Opinions on this semi-feral cat in our garage?

[librarychick]

However you trap him you can expect him to be pretty upset for a few days after you re-release him to the garage...but you might be able to minimize that if you put the trap in there (unset) ASAP.

Leave it in there with him, alone, for a few hours to give him a chance to explore it and sniff around. Then when you go in to feed him put the food in it and he may be less likely to connect it with you and more likely to go into it. Be SURE you can get him on the first shot though, you likely won't get a second try. :/

Poor little kit, that wound does look sore. I hope you can get him in ASAP to get him tested, treated, and neutered.

I think that once he's had that all done you have a good chance of fully taming him. The food aggression you can pretty much chalk up to him having to fend for himself for a while, IMO, and it'll likely go away with time. He's warming up to you pretty quick...he sounds a LOT like Jitzu when I first got her.

The thing to remember is that when he reacts negatively to you it's not because he 'hates you' or is 'angry' ect. It's either because he feels you're a threat (with the food or when you're standing) or because he's scared. You moving is scarey to him and he's still getting used to you sitting still!

One thing that helped me tame feral kittens, and also helps with nervous animals of all kinds is reading out loud. I know it sounds silly, but there are reasons that I believe this works.

You sit on the floor, get out your book (or magazine, ect) and just read out loud to him. Your eyes are focused on something, that isn't him. Your body is mostly still, and turning pages is repetitive and over time becomes non threatening. Your voice naturally modulates itself when you read, making you seem calmer. Plus it will help him get used to a human voice, one of the toughest things for nervous animals IME.

He looks absolutely adorable, and I bet he'll tame down just fine...and I know you've got the patience for it 'cause you already have Blacky

[Carmel]

Originally Posted by Saly

Good idea to take him in, keep up posted !
Sally

Will do!

Originally Posted by Arianwen

Just a slight aside (going back quite a lot of posts) - just because he is not spraying doesn't mean he is neutered.

I know, I've heard from various people that male cats that aren't neutered don't always spray. And look at my cat... neutered as a kitten and sprays.

The people that work at the cat sanctuary aren't the total experts, just cat lovers, so I wasn't about to take their word on it.

Originally Posted by librarychick

However you trap him you can expect him to be pretty upset for a few days after you re-release him to the garage...but you might be able to minimize that if you put the trap in there (unset) ASAP.

Yeah, I just hope it isn't back to square one or a case of never trusting me after he's trapped. I read somewhere that the person that traps the cat should pass the cat along to another person to tame if at all possible.

Maybe I'll send a family member in to set the trap...

I put the trap in the garage last night (not opened, as when it's opened it's set to go off... no middle ground) ... the plan is to set it tonight or very early tomorrow morning.

Originally Posted by librarychick

Poor little kit, that wound does look sore. I hope you can get him in ASAP to get him tested, treated, and neutered.

I don't know how long he's had it. I don't imagine he could have got anything like that from the garage, so he's had it over two weeks and it still looks like that. Probably got a bite from a wild animal while fighting over food.

Originally Posted by librarychick

The food aggression you can pretty much chalk up to him having to fend for himself for a while, IMO, and it'll likely go away with time. He's warming up to you pretty quick...he sounds a LOT like Jitzu when I first got her.

The thing to remember is that when he reacts negatively to you it's not because he 'hates you' or is 'angry' ect. It's either because he feels you're a threat (with the food or when you're standing) or because he's scared. You moving is scarey to him and he's still getting used to you sitting still!

If he doesn't get over it in the next few months I'm not sure what I'll do, I can't walk around wearing thick gloves forever, his bites aren't warning bites, they're out to draw serious blood... last night he came over and tried biting my hand/the litter scooper while I was cleaning the litter box. Today he tried biting me... again... while picking up an empty food dish. He pretty much tries this every time I pick up the food dish, just sometimes he's not at a good angle to attack. He would likely try biting my hand as I put the food down as well but he's too intent on eating the food to attack... usually.

He makes these huffing noises too and is puffed up like a balloon, along with hissing and low growling and lunging at my hands -- thankfully never at my legs yet.

I really wonder on leaving out dry food 24/7 and giving a little wet food as a treat once a day... except I worry he'd explode from trying to eat it all.

I crouched down while he was in an aggressive stance today and it was about a 50/50 chance, he'd either lunge at my out stretched hand biting like he intended on dragging it off to eat, or start rubbing against it. At one point he even rolled around on the ground while I was crouched down... as soon as I started standing up it was back to allout warfare.

Originally Posted by librarychick

One thing that helped me tame feral kittens, and also helps with nervous animals of all kinds is reading out loud. I know it sounds silly, but there are reasons that I believe this works.

I've been doing this for an hour or two daily since day one. Using a Kindle, so not as much hand movement, but I think today he stopped seeing my hand as only a food dispenser. Usually whenever I moved my hand he was ready to lunge in its direction for treats but today he would just watched it move instead.

Originally Posted by librarychick

He looks absolutely adorable, and I bet he'll tame down just fine...and I know you've got the patience for it 'cause you already have Blacky

I hope he does, but I'm a little at a loss with him. Blacky was never aggressive without a cause (me pushing her boundries too far) ... fight or flight, she took off.

[Carmel]

Well, he's home from the big day. I got up at 5:30 am to get ready to trap him and he walked right in immediately, eating the food - then walked back out. Put more food in and it was a success. Took less than 10 minutes to trap him. If I'd known it'd be quite that fast I would've just set it at 7:50 before heading to the vet office when it opens at 8. Our neighbour drove him to the vets (I was in the car too) and picked him up, community effort, yay.

He's been neutered, and they sutured his leg... so he's got a cone on. I have no idea how that's going to stay on for two weeks. Or how it's going to get off, either.

He weights in at 11.14 pounds and the vet suggested when I asked that that's a little more than he needs to weigh. But with the way he eats food that won't be changing any time soon. He doesn't look overweight to me... must be a very weight conservative vet.

They guess his age at 6-7, but that could be way off of course. That means he's older than I was expecting, I have to wonder how long he's been on the streets considering he's never been neutered, pretty odd.

I have to give him liquid pain medication of some sort for the next four days in his food. They suggest at first squirting it in his mouth. Umm... not happening.

So that's that. Right now he's still in the kennel, and pretty sedated still.

[Carmel]

Cone? What cone?

That thing is off. *sigh* It was in the kennel when we let him out, as I figured he didn't even wear it a few hours. I hope it doesn't cause problems off. I'll have to phone the vets tomorrow.

At least he came over for pets after he ate - and I was crouched down too, not sitting right on the ground. No hard feelings from him.

[Saly]

Wow, you did great getting him to the vet's,! and he went right in the cage!!! Hopefully he will come along ok now!!
Sally

[Leazie]

I wonder if he will be more affectionate now that his foot is treated and will be feeling better? If nothing else the pain meds should make him feel happy.

Poor man though, I can't imagine what 6 years on the streets must have been like.

[Carmel]

He seems to be making progress. Maybe it's too soon to tell, but yesterday he growled and hissed at me but then came over even if I only had my knees bent down a little with my arm stretched out, so I was basically standing. I was actually a little more worried about being attacked for walking away rather than petting him, he almost followed me to the door. He's attention starved but unfortunately also unpredictable.

He didn't growl when I cleaned his litter box last night -- just hissed, and this morning when I put his food down there was no growling (thank GOD; that growling with ears back and set to lunge is scary stuff), just a hiss or two when I crouched down with it and he was a little fluffed up. He meowed like crazy for the food like usual, but I didn't sense it was a threatening meow so much, and actually came closer to me than ever before while I was getting it ready.

I don't think he was on the street for 6-7 years, he'd be way more feral. Unless he's had people coming and feeding him somewhere for a long time and is used to people that way. It just seems very strange that he wasn't neutered, this isn't an area where house cats are left intact. I know obviously not every cat out there living in homes in neutered, but it isn't the norm around here. He was obviously never from a shelter.

I haven't looked at his leg today but I got a good look at it yesterday. All I saw of it were two or three puncture wounds, but I guess it was more extensive damage than that because the vet has stitched up at least two inches on his leg. I really hope he doesn't pull them out, I already saw him licking/biting it a bit yesterday while I was petting him and I had to use my gloved hand to push his head away.

[Leazie]

Any sign pf progress is a good thing!

[Carmel]

It has been almost exactly a month since we first trapped him in the garage. There's been a small bit of progress since my last post, along with a few setbacks, aggressive wise.

The setback was the total random bite tonight that broke the top layer of skin... good thing I'm wearing oven mitts. I got up right away and left the room, that's the only way I can think to punish him. I've had a lot of deal breaker bites if I'd not been wearing them. Didn't see it coming at all though, which is a first for such a hard bite. He'd seemed very relaxed and happy and I was just sitting on the ground not doing anything. Very frustrating. He also seemed interested in biting my phone tonight and managed to lazily scratch his claws along my Kindle screen! The Kindle screen luckily just needed to be buffered to fix or I'd have been extremely upset. A few days ago he also launched himself at my leg and bit me, bruised through the jeans I was wearing above the knee where he bit. Although it's the first he'd tried that, I can't say it came at an unexpected time, as I was trying to pick up his dish.

The progress is he'll come down for other people if they're bringing food (he'll come down to see me with or without food), and when my father was in there fixing something the cat sat with me even though my dad was standing at the work bench right beside us. Also, I was unable to spend any time with him yesterday so today when I pet him in the morning as he ate his food he didn't seem upset by it at all really, and tonight when I fed him wet food he came over to me twice before he'd finished scarfing it down for quick pets - never done that before, he's always 100% focused on eating the food until none is left.

The issues with picking up his entirely licked clean bowl still persists however, it's not a fun time of anyone when I'm trying to pick it up without being attacked. It's weird, since he doesn't (much) mind me sitting by him or petting him as he eats, he is just focused on the food, but I would have thought that would be more of an issue, not empty bowls.

[Ottismommy]

I am enjoying reading your story!! I am
A new kitten owner and am learning lots from this site!! I will be watching for updates on Jasper!! Lots of luck to you!!


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