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Taming Ferals
"Fat Freddy" wrote in message
... I feed about a dozen young feral kitties. These are true ferals, not strays. They were born outside in the brush and have never been handled by humans. I would like to bring a couple of them in and have them join the family, but they are quite wary. I can talk to them, and they talk back, and they know when feeding time is and are always there, but when I take the food out, I can't get any closer than about three feet or they will scatter. Some of them seem real curious and friendly and will meow and roll around on the ground, but if I try to approach they take off. I have had pretty good luck befriending and adopting strays. It takes a while, but I can usually get their trust. One stray, Fluffy, even moved in and is now Queen of the house. But, she had lived with humans before unlike these ferals who have never had and direct human contact. Both IBKFergus and Shmogg are what you folk would call ferals, that is, not born to a cat who owns a hoomin, and spent all their life up until they foundme without close hoomin contact. Shmogg became affectionate as he was going to be fairly quickly. He will sometimes jump up and meatloaf on my lap, but not often, although he'll almost always sleep on the bed with me. He does't look for alot of scritches or attention, but will certainly remind me about food if he thinks its time (or that he can get away with getting another serve) IBKFergus was actually younger than Shmogg when we adopted her, but I think she was from a long line of generationally feral cats that live here at the steel mills rather than a kitten born of a stray or outdoor cat. IBKFergus was far more agressive to us adults, and is not at all affectionate. She has accepted the adults as mostly harmless (although occasionally throws a hissy fit if a foot comes to close to her), but isn't interested in being petted or being otherwise loved on, and will bite and scratch if any of the adults try. She will, however, let Cary pretty much do whatever he likes to her - indeed, often voluntarily puts herself in his 'line of fire' - and if it gets too much, she'll just walk away (or gently bite a warning bite if she can't squirm her way out). The only time she will accept scritches from me (she has never accepted any from Joel) is if she is on my chest. I have to put her there, but its pretty much the same position I used to 'catch' her and feed her when I first came across the poor half starved little black ball of fluff at work. The amount of scritching she'll allow herself to enjoy is slowly increasing, but it always ends with a feirce hiss and a mighty scratch and/or painful bite. Most of hte time, she just zooms around hte house, protecting her little hoomin from the dreaded Greeblings or trying to enlist his opposable thumbs to take over hte world. One day, perhaps when she's oler, and the zoomies are not so much part of her psyche (and when Shmogg allows her to be alpha cat) she might realise that hoomin laps and slow lazy pettins are a Good Thing. In the mean time, she's still pretty much as like a feral, except that she no longer skitters away at the sight of us hoomins, that and she has no interest whatsoever in the Out unless her little hoomin is in the Out as well. Yowie |
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