[jadis]

I don't post about her much, but Tiger Lily has been somewhat of a difficult cat. My son found her at 8 weeks old, on her own in a parking lot last summer, and at first she was docile, but as she grew up she became skittish and not very friendly. For a while she was even staying in my sons room and the attached bathroom exclusively. In addition, she has never gotten used to my dogs even though she has been here a year and the dogs are fine with my other two cats. She also doesn't get along with Muffin.

Now the positive, she gets along fine with newcomer Zoey and is starting to warm up to one of the two dogs. I have been working with her alot, limiting her access to my sons room and interacting with her, petting, playing, whenever I see her out in the open. My goal is to get her to enjoy "family time" one day. Muffin and Zoey usually sit on the cat tree and the two dogs on the sofa while I watch tv at night, and all four of them sleep in bed with me, however TL has never, ever come in my bedroom.

Well...the breakthrough tonight is that she came in my room through the cat door and twirled around my feet while I was on the computer. When I saw it was her, I called to her and she got in my lap for a minute before getting on my desk and blocking access to my keyboard just like a normal cat!

If you made it through all that, thank you. I am excited about her progress.

 

[jadis]

Proof

 

[Mom of 4]

Congrats! That's a huge breakthrough!
And she looks quite comfortable on the desk!

 

[LaurulFeatherCat]

Every time I added a rescue cat, I gave them a territory of their own, separate from the other cats. It started out as a quarantine room (the spare bedroom) and then I started opening the door to the bedroom and allowing the old cats to meet the new cat. The new cat would spit and growl and hide at first and 'defend' their 'territory'. It depended on how social the cat was before I got them how long it took for them to work their way into the pride. Some cats came out of the room and joined the pride within a few weeks; others took more than a year. I had one cat that picked the upstairs bathroom as her territory and she defended that bathroom from all comers for more than a year before she decided my closet was a better territory. I had her three years before she ventured down the steps to the rest of the house. Emmie was a tough nut to crack because she had been an only cat all her life and she was almost 12 when I got her.

As always, time and patience are the keys to winning over a cat. Glad your girl is beginning to feel at home.

 

[KittehLuv'n]

That's great progress! Hope she continues to integrate.

 

[Nan]

Go Tiger Lily! It's great that she's getting more confident. BTW she's beautiful!

 

[catloverami]

That is GR8 news....glad to hear of her progress....way to go!

 

[OctoberinMaine]

How funny that it took a computer to get her up on your lap. See, I knew computers were good for something.

Congrats -- I know that must be exciting!

 

[dlowan]

She's a beauty! I do hope she continues her progress.

 

[CJinCA]

Isn't it wonderful when they come out of their shell and show you their true selves?!!!

 

[jadis]

Thank you everybody for reading, I am really excited. She was downstairs today when I came home from the store too. I really hope she continues to come out of her shell and learns to enjoy life here.