My Cat Won't Enter Half the House

"Bill Graham" wrote in
:

Gandalf wrote:
On Wed, 5 Sep 2012 22:59:36 +0000 (UTC), FragSinatra
wrote:

"Bill Graham" wrote in
:


Try putting her food and water a few feet in the direction you
would like her to go. Then, every day or two, move it another foot
or so in that direction. She will gradually get used to going
wherever it is to eat and drink, and will eventually be eating on
the kitchen floor, or wherever you want her to be. We did this with
Smokey, our feral cat many years ago. He started out way in the
back end of our back yard, where he hunted for mice by a natural
spring that we have back there. I put out a bowl of chopped,
roasted chickin for him. Then I graduqlly moved it toward our
house, up the stairs to our rear deck, and eventually through our
sliding glass doors into our bedroom where he would, at night while
we were sleeping, explore the whole house. Today, Smokey is a very
old cat, but he is well loved and hardly ever goes outside. Our
roving vet can't believe how well he looks and is doing.....He is
about 17 years old.....


That's a nice, inspirational story about Smokey. Have a good week
and Smokey too.


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I always love hearing about feral cats that are adopted as indoor
pets, as I know it takes a LOT of work and patience to 'tame' a feral
cat.

Smokey is a very fortunate cat, indeed. No feral cat lives to such a
nice old age,

Yes. Smokey's mom taught him well to be very afraid of human beings.
It took us a long time to undo all that learning and convince him that
we would not harm him. Most people wouldn't have bothered, but my wife
and I were retired and didn't have much else to do. He spent a couple
of Winters living in a cat carrier equipped with a waterproof heating
pad on our back porch. The day when my wife went outside, picked him
up, and carried him in to our bedroom and started brushing him was a
milestone also. I no longer remember the exact order of these
milestones, but they were all part of, "The taming of Smokey" Today,
he has absolutely no fear of human beings and remains sleeping in the
living room no matter who comes in the house. Even the roving vet can
approach him without any reaction on his part.



Smokey sounds like a really nice cat!

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Gandalf and Bill Graham,

Thanks for the advice about using food. I think it is a very solid idea but in my case it would be hard to do because I have a dog and she scarfs up cat food when ever she gets the chance (like most dogs, right?) She knows not to go into the computer room where I feed my two cats although she has done the occasional sneak food-theft. I would hate to restrict my dog's access in the house just to accomplish this. Thanks for the idea.