Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
Klaus88
Jan 23, 2011

Violence has its own economy, therefore be thoughtful and precise in your investment

Geolicious posted:

We have a bonded pair at the shelter I help at named Tywin and Lancel. And they came from a big hoarding situation raid. Tywin is super outgoing but Lancel is still so shy. And they are both black cats. But they came in as BFFs and they will go out as BFFs no matter how long it takes. (I'm so thankful to work at a no-kill)

Sometimes the clinic staff really picks bad names. Bless their hearts, they're doing their best. But sometimes the volunteers have to submit a request to get a name changed. Like little Morticia who had been there for a long time was adopted pretty quickly after we got her stuff changed to Marilyn. And, sure, the adopters usually change their names, but they gotta have good ones at the shelter.

Morticia is a perfect cat name. :argh:

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Geolicious
Oct 21, 2003

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.
Lipstick Apathy

Klaus88 posted:

Morticia is a perfect cat name. :argh:

It's a good kitty name. But it wasn't the right fit for that particular kitty.

C. Everett Koop
Aug 18, 2008

Klaus88 posted:

Morticia is a perfect cat name. :argh:

Black cat only. :colbert:

Writer Cath
Apr 1, 2007

Box. Flipped.
Plaster Town Cop
Jazzy and (Glam) Rocky.

Azhais
Feb 5, 2007
Switchblade Switcharoo

Chili posted:

He's Django to me now!

:3:

Writer Cath posted:

Jazzy and (Glam) Rocky.

Tho I do like me some Rocky too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EA60raoEx18

Elmnt80
Dec 30, 2012


Django is definately a good name. How do you even get a cat to realize you changed its name though?

Booger Presley
Aug 6, 2008

Pillbug
Maybe you folks can help. We captured two semi-feral cats in our yard, took them to the vet for shots and fixing, now they reside in our spare room.

One of them, Emma, has adapted well and loves to be scratched and enjoys play sessions; a wonderful loving cat. Luna tolerates our presence but is still visibly scared. She stays in the cat tree while we play with Emma and she watches cautiously. We don't approach or pressure her and hope that over time she will begin to trust us, but I don't see much progress. She doesn't respond to toys and rarely watches anything but the human in the room. (We never go in together so there's no human overload.)

Our huge breakthrough with Emma came when she was chasing a toy and I touched her and she didn't notice. After three or four of these she noticed and never looked back. Since we aren't getting a play response from Luna, I'm stumped and don't want to reverse what little progress we have.

Any ideas?

MikeJF
Dec 20, 2003




How long has it been?

Booger Presley
Aug 6, 2008

Pillbug
A month since Luna's surgery and almost two for Emma.

Organza Quiz
Nov 7, 2009


Have you tried using a laser pointer to play with her? I'm currently trying to convince a very skittish cat to love me and she's too scared to play with anything that's an actual real thing that I'm dangling at her but she loves playing laser pointer. It's the least threatening toy possible. Mind you it's been a month or two of that and I still can't touch her really but baby steps are still happening.

Booger Presley
Aug 6, 2008

Pillbug
I'll give that a go. I went for a visit this afternoon and Luna was shaking, poor cat! Our goal is to socialize the pair then find them a new home. They were together when we caught them and we intend to keep them together.

pandaid
Feb 9, 2004

RAWR
I helped socialize a bonded pair of brothers named Windy (grey) and Sunny (orange). Both were described as shy at first, but after a few weeks it was like a switch turned on in Windy's brain and he went from suspicious to a complete love bug/attention hog. It was to the point where I realized it was good he had a bonded cat buddy because he was TOO demanding of attention. Sunny learned by watching him and got better with people but was still shy. 6 months after they were adopted, Sunny was starting to bond with his people. It's good to have a pair where one is out going and one is shy but they both love each other. It's a well balanced household.

I socialized them with the fleece ribbon wand. I would use it to get them to willingly come closer and closer to me. Then I started touching them with it. Then I tried brief touches on their paws. I got tagged once good for my trouble, but the step by step approach really worked. Like I said, that process took weeks. They came in at 6 months old, semi feral. Whatever you can do to get the cat to make it happen on their terms.

pandaid fucked around with this message at 03:24 on Apr 6, 2016

Booger Presley
Aug 6, 2008

Pillbug
Thanks everyone for the suggestions. We will try things out.

Photo op post... Here is our first rescue Fery. (Sounds like fairy, short for feral kitty!) You can see she has a rough life now.

Here is Emma, happy and lovey waiting for scratches and something to chase. (Notice the pro tier loaf)

Followed by Luna who is afraid of cameras

Chili
Jan 23, 2004

college kids ain't shit


Fun Shoe

Booger Presley posted:

Maybe you folks can help. We captured two semi-feral cats in our yard, took them to the vet for shots and fixing, now they reside in our spare room.

One of them, Emma, has adapted well and loves to be scratched and enjoys play sessions; a wonderful loving cat. Luna tolerates our presence but is still visibly scared. She stays in the cat tree while we play with Emma and she watches cautiously. We don't approach or pressure her and hope that over time she will begin to trust us, but I don't see much progress. She doesn't respond to toys and rarely watches anything but the human in the room. (We never go in together so there's no human overload.)

Our huge breakthrough with Emma came when she was chasing a toy and I touched her and she didn't notice. After three or four of these she noticed and never looked back. Since we aren't getting a play response from Luna, I'm stumped and don't want to reverse what little progress we have.

Any ideas?

Best thing I've found when socializing a very skittish cat is just being in their space, while doing your own thing. When I've got new fosters I typically like to go in their room with a book and just lei down and read. Their curiosity typically gets the best of them after a few sessions of this. Once they start to take a more active interest, I'll keep one hand on the book and place the other towards them, but leave it passively on the floor, still letting them decide when it's time to check things out further.

Seems like you may be a bit further along than that, however. You can get a little more direct with some cats, Jazzy actually comes to mind with this tactic. I just straight up picked her up, and put her on my lap. She seemed a little freaked out at first, but wasn't hissing or getting aggressive. And after about 10 seconds of gently but securely holding her, she just calmed right down, curled up in a ball, and started purring. She then stayed there on her own for about 20 minutes and would whine when I stopped scratching her head.

Each cat is different, so there's a big YMMV warning with any bit of advice but what I have definitely noticed is that cats pick up on your confidence. If you tried to pick up a cat on your lap and have any hesitation about it, you're likely going to get a good scratch out of it and that's about it.

It's awesome that you're working with these kitties though, keep it up and feel free to ask more questions!

Organza Quiz
Nov 7, 2009


Chili posted:

Best thing I've found when socializing a very skittish cat is just being in their space, while doing your own thing. When I've got new fosters I typically like to go in their room with a book and just lei down and read. Their curiosity typically gets the best of them after a few sessions of this. Once they start to take a more active interest, I'll keep one hand on the book and place the other towards them, but leave it passively on the floor, still letting them decide when it's time to check things out further.

Seems like you may be a bit further along than that, however. You can get a little more direct with some cats, Jazzy actually comes to mind with this tactic. I just straight up picked her up, and put her on my lap. She seemed a little freaked out at first, but wasn't hissing or getting aggressive. And after about 10 seconds of gently but securely holding her, she just calmed right down, curled up in a ball, and started purring. She then stayed there on her own for about 20 minutes and would whine when I stopped scratching her head.

Each cat is different, so there's a big YMMV warning with any bit of advice but what I have definitely noticed is that cats pick up on your confidence. If you tried to pick up a cat on your lap and have any hesitation about it, you're likely going to get a good scratch out of it and that's about it.

It's awesome that you're working with these kitties though, keep it up and feel free to ask more questions!

I'm curious about this. I'm not fostering a cat but trying to convince one I've already adopted that I'm not so scary, but similar things apply. I've had her for about four months now and we're at a point where she's confident being out in the open around me and she won't skitter away into hiding if I stand up or move around as long as she doesn't think I'm actively approaching her. Her food bowl is right next to my foot when I'm sitting at my desk and she'll happily eat an inch or two away from it, but if I reach my hand towards her she skitters out the way. She'll come over and sniff me sometimes or investigate what I'm doing but again I can't show any interest beyond looking at her or talking to her (although that's a massive improvement in itself) or she's gone. Every bit of advice I've seen advocates not trying to grab her or hold her and just letting her slowly come to me at her own pace, but I have to say it is a really tempting thought that all she needs is for me to actually pick her up and show her that all I want to do is pet her.

I should note that when I first met her she was in a room that she wasn't comfortable in and was hissing at everyone including her foster lady, but when her foster lady picked her up she calmed right down and tried to burrow into her lap, which is part of why I brought her home in the first place, since I could see that even though she was scared she was taking comfort from her person and I was prepared to put in the effort to make her comfortable in a new place.

Chili
Jan 23, 2004

college kids ain't shit


Fun Shoe

Organza Quiz posted:

I'm curious about this. I'm not fostering a cat but trying to convince one I've already adopted that I'm not so scary, but similar things apply. I've had her for about four months now and we're at a point where she's confident being out in the open around me and she won't skitter away into hiding if I stand up or move around as long as she doesn't think I'm actively approaching her. Her food bowl is right next to my foot when I'm sitting at my desk and she'll happily eat an inch or two away from it, but if I reach my hand towards her she skitters out the way. She'll come over and sniff me sometimes or investigate what I'm doing but again I can't show any interest beyond looking at her or talking to her (although that's a massive improvement in itself) or she's gone. Every bit of advice I've seen advocates not trying to grab her or hold her and just letting her slowly come to me at her own pace, but I have to say it is a really tempting thought that all she needs is for me to actually pick her up and show her that all I want to do is pet her.

I should note that when I first met her she was in a room that she wasn't comfortable in and was hissing at everyone including her foster lady, but when her foster lady picked her up she calmed right down and tried to burrow into her lap, which is part of why I brought her home in the first place, since I could see that even though she was scared she was taking comfort from her person and I was prepared to put in the effort to make her comfortable in a new place.

Well, I will tell you you're not gonna find a lot of people agreeing with that advice. Most folks will advocate for a hands off/let the kitty come to you, type of attachment building.

The majority of the time, that is the correct way to go about it. But sometimes, a kitty can be receptive to other things. We've fostered around 20-30 cats and kittens at this point and there just simply aren't any absolutes. Different things work for different cats.

Worst case? Your cat doesn't like it, lets you know with a swipe, and you move on.

The one thing I'd be careful about though is that you mention your cat comes out for food. I wouldn't advocate handling her while he's eating. And hell, if she's food motivated have some treats handy for when you do approach her. After she calms downs and you can pet her, give her a treat. Also, how old is she? Some behaviors/demeanors are really hard to break once you get far away from kittenhood.

Again, I'm expecting some push back on this, but all I'm doing is sharing my experiences and we've managed to socialize some really tricky cases.

Organza Quiz
Nov 7, 2009


The thing I'm worried about is that she spent over a month hiding and only coming out to dash to the litter box and this morning when I came into the room she was sitting on the floor and hardly budged, and yesterday she hopped up onto my computer desk to investigate what I was doing and walk around and sniff everything casually, so I'm really pleased about how much she trusts me right now and I'm concerned that if I try to pick her up or hold her in place it's going to set me back again by months or something. I do have treats on hand and I often put them down next to me and make her come close to my hand to get them. She'll eat treats from right underneath my hand pretty much as long as I don't move the hand at all.

She's two and a half years old and came from a "foster home" that's really more of a small cat haven, basically someone who's heavily involved in a cat rescue and evidently they have more cats than they have available foster homes so she takes them in. They did look like they were being kept in decent conditions but I don't think she's had as much human contact as she could have, even though she's been there since she was a kitten (apparently came in with a litter and all her siblings got adopted as kittens but she didn't). She was described to me as very good with other cats, which is what I was looking for since I want her to get along with my established cat (and now that she's more comfortable she's been making an exceptional effort lately to convince my established cat that she's a nice friend who wants to play) but they also did describe her as affectionate with humans and potentially a lap cat. Anyway, I don't trust them a whole lot since they also thought she was three instead of two but mostly what I mean is that she hasn't ever had to live on the streets and she hasn't been abused, just I don't think she's been handled as much as she could have been either.

ETA: I should mention I don't actually expect her to become a lap cat and I won't mind if she doesn't. My other cat is pretty picky about physical contact and only wants to be petted on her terms when she wants a couple of times a day and not at any other time and I'm fine with that, she's still very companionable. But at least she's not scared of me picking her up or handling her, she's just not necessarily happy about it.

Organza Quiz fucked around with this message at 03:02 on Apr 7, 2016

Chili
Jan 23, 2004

college kids ain't shit


Fun Shoe
Aye. Honestly go with your gut. If your gut is saying it won't work, it won't work.

Elmnt80
Dec 30, 2012


It took me almost two years of taking care of my grandfather's cat after he passed before she was comfortable enough around me to just chill out and regularly let me pet her after giving her some treats. It took alot of time and treats to get her to the point she was comfortable with me, but she is about as friendly with me as this cat gets. Shes not a lap cat by any means, but will at least hop up on my bed and chill with me for a bit if I'm the only person in the house for more than a day or two. In fact now she won't shut the gently caress up anytime I go into the kitchen and start cooking since thats where her treats are kept. loving cat even thinks up new screams, meows and noises to get my attention if I ignore her for being annoying. She's still super skittish and hostile to new people, but thats dealt with by telling people not to pet the cat and laughing at them when they get bit for ignoring me.

Sometimes it just takes a while.

luloo123
Aug 25, 2008

Organza Quiz posted:

The thing I'm worried about is that she spent over a month hiding and only coming out to dash to the litter box and this morning when I came into the room she was sitting on the floor and hardly budged, and yesterday she hopped up onto my computer desk to investigate what I was doing and walk around and sniff everything casually, so I'm really pleased about how much she trusts me right now and I'm concerned that if I try to pick her up or hold her in place it's going to set me back again by months or something. I do have treats on hand and I often put them down next to me and make her come close to my hand to get them. She'll eat treats from right underneath my hand pretty much as long as I don't move the hand at all.


When I adopted my cat, Snicket, she hid under the bed for a solid two weeks, only sneaking out to use the litter box and eat a little.

I'm friends with her previous owner, so I know her backstory to some extent. For much of the time she was with my friend, she was a sweet, affectionate kitty. She was bullied a bit by their other cat, but she was sweet and moderately outgoing. Then her previous owner had a baby. Overnight, Snicket went from being outgoing to being reclusive and shy. She would hide in the basement all the time and pee on the baby's stuff any time she could. Because of the changes in her behavior, I think the bullying from the other cat got worse as well. The owners took her to the vet and she got a whole battery of tests, but nothing was abnormal. The antisocial behavior continued. They gave her a year to settle down, but she never did. She had lost a lot of weight (at one point she was an overweight 14 pounds. When I took her to the vet she was 6.7 pounds). They took her to the vet again, and all of the tests were still normal. I was in the office and overheard my friend saying that she had scheduled an appointment to surrender Snicket to a no-kill shelter. I had wanted to get a cat, so I said that I'd take her.

Aside from the moment that Snicket was released from her carrier, I barely saw her for the first two weeks she lived with me. I'd catch a glimpse of her, but that was about it. Her food and water would disappear and waste material would show up in her litter box, so I knew that she was eating and drinking. After two weeks of this, she jumped on the bed at 7am for scritchies. I was overjoyed. She had ten minutes of scritchies and then hid under the bed again. This became our ritual. Every day at 7am she would get scritchies and then hide again. This continued for another two weeks. She started spending more time in the living area and begging for scritchies. These days, she begs for scritchies all the time, yells at me when she wants fresh water (I have never seen a cat drink as much water as her), begs for treats, meets me at the door when I get home from work, and gives me attitude when she's mad at me for some imagined slight (It's not my fault that you coughed up a hairball in your favorite box, Snicket). It took us over a year to get to this point, and three years before she was comfortable enough that she wouldn't hide when people came to visit. She's still terrified of other cats though.

TL,DR: Be patient. Keep doing what you're doing, and hopefully she'll come around. It sounds like she's already started.

Chili
Jan 23, 2004

college kids ain't shit


Fun Shoe

luloo123 posted:

When I adopted my cat, Snicket, she hid under the bed for a solid two weeks, only sneaking out to use the litter box and eat a little.

I'm friends with her previous owner, so I know her backstory to some extent. For much of the time she was with my friend, she was a sweet, affectionate kitty. She was bullied a bit by their other cat, but she was sweet and moderately outgoing. Then her previous owner had a baby. Overnight, Snicket went from being outgoing to being reclusive and shy. She would hide in the basement all the time and pee on the baby's stuff any time she could. Because of the changes in her behavior, I think the bullying from the other cat got worse as well. The owners took her to the vet and she got a whole battery of tests, but nothing was abnormal. The antisocial behavior continued. They gave her a year to settle down, but she never did. She had lost a lot of weight (at one point she was an overweight 14 pounds. When I took her to the vet she was 6.7 pounds). They took her to the vet again, and all of the tests were still normal. I was in the office and overheard my friend saying that she had scheduled an appointment to surrender Snicket to a no-kill shelter. I had wanted to get a cat, so I said that I'd take her.

Aside from the moment that Snicket was released from her carrier, I barely saw her for the first two weeks she lived with me. I'd catch a glimpse of her, but that was about it. Her food and water would disappear and waste material would show up in her litter box, so I knew that she was eating and drinking. After two weeks of this, she jumped on the bed at 7am for scritchies. I was overjoyed. She had ten minutes of scritchies and then hid under the bed again. This became our ritual. Every day at 7am she would get scritchies and then hide again. This continued for another two weeks. She started spending more time in the living area and begging for scritchies. These days, she begs for scritchies all the time, yells at me when she wants fresh water (I have never seen a cat drink as much water as her), begs for treats, meets me at the door when I get home from work, and gives me attitude when she's mad at me for some imagined slight (It's not my fault that you coughed up a hairball in your favorite box, Snicket). It took us over a year to get to this point, and three years before she was comfortable enough that she wouldn't hide when people came to visit. She's still terrified of other cats though.

TL,DR: Be patient. Keep doing what you're doing, and hopefully she'll come around. It sounds like she's already started.

The only problem with this post is that there are no pictures of Snicket.

I brought my Drake
Jul 10, 2014

These high-G injections have some serious side effects after pulling so many jumps.

Fery's facial inkblot just slays me with cute.

Tax: http://livestream.com/tinykittens

luloo123
Aug 25, 2008

Chili posted:

The only problem with this post is that there are no pictures of Snicket.

I can totally fix that. I have so many Snicket pictures. Unfortunately, nearly all of them are crappy cell phone pictures.



"Tuna? Tuna for me?"


I put bananas in "her spot" (all spots are her spots).


Fluffy face.


How to deactivate a Snicket: Put a hat on her.


She is a good cat.

Chili
Jan 23, 2004

college kids ain't shit


Fun Shoe

luloo123 posted:

I can totally fix that. I have so many Snicket pictures. Unfortunately, nearly all of them are crappy cell phone pictures.



"Tuna? Tuna for me?"


I put bananas in "her spot" (all spots are her spots).


Fluffy face.


How to deactivate a Snicket: Put a hat on her.


She is a good cat.

This is grade A catte.

luloo123
Aug 25, 2008

Chili posted:

This is grade A catte.

I agree.

Booger Presley
Aug 6, 2008

Pillbug

queserasera posted:

Fery's facial inkblot just slays me with cute.

Tax: http://livestream.com/tinykittens

Fery a few weeks before we caught her:


Snicket is indeed a good cat! :shobon:

I brought my Drake
Jul 10, 2014

These high-G injections have some serious side effects after pulling so many jumps.

Booger Presley posted:

Fery a few weeks before we caught her:


"Can you help me? Someone smeared gray on my nose and I can't get it off."

SpannerX
Apr 26, 2010

I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

Fun Shoe
Tiny Kittens live feed currently feral moms and recently born kittens.

Klaus88
Jan 23, 2011

Violence has its own economy, therefore be thoughtful and precise in your investment

:swoon:

Krampus Grewcock
Aug 26, 2010

Gruss vom Krampus!

Chili posted:

Search for the zampa brush on amazon. I've been very happy with it.

I bought one on your suggestion and it works great on my fluffy assholes.

Chili
Jan 23, 2004

college kids ain't shit


Fun Shoe

Krampus Grewcock posted:

I bought one on your suggestion and it works great on my fluffy assholes.

Right? It actually feels like you're doing something when you groom them.

Safari Disco Lion
Jul 21, 2011

Boss, if they make us find seven lost crystals, I'm quitting.

I'll have to get one. I have a Furminator but it fills up to uselessness with a single brush on my fat fluffy cat. The zampa brush seems just as good but with an eject button.

Chili
Jan 23, 2004

college kids ain't shit


Fun Shoe

Was on my phone earlier so I wasn't able to check this out. But this is amazing and I'm going to leave it on while I'm at work and need (perpetual) pick-me-ups.

Tendai
Mar 16, 2007

"When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber."

Grimey Drawer
Is this the place to request more Butterscotch pictures?

Because I would like to request that, please :3:

Radio!
Mar 15, 2008

Look at that post.

I would like to second that request, please.

Chili
Jan 23, 2004

college kids ain't shit


Fun Shoe
Most definitely. We're out today but I'll have some soon.

For now here's a direct link as I'm phone posting.

http://i.imgur.com/kIN4xOP.jpg

SpannerX
Apr 26, 2010

I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

Fun Shoe

Chili posted:

Was on my phone earlier so I wasn't able to check this out. But this is amazing and I'm going to leave it on while I'm at work and need (perpetual) pick-me-ups.

Well if you liked that one, here's FDJ (Foster Dad John) and his new litter!

Tendai
Mar 16, 2007

"When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber."

Grimey Drawer

Chili posted:

Most definitely. We're out today but I'll have some soon.

For now here's a direct link as I'm phone posting.

http://i.imgur.com/kIN4xOP.jpg
His expression is so enigmatic

Is he startled that you caught him doing something?

Is he full of existential dread?

Is he staring vacantly off into nothing like cats do?

What a good cat :3:

I brought my Drake
Jul 10, 2014

These high-G injections have some serious side effects after pulling so many jumps.

Tendai posted:

His expression is so enigmatic

Is he startled that you caught him doing something?

Is he full of existential dread?

Is he staring vacantly off into nothing like cats do?

What a good cat :3:

Every time Butters sees the camera he thinks it's taking his last known photo. :ohdear:

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Ofecks
May 4, 2009

A portly feline wizard waddles forth, muttering something about conjured food.

"Bathtime and the Infinite Sadness" is constantly on my Youtube homepage under recommended cat videos.

Gotta get da butt

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply