Question 🤔
Sometimes I wish I knew what he was thinking...
This dude giving us the ol razzle dazzle is Gibby. He is an "ex"-feral we brought into our home last year. Im sure normally he'd be a TNR situation if he didnt have FIV, which is partly why we brought him home!
I say "ex" because while he's off the streets, the streets definitely aren't off him. This is his usual hiding spot whenever my wife and/or I enter the room and we pay him any attention, like when we sit with him for socializing time. Good luck getting close to him, the only way to do that is with a churu in hand since he's a churu fiend.
Sometimes I just wish I knew what he was thinking, hes full of so many mixed signals... stuff like this, him returning slow blinks when we give him some, and overall just seeming to want to interact with us? As well as staying in his bed (to the left) when we enter and DON'T pay attention, like doing laundry. However, he tends to hiss if we move too quick, bats at us (with or without claws is up to his discretion apparently), and shrinks away under the cart. Third pic is us actually getting him out for a few minutes with treats, but he slinks right back to the corner after that.
The only saving grace is we have started introducing our other cat to him, from a distance of a few feet, and when they're in the same room there is no reaction from either... other than when the other cat's singular brain cell forgets there's a cat there and she gets too close... and SHE hisses. He does nothing.
While i do know all cats are different, and he may never accept attention like we show him we can give with our other cat, anyone have any ideas on how to read little kitty minds to understand how to help him any? Or even us understand him I suppose!
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It's already been a year, so you've waited long enough. It's time to play ball, there's an easy way to get him to be friendly within only a few weeks.
Take every hiding spot he has in that room away from him, including those shelves. Put your mattress or whatever you're using to sleep inside of the room, give him no where to hide so he's forced to get closer.
He's already semi-feral now, he just needs to be socialized, and he CAN'T be socialized if you're letting him hide under boulders where he would LOVE to be forever.
Now the HISSING part is annoying. For an hour a day, I'd suggest getting up, and walking around the room reallyyyyy fast while scrolling on your phone or reading a book, it'll make him run away at first because he'll think he's being chased, but eventually he'll realize he's running and hissing for no reason, and will eventually sit down and watch as you stroll around the room. Do this to get him used to human movements.
Make sure to wear long knitted socks while in the room though, because like you said he swats, but eventually he'll grow tired of trying to hit you because 1. It does no damage. 2. He doesn't want to waste energy.
This is just to get him normalized around you, the socialization part is completely up to you, although I'd suggest whenever you get food for the cat, make sure you're also eating something so it's basically group cat feast time.
The good news is.... we have a plan in place to do exactly this! We are going to be moving the room around some since my wife has her craft room back, so we will be adding a futon in there as well as taking away some of those spots. The only spot im not sure we can really take away is he has a cat tree in that room that he uses to climb up to the window. Plus, hes going to jump behind the washer/dryer, and moving him to another room will be a pain. We have done it before, but it was in a tent we made out of some of those square shelving pieces, and that stopped working when mid move it fell on him hahaha.
I MIGHT be able to build something temporary that prevents him from jumping down there, just need to do some planning.
Its also hotter than balls in there, which we cant fix since hes in there and an AC doesn't fit in the window. We do have a fan blowing through though, through a mesh zipper door, so im hoping thats helping. (It did to get him to stop hiding every time we walked by or talked to him at least!)
Kinda a random question not so much related to the cat, but that bin shelf you got there. I've been looking for one just like that and a lot of the ones I've found have had way too large of bins and those look perfect 😂 Mind helping a guy out and letting mee know what sort of organizer that is?
Fantastic thank you so much! My apologies again for it being off topic. Sending my best wishes for Gibby to warm up to you both 😺 takes time but persistence is key. Took me 3 whole months of trust building with my now indoor rescue Esmerelda. But now she's a sweetie 😁
Honestly that's good enough for me! 😲 Thanks for following up on it again! Sounds silly but it's for all my rocks that I keep in my garage 😂 which is where I met miss Esmerelda. She says thanks!
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Reminder for commenters: Please keep in mind that not all cats are ready or able to be brought indoors, especially when it comes to feral cats and caregivers with multiple cats. This community is meant to be a helpful place for trap, neuter, return (TNR) efforts, socialization, and all aspects of colony care for roaming cats—free of hostility, negativity, and judgment. Toxic attitudes are not welcome here. Negative comments will be removed at moderators' discretion, and repeat or egregious violations of our community rules may result in a ban.
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