him so hopefully soon he’ll be easier to handle.
Two days ago he kept trying to get out of the bathroom so we opened the door to let him out into our house. He does come out and walk around and will play but then starts vocalizing along with a strange wide-open mouth (not the smelling/stink face open mouth) and an occasional hiss when his mouth is open while he is just walking along by himself. I know he probably smells our last kitties, but he is the only cat here now. We put another litter box on the opposite side of the house in our master bathroom and every time he comes out he does go in there to use it.
I now have a couple of issues for those that have dealt with an under socialized kitty:
- Is there a way to tell if a cat has ever lived indoors in a house before? His age at our adoption was estimated to be 2.5 years old. It just seems like he is socializing very quickly for a cat that was on the street for that long - especially since he seems to understand household items like the refrigerator. As soon as we opened the refrigerator, he was right there next to us looking in (and we didn’t have anything in there that would produce much of an exciting smell.) He also understands about canned cat food and will be right next to me rubbing my leg when I pull a can out of the cabinet.
- Vocalizing: When he is out of his bathroom area and in the main house we use the Da Bird to play with him and he races back and forth and leaps in the air and seems ok, happy and normal. We play balls and he chases them and bats them around, but then for no reason, he’ll walk away and start howling with his mouth open and sometimes a hiss will come out. His pupils are not dilated, and ears are forward so it’s just a strange look. He will occasionally even pant for a few seconds. I’m assuming that the open mouth is a reaction to stress. One of our male cats who passed had respiratory issues so I am familiar with mouth breathing and this does not look the same. His mouth is wide open, like a big hiss open.
Today I don’t think I'll let him out as maybe the stress is too much. We have an open floor plan house with very high ceilings so it would be impossible to let him out into smaller rooms at a time.
Our vet has him on the ProPlan Calming Care powder once a day and we have a couple Feliway diffusers in the main room of the house that he does the most vocalizing in.
Overall, I’m very pleased about his progress. I would have been happy if he was just allowing me to pet him after two weeks and am now over the moon that he is already wanting out in the house. It’s the vocalizing and that weird walking around with an open mouth and hissing when no one is close to him that is odd.
Any thoughts or tips on how to get him less stressed out while exploring his new home would be really appreciated.
Thanks.
on the inside of his territory along with outside critters?
However, there might be something on Only Natural Pet's website, and there are other products in a variety of types including wipes, sprays and chews 
I don't know if his heart is racing or not as the only time I can pet and handle him is when he wants me too.
and bless you for hanging in there with him! 
