Taming Gracie is going well!

Gracie came to us to be tamed.  She was trapped with her siblings about a month ago.  There were four siblings and we separated them into 2 boys and 2 girls and brought them to different houses to be tamed.  The two boys were doing fine together but the two girls were not interacting with the humans and were not making progress.  So they were separated.  I have one of them.

It takes a lot of work and energy to tame a kitten.  For my opinion on taming adult cats, please click here.  
I agreed to tame Gracie because she is 3 months old.  At 3-4 months old, it is possible to tame them.  It isn't easy, though.  Taming (among other things with kittens) requires patience, energy, time and space.

My job is to get her used to be around humans, get her comfortable around the noises she will hear in a household (such as vacuuming) and begin to enjoy being around us.  Gracie is not considered feral.  She is very shy and very skittish.  She is just a "hard stray".  She is a stray cat that requires a lot of work to get her to be like a normal house cat.

Using baby food helps immensely.  I have noticed with all of my ferals, they are the most nervous and skittish when you are walking towards them or around them.  They run and hide.  I am trying to show her that she will not be hurt if I walk by her.  So, I carry around baby food and walk to her and give her some baby food.

I sit with her to lure her to my lap with baby food.  Once she gets some baby food, usually she will lay on my lap and let me pet her.  Sometimes she will snatch some baby food and run away to play with the other kitties.  She purrs and rolls around so I can scratch her belly.  Taming is a constant process.  You can't really tame them once a day, or even twice a day.  You have to keep on them and keep challenging them.

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Gracie and Artie are meeting for the first time.  Gracie loves Artie!  When she sees him, she instantly purrs.  It is so cute! :)

Gracie is eating baby food off my finger.  In order to tame her, we use baby food to get her to interact with us.  

Gracie is on the cat tree with the "big" cats.

Gracie is making some new friends!

Annie's anniversary and my opinion on taming feral cats

I trapped Annie quite awhile ago, a year ago today in fact.  Annie is now living at the Parkville Animal Shelter.  I thought it would be best for her to live at the shelter to get more used to people.  She lived here with myself and my boyfriend but was not getting to know anyone else.  She was friendly with me but scared of my boyfriend.  So, once a space opened up at the shelter, I brought her to live there.

To be honest, I don't think I would do this again.  I think that Annie would have been happier outside.  The process of taming her was very difficult and took a long time.  She is not even completely tame now-a year later! She will never, ever be the kind of cat that you could pick up and hug.  When I trapped her, I felt that she was around 6 months old because of her size.  When she was getting spayed, the vet was able to look at her teeth and estimated her age to be between 1-2 years.  I thought she was a kitten, that is the only reason why I decided to tame her.  I waited about 2 months to get her spayed because she was really unmanageable.  I didn't take her immediately because I felt that I would be able to tame her and did not want her ear to be tipped.  Also, generally, the people who work with feral cats are at the clinics where their ears get tipped when they get fixed.  Because I was taking her to a regular vet, I wanted to work with her a little to make the process easier on Annie and the vet.

If I would have known she was an adult, I would not have tried tame her.  I would have trapped her, got her fixed, her shots and released her outside.  Although where we live is not the ideal place for a cat to live, I do think she could survive.  There is quite a bit of traffic out there but I would have done my best to take care of her.

Although she loves me and lets me pet her, I don't think she is totally happy.  She lives at the shelter so she has lots of kitty friends (which she loves).  I think Annie would rather just have her kitty friends and not have to deal with humans.  I am sure that she is happy to be warm inside rather than outside in these freezing temperatures but when spring comes around, she will probably want to be outside.

One thing I have noticed with feral cats is that they get along well with other cats.  I don't know if the feral cats I have had contact with just happen to like other cats or if that is the norm.

So, if I had to do it over again, I would not have attempted to tame her.  I now have a new rule.  Any cat I trap from now on has a 4 day grace period.  After 4 days, if I cannot pet the cat, they will be fixed and released.  I have two cats here right now that were considered feral at one point and they are still very, very shy.  I still have quite a while to go before they will be ready for adoption.  Since they are here, I cannot bring any other cats in.  If they were more friendly, they could be adopted then I would have 2 spots for other cats to be helped.

My decision to do this is partially for my convenience, partly for them (the feral-ish cats who are happier outside) and partly for the cats I can help if I don't try to tame cats that can take months.

If you have any questions about taming please email me or leave a comment.

Thank You!

Checkers is out of her cage!

Occasionally, while cleaning her cage, I would leave the door open so she could come out if she wanted to. At first, she didn't come out at all, then she would come out but stay within a foot or two of her cage, then she walked a little farther...now, she is out and doesn't want to go back in. I don't blame her for not wanting to go back in a cage, I wouldn't either.

Yesterday, she spent almost the entire day behind the couch. She came out twice to investigate for about 10 minutes. Now, she is out playing with the other cats but is still very skittish of me. I have been working with her quite a bit with baby food. For those who don't know why I am talking about baby food, here's why: When you use meat baby food (nothing else works quite as well) and put it on your finger, you can get the kittens to do what you want, like sit on your lap, sit to be petted, etc. It takes a lot of energy to do this. She is about 5 months old and I have had her inside for 5 weeks or so. I am trying to get her ready to be adopted but she is still not ready.

So, I am going to try a little experiment. I am going to see if having her out, since everyone gets along with her anyway, helps to tame her. She is what I would consider a "hard" stray. She will let me hold her but I have to entice her, she will not come up to me on her own. She is startled by any movement by humans, even slight movement. She is completely comfortable and at home with other cats. Also, she can get some exercise. I know it is hard for cats, especially kittens who have so much energy, to be stuck in a cage. Taming generally calls for them to be in a cage, at least for a little while.

I feel a little pressured because she is just getting bigger everyday and the smaller she is, the better chance she has to be adopted. It is also hard to find people willing to put work into their new kitten when there are so many friendly ones out there that were born inside or a human found them early enough.