Finally on the sofa

We adopted Delilah and Stella in November 2003... Delilah was about 6 months
and had been a runaway and Stella was about 3 months and was found behind a
grocery store.

From the beginning, it was obvious Stella had not been given the chance to
be litter trained. Delilah helped train her. Delilah helped Stella do a lot
of the things a mother cat would usually do.

Since then, Delilah has never sat on the sofa... either by herself or with
us. She is an affectionate cat but always a little skittish and always with
the big eyes looking like she was worried she was in trouble. We would set
her on the sofa and she would look terrified. She would sit with us on the
sofa for brief amounts of time but never really settled. Meanwhile, she
would settle with us anywhere else but.

Then, something started to work. Each night we would pick her up and put her
on our laps or on the sofa between us. Slowly... VERY slowly... she started
to settle. So much so that this past weekend when we were watching TV and
Stella was curled up on me, Delilah came up with us on her own steam...
settled on my husband, put her paw on me and went to sleep.

All the signs point to her being abused... and to think it would take over a
year to make her feel welcome on a piece of furniture.



--
..oO rach Oo.

in article , .oO rach Oo. at
wrote on 3/28/05 9:29 PM:

We adopted Delilah and Stella in November 2003... Delilah was about 6 months
and had been a runaway and Stella was about 3 months and was found behind a
grocery store.

From the beginning, it was obvious Stella had not been given the chance to
be litter trained. Delilah helped train her. Delilah helped Stella do a lot
of the things a mother cat would usually do.

Since then, Delilah has never sat on the sofa... either by herself or with
us. She is an affectionate cat but always a little skittish and always with
the big eyes looking like she was worried she was in trouble. We would set
her on the sofa and she would look terrified. She would sit with us on the
sofa for brief amounts of time but never really settled. Meanwhile, she
would settle with us anywhere else but.

Then, something started to work. Each night we would pick her up and put her
on our laps or on the sofa between us. Slowly... VERY slowly... she started
to settle. So much so that this past weekend when we were watching TV and
Stella was curled up on me, Delilah came up with us on her own steam...
settled on my husband, put her paw on me and went to sleep.

All the signs point to her being abused... and to think it would take over a
year to make her feel welcome on a piece of furniture.


Awww. That is just wonderful!!!!!!!

".oO rach Oo." wrote:


[snip]

Then, something started to work. Each night we would pick her up and put her
on our laps or on the sofa between us. Slowly... VERY slowly... she started
to settle. So much so that this past weekend when we were watching TV and
Stella was curled up on me, Delilah came up with us on her own steam...
settled on my husband, put her paw on me and went to sleep.

All the signs point to her being abused... and to think it would take over a
year to make her feel welcome on a piece of furniture.

What a lovely story! It's so heartening. Good for you for being the
kind of people who can help an abused cat feel safe again.

Priscilla

Then, something started to work. Each night we would pick her up and put
her
on our laps or on the sofa between us. Slowly... VERY slowly... she
started
to settle. So much so that this past weekend when we were watching TV and
Stella was curled up on me, Delilah came up with us on her own steam...
settled on my husband, put her paw on me and went to sleep.

All the signs point to her being abused... and to think it would take
over a
year to make her feel welcome on a piece of furniture.

What a lovely story! It's so heartening. Good for you for being the
kind of people who can help an abused cat feel safe again.

Priscilla

Thanks everyone for your comments. They are both such smart cats... as
example, if Delilah wants your attention and you are on the computer, she
will lie across the keyboard. If you put the keyboard on it's side and prop
it up on the cpu, she will use her paw to press certain keys. She seems to
know back and search very well. I insist she wants to send email but my
husband says it's all about dinner.

It just kills me sometimes to know in her face that someone was so mean to
her. I asked the vet if either of them would remember their hardships and if
so, would it be something they thought of often. He said they likely don't
give it a thought now but I will always wonder.