Festive Gothmog kitten

[bunn]

Not the best time of year for photography what with all the rain, but I did manage to get some photos of Gothmog kitten today.   She went in for her post-spay checkup and first vaccinations, and was very good.  She's very much at home and getting more cuddly by the day!
   Still no sign of poor little Fankil, who has taken up residence behind the printer in Pp's study and sneaks out furtively to eat when we aren't looking.

Comments

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

From my experiences with Tybalt, who had been born in a feral colony and had about 3 months of very limited human contact before he moved in with us:

Tybalt mostly hung out in the office, because there were places to hide there, so I spent a lot of time in the office sitting on the floor working on my laptop or sewing or whatever. I talked to him a lot too, mostly narrating what I was doing, because it really didn't matter what I said just that he got used to people talking to him.

With feral or really skittish cats, the cat behaviorists say don't make eye contact. The recommendation is to look at the top of their head between their ears, so you can see their facial expressions but you're not making direct eye contact.

Standing people are extremely scary. Quietly sitting people are generally much less scary. Treats also help. Tybalt was particularly fond of chicken.



[Sadly, he had been born with FeLV and succumbed to the associated leukemia a year after he came to live with us, but in that year he became socialized enough to come up and snuggle with people, because pettins were AWESOME. Standing people were still pretty scary, though.]

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Good advice... It's difficult with Fankil, because the spot he has chosen behind the printer, you can really only look down on him. And of course we do want to check occasionally that he is still there...

Talking to him might be worth a try though, we haven't done much of that. He took treats at the rescue, but since we got him home he really hasn't touched anything when we're in the room. He just sits crammed behind the printer and doesn't move.

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

I did a lot of hanging out and quietly talking to Tybalt while he hid behind the boxes that live under the Spouse's desk. We also talked to him anytime we had to go into the office for anything. Basically, narrating what we were doing to him so he wasn't startled.

There are some good resources here: http://www.straypetadvocacy.org/socializing_a_feral_cat.html
https://bestfriends.org/resources/how-socialize-very-shy-or-fearful-cats