Friday Cat Blogging: Formerly Feral

The cats love the porch.  This is Clara lolling around on the ledge in front of the screened in window on the porch earlier this year.  (You can tell it's earlier bc the petunias are still alive.)  There are a number of cat-themed posting days out there: Tummy Tuesday, Torti Tuesday, Tuxie Tuesday, Weekend Cat Blogging, White Wednesday,....  Darling Millie just started Formerly Feral Fridays, where people blog about and post pictures of formerly feral felines.

Clara was one such feline.  She was living in a colony of cats at a car dealership.  Some volunteers were doing TNR, returning unadoptable cats to the colony while keeping adoptable ones at the shelter.  During her spay surgery, turns out she was pregnant.  The kittens were aborted and Clara ended up staying at the shelter a little longer than usual for recuperation.  At the time, a litter of kittens were somehow w/o their mother and Clara took them on.  Although she was never a friendly cat at the shelter (to people, that is), she did adjust enough that the shelter kept her.  She glommed onto the late Mr. Moustache for about four years, when they both came to live with us in 1999.  Stashy died a year later, but Clara still lives on.

She's still not very friendly; I can't pick her up, cuddle her, or anything like that.  I can give her pets, even when she's eating now, but she remains very unsure.  I can play with her with cat toys.  She even voluntarily comes over to see me sometimes.  It's very rewarding to have her come trotting over for some affection.  Kevin laughs bc whenever she does something semi-social, I say, 'She's coming around!'  It's only been 7 years now.  Well, she can take all the time she wants, there's no rush.

I can't be sure, obviously, but sometimes I get the feeling that Clara somehow knows she's got it pretty good now.

Comments

[ML (Mary Lynn)]

Hi Clara, nice to meet you (found you on Carnival)...
my other ex-feral cat is Missy, and she is still very aloof. She's only four years old, though. It must take TIME.

[annie]

Hi ML, It does take time, indeed. It is very rewarding, though, to see a cat like Clara overcome her distrust of people, even if ever so slowly.