Expert: Karen Craft - 7/18/2009

Question
My husband and I have four kittens, all under a year old.  Our newest
addition, a tortoise colored little girl we adopted four months ago, is terrified
of all people.  At the disaster of a shelter we rescued her from, she let me
hold her but they warned us not to let her free in the cat room or they would
not be able to catch her - she did not want to go back in the cage.  Given her
living conditions, and her apparent desire to be cuddled, we thought she
would be happy in our home.  

She gets along well with our other cats but runs in fear when anyone gets
within two feet of her.  I have no problem taking care of her and just letting
her do as she pleases but she looks so terrified when we simply walk through
the room!  I would love to make her more comfortable.  

She seems to do well if we isolate her in a room away from the other cats.  I
am able to cuddle her a little bit then, though her heart still races for several
minutes until she realizes I'm not going to do anything spooky.  Trouble with
this is, we have to corral her - scaring her :( - to get her into the isolated
room.  I am afraid this will only make her more afraid, but we don't have a
chance at touching her unless we get her alone.  

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  We want the best for her - to
help her know she's among folks who love her, or if we just need to give her
space and know she's an untouchable member of the family.  
We have tried the feline relaxing sprays/diffuser and they did not work.  The
vet even prescribed a small dose of pain medicine to try and relax her but
that still did not help.

Answer
Hi Heather,

This one sounds like a long term project. 4 months is not a lot of time for her to overcome her distrust of humans. I have one that has taken me 6 years to allow me to pet it. She now does what I call a "drive by pet me" episode where she will run up to me, get petted 3 or 4 times, then run away. I was shocked the other night when she jumped on on the arm of my chair and just laid there next to me. That was worth all the time I spent with her.  

You are doing the right thing. The only suggestion that I can add to try to get her to come to you is use bribery. Try getting some roasted chicken and feed her that. Or if that doesn't work try different things until you find that one food item that curls her toes. :)
Call her name and toss it to her in the beginning. This is what I used to get Spike to come out of her shell. As time goes on you drop the chicken closer to you. This is going to take time. You finally want her to be at your side to take the food. Since she does calm down with the one-on-one quality time, then she most likely will allow you to pet her at that stage. Also feed her some of the chicken when you have her in the quiet room.  

You can try something else to try to alleviate her skitterish ways. Ask your vet about using an antihistamine called cyproheptadine (Periactin).
This has a tranquilizing effect on cats and can be used for long term use. This might help also. But getting it into her might be a problem. A quick tip for getting cats to take pills; place it inside a little ball of cream cheese. Cats usually wolf it down.

Like I said at the beginning, this is a long term project. She sounds like she can regain her trust of humans. You just need to shower her with kindness to show that she is in good hands. And as for the corralling, I wouldn't worry too much about that. As long as you are good to her after catching her she will lose her fear of that. Good luck.

Ciao, Karen