As you will know from a previous post, we ‘adopted’ a little semi-feral cat that had been making her presences felt all through the summer. We started to refer to her as Roma and had started to feed her, provide her with shelter and generally take care of her.
She was very, VERY timid at first (for obviously reasons, if you read the previous post on her). She’d accept food from us (from a bowl put outside for her) but wasn’t very comfortable approaching us or being near us. Over time that changed to the point where now – we can stroke and pat her pretty much at will! The breakthrough happened about 2 weeks ago.
In the earlier stages of Roma hanging around our house/yard, she had a friend in the form of GT (or Geets, as we now refer to her, see previous post). All was not a bed of roses in catworld and Geets had become distant with Roma (this was happening before we started caring for her). Roma still wanted Geets’s approval, so whenever she saw her, she would show displays of affection and be submissive. One time this happened Em decided to see if, whilst Roma was distracted by Geets’s prescence, that she might be able to pat Romes. Lo and behold! She was!
It still took a little time to build up. At first it appeared the petting would only happen during Geets’s prescence, but over the last 2 weeks it has slowly built up to where we don’t need Geets around and that Roma is willingly SEEKING petting!!! Almost happy to see us!
We didn’t think it was going to happen as prior to the whole Geets and petting thing, we had a bit of a setback. We had some exceptionally wild and windy weather for a few days and it really set Roma back. She was SOOO afraid of the winds and wild weather, she wasn’t even staying with us and went missing for a couple of days 🙁
But once the wild weather calmed she was back with us and then the petting process started. She seems to get more and more comfortable with us every day. We can even pick her up – well at least lift her off the ground – we can’t pick her up and hold her, but being able to LIFT HER UP is just AMAZING! There are things she’s still wary of. She’s still not very comfortable with coming into the house, but there’s not much we can do about that at this time of year. It’s WAY too cold to leave the door open – so perhaps when (if) the weather starts to warm up we can start on that.
She spends most days/nights here (but obviously goes off exploring at times) and has TWO houses to choose from. House one is the one shown in the previous post – but now more insulated for the winter weather. Still not ENTIRELY weatherproof, hence house two – which is a purchased, fully moulded heavy duty plastic affair which I lined with an insulated camping mat. She lays on a thick layer of hay and has a (pet friendly) heat pad(s) put out for her. During rainy weather she’ll go to house two (the shop-bought one), but mostly sticks with house one (the makeshift one we fudged together from an old milk crate).
Anyway, here’s some clips of her enjoying a feed and a smooch…
[youtube=http://youtu.be/bZZqdZ956Ao]
[youtube=http://youtu.be/R9TRA_s39mY]
[youtube=http://youtu.be/0v4KDD60OVA]
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