Expert: Ali - 12/9/2009

Question
QUESTION: I recently had 4 6 week old kittens dropped off at our place of business.  We took them in, shots, love, etc.  Several days later another cat showed up.  We thought it was mamma, trapped it and took it to the vet.  She's healthy but not the mamma so we call her Sister.  She was about 6 months old and terrified.  I brought her home after her spay and she has been in my 2 room bathroom for a month now. Each day I spend 45 minutes with her at 5:45 am, 30 minutes around 6:30 PM and go to sleep on the floor with her around 9:30.  I'm going for routine.  On weekends I visit more frequently.  She keeps her distance but hasn't growled or hissed.  She stays in the one room, not venturing out into the other.  I leave treats for her in both rooms and she doesn't go into the second room or up on the counter to get the treats.  She plays with one toy occasionally while I am absent. I have seen no change in her toward me. If I toss her a treat, she won't eat it until I'm gone (even if it is tuna fish right under her nose) I have other indoor cats and dogs who have not been introduced to her.
My goal is to return her to the out of doors after helping her realize there is food, warmth and vet care for her as she resumes her wild life.  We have a barn and plenty of mice.  I work full time and am spending most of my down time with her.  Today my vet suggested that I try to pick her up and stroke her head and back to let her know what she is missing.  He said keep it short but be consistent. When I slowly reached out toward her from the side, she didn't do anything until I was about to touch her then she hissed and spit. She's behind a toilet, so access to pick her up is very difficult.  What do you suggest? Should I move her to a protected cage outside and start feeding her there eventually leaving the door open? Returning her to our place of business isn't really an option because of the busy highway. Any insight to help the process along would be greatly appreciated.  


ANSWER: Jeri,

Wow, it's amazing to see that you are so dedicated to helping this baby girl. I do believe it's possible to help her out further and possibly even bring her to the point where she's not so fearful of people - in order for me to even begin offering recommendations for how to help her in a way that's most likely to be effective I need to know a bit more about your efforts to this point. I have a few questions for you which are as follows:

- In the month that you've been working with this kitty have you tried anything beyond food to get closer to her with a minimum of fear?

- Would you be willing to consider alternative therapies that might be more effective than simply spending time with this baby girl?

- How much work are you willing to put into this kitten?

- If your kitty comes around would you be willing to consider making her a permanent part of your household? (I understand that your original intent would be to make her a barn kitty, but the process involved in helping her to understand that people are safe may mean that you get very attached to her...)

- Does this kitty's body language ever relax when you're in the same room with her?

- Have you heard this cat vocalize beyond hissing and spitting?

- What do you do when you're spending time with her?

- Have you tried a completely different approach beyond actively trying to get close to her?

- Would you be willing to aim for a completely non-threatening, non-invasive approach to helping this little girl come around? (avoid speaking to her, touching her/attempting to, making eye contact with her, etc)

- Have your resident cats shown any interest in this kitty?

- Would you consider (only if one of your cats is exceptionally docile with strange cats) bringing one of your own cats into this kitty's line of sight (not necessarily into the same room just because of the potential for confrontation and/or territorial disputes from your resident kitty) then petting, speaking to and playing with him/her? (this would allow this little girl to see that you mean no harm and she'd get an idea of what she's missing)

- What do you have set up for this kitty in the way of creature comforts?

- You mentioned that this kitty does play with a toy when you're not around, have you tried using a kitty tease, piece of shoelace or other similar object to help lure her out of her fearful self?

- Have you given this kitty catnip? (some cats will become bolder, others will become more affectionate, it really depends on the cat, but this little girl is about the right age to start reacting to catnip)

Hopefully your answers to these questions will help me to help you come up with a better plan of action to teach this kitty that there's nothing to be afraid of in terms of human contact and the presence of people. I look forward to your response, any little details you can add about this kitty's overall demeanor would be helpful since that could change which homeopathic remedies I recommend trying. Any information about personality, activity level and just how reactive this kitty is would be helpful. I look forward to hearing from you soon so that we can put our heads together and help this baby girl out of her fear and into a new life.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Up until two days ago I had not approached Sister at all, other than the necessary moves to feed, water and clean up. I don’t stare at her and I try to act like a cat, yawning, stretching, scratching and blinking. After my vet suggested I try to pick her up, I slid over next to her while I was sitting in the floor and she was behind the toilet.  Her body language didn’t seem to change until I actually reached out from the side to touch her. Then I got hiss and spit.  I moved my hand back but continued to sit within 2 feet of her with my hand on the floor.  She was quite.  I could not see her ears, but her tail was not tucked or moving.  Since then I have continued to sit and talk awhile, then move close to her and put my hand down.  She seems ok with this.  

When I go in to be with her, she seems relaxed.  She isn’t balled up nor is she stretched out.  Her ears are up and she stays still.  She is always either behind the toilet or in the vanity, where there are towels and the door is propped slightly open.  If she is in there, I have started opening the door so she can see me while I talk to her or sleep on a rug.
I have tried a toy on a string and have also spend time playing with a crinkle ball and with a feather while she watches.  She had made no movement to participate.  I read to her, talk to her and sometimes just sleep with her.  
I tried catnip shortly after I brought her home.  I’ll try again.  
My two 6 year old male neutered cats have not paid much attention to her.  They have sniffed at the door and that’s about it.  We brought 2 of the kittens from the dropped off litter home last night, but they are in another part of the house adjusting to their new home.
As to what comforts she has, she has 2 rooms.  In the room with the toilet there is a rug and I put a box with towels and some of my clothes in it. It had an entrance in the front of the box and an exit on the back side.  In a month,  she never when in it.  I removed it three days ago. I keep the light off in that room.  In the other room with the sink vanity, I have put a scratching post and a cloth cube toy/sleeping place with a towel in it.  I use a dim light in that room. When I have put treats in it, they go untouched.  Treats on top of it are sometimes taken.  Treats up on the vanity were taken the first few days, but now she doesn’t seem to go up there.  She has several toys but only plays with one, a mouse with feathers. I have pulled her cube and scratching post out from the wall to give her some placed to hide behind if she should want to come out and move around while I am in the room.  So far she stays put wherever she is when I go in the room.  I scratch lightly on the door before I go in.  
I have heard her meowing, but not when I am in the room with her.  It has been shortly after I get home from work and the other cats and both my dogs are moving around the house.  The meowing almost sound like “don’t forget me”.  They are not yowels, more like what my other two do when they want treats.
I make sure to leave treats and to toss her treats when I go in to see her.  I rattle her food bowl, even if I am not putting fresh food in.  
I would love for her to be my girl and my friend and have a place in the house or inside/outside if she can be convinced I only want to be her friend. Our barn is available if she just won’t come around.  I would feed her and try to make sure she was physically cared for, but I’d rather have a permanent friend.
I’ll try anything within reason to help her.  The kittens we brought home might be good to introduce to her.  We have raised them since they were 6 weeks (now 12 weeks) and they have been positively spoiled rotten.  Both of them are very affectionate.  
I hope this give you a better idea of what’s going on.  I really would like to help this little girl, but I am starting to feel like I’m neglecting my other animals and spending all my time with her.  If there is hope that she’ll come around, I’ll keep trying.  If it sounds hopeless to you, then the barn may have to be the alternative.  We used to have an outdoor kitty that slept in the garage and had the run of the place.  She’d come in to be loved and wasn’t a problem to take to the vet.  She lived a good long life.  I’m just afraid that if I let Sister out, she’d run and then maybe not make it.  
Since I wrote this 2 days ago, I have taken one of the kittens in with me when I go in to spend time with Sister.  She came out of hiding, went between me and the wall to go into the other room so she could watch kitty play. She made chirping noises quite often.  Today, she came out and actually took a swat or two  at the feather toy.  Kitty doesn’t pay much attention to her but will occasionally hiss if she finds herself too close to Sister.  Sister hasn’t hissed at all.  She follows the toy with her head movement and chirps at kitty.  We played for about 45 minutes yesterday and this morning and afternoon.  

Answer
Jeri,

Trust your instincts, at this point you know Sister far better than I do so you would know how far she could safely be pushed - you don't want to push too hard, but it's quite possible that touching Sister gently as per your vet's recommendation to help show her what she's missing out on just might be the way to go. Maybe she would benefit from seeing you provide one or both of the younger kittens with some TLC, cuddles, playtime, treats, etc. For some cats seeing that other cats trust you is enough to bring them around. I do think that Sister will come around, it will be a matter of when, she seems to be making steady improvements and if she's responding positively to your attempts to get closer to her then I strongly suspect that she's pretty close to a major breakthrough. At this point since Sister most likely is comfortable with the sounds and smells of the kittens it might be worth opening her bathroom door and playing with the kittens in the doorway to see what her reaction is. Clearly she just doesn't seem to trust people 100% yet, but she's showing signs that she wants to. At this point it is also important to give your time to the kittens, but if you could combine kitten time with Sister time that would be the ultimate since everyone would be getting time and attention. You, your little kittens and Sister are in my thoughts, I'd certainly be interested to hear how well things are going, so please don't hesitate to send updates my way. If you need someone to bounce ideas off of in terms of Sister's progress I'd be happy to listen and provide feedback and I'd certainly be willing to lend my expertise anytime it's needed.

PS: I think you might be surprised at the difference that Bach flower remedies might make for Sister. I think she could benefit from Rescue Remedy and Mimulus at the moment. Rescue Remedy is a blend of 5 flower essences that is designed to calm and reassure, Mimulus is specifically geared towards easing specific fears. I would say that 7-10 drops of each in Sister's clean bowl of fresh water twice daily would do nicely. If Sister will let you handle her to the extent of gently rubbing her ears you could gently rub each remedy drop by drop into the skin of her ear flap or the relatively fur free area of skin in front of the ears (do be careful not to get any of the remedies into her ear though since the flower essences are preserved in a grape alcohol solution which might sting in the ears). I suspect you'll see a pretty dramatic turnaround within a fairly short period of time with these remedies - as Sister's trust in you grows you'll be able to rub the remedies onto her ears until you're seeing a happier, more confident and trusting girl. I've used Bach flower remedies in my household for well over 10 years at this point and I've found them to be a great way to help cats coming from a variety of situations. You can generally find Bach flower remedies in health food stores, however if you can't find them in your local area you can purchase them online.