Gotta have a plan....

So, I'm sure some people are wondering what happened with Lomasi... the HAC Cat who was deemed a feral and saved last-minute from euthanization.  The poor girl was in full PTSD trauma, and that is certainly no way to adopt a cat.   A LOT of work had to be done in order to really gain her trust and open her up to loving people, instead of just fearing them.   I knew we had to have a good plan.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I did notice that Lomasi seemed to be somewhat more comfortable with the clinic cat present during her examination.  I hadn't had her long, and hadn't really exposed her to my resident cats, because I wasn't sure how she would react, and the last thing I wanted to do was put her further into trauma.  As it was, she spent her entire day cowering in a corner under furniture, her eyes as big as saucers, and hissing and growling at anything that moved or that she thought might move.  Humans made her especially terrified, even if all she did was hear their voices.   This poor darling was so hyper-vigilant, I don't know that she really slept for the first week at our house.   There had to be a combination of methods used in order to show this poor cat that nobody was going to hurt her, and that humans can be GOOD, not just terrible and terrifying.  Getting a cat in full shut-down to do ANY paying attention to anything other than their fear is fun in and of itself, but unless the connection is made, nothing will move forward.  I wracked my brains to come up with a full routine, and in the meantime, I spent hours every day in the room with her, not doing anything, not even looking at her, just sitting there, letting her smell me and see that I was not going to move or hurt her.   She did have her medication for her cheek at this time, and although she would growl and hiss when I approached her to give the meds, she was quiet and sat still, allowing me to apply the topical and give her her oral meds, and never ONCE did she lash out.  SUPER good sign.   If a cat is going to strike out, it's DEFINITELY going to do so when you are administering unpleasant medications.  All these observations help to formulate a plan of "attack", so after a week of medicating, observing her reactions, and seeing what motivated her...  I had a plan.

1)  Feeding time - Lomasi liked her food, but was not especially food-motivated.  The fear was stronger than the food.  But certain types of wet food seemed to get a stronger reaction than others, so I planned to feed her those foods, but lay right beside the food dish with my hand IN it, mingling my scent with the food and making a positive association in her brain.... People = Favorite food.  Cats are so scent-motivated, it is a no-brainer when you can make positive scent associations.

2) Other Cats - I have certain of my resident cats that I refer to as "Ambassador Cats".  These are cats that I can rely on to be solid, relaxed, and will respond with relative predictability to other cats, no matter what THAT cat's reaction is.   Mouse, Quark, Duck, and Trouble are all good candidates with different types of cats.  What seems to affect these meetings the most is if a cat is more dominant, more submissive, or more neutral.  I pay VERY close attention to where my cats are on their own hierarchy, and although there are subtle changes occasionally, but for the most part their own structure is pretty well established.  Lomasi is definitely more on the "neutral" side of things, but could be victimized because of her fear and weakness by a more dominant cat than her.  I had to think about who it was I was going to introduce, but I had a short list.  Duck is a big cat, his size can intimidate, although he's actually about as scary as a butterfly.   Mouse is extremely tiny, she's good with small cats, because she's not intimidating on size, but can be vulnerable to attack from larger cats.   Quark is lovely, but she can randomly be a "princess" and decide she's TOO GOOD for her current company.   Trouble seemed to be the best.  She's a "submissive" on hierarchy, but really, she's more like Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter books... in a class all to herself.  A stable cat, not an aggressive bone in her body, SUPER human-lovey, and very playful.  Seems like a win.

3) Being VERY careful with eye contact - Eye contact is a huge thing for cats.  They can carry on entire conversations with their eyes, and if you are observant, you can glean as much information from their eyes as you can from their tails and ears (sometimes, more).  There is a "proper" way for cats to greet each other, to approach new cats, etc, and much of it is communicated in the form of eye contact.  ANY direct eye contact can make a cat EXTREMELY intimidated and shut them down.  My plan for this was to always physically stay low (keeping on the same level with her and not above - above can be a threat), not to initiate direct eye contact, looking down to the side with soft eyes, and to make sure that I didn't engage in anything with her until I got her "permission" (slow blinks that show a level of trust and security).  Downcast soft eyes, any direct eye contact after permission, and soft eyes while dealing with her.  Hopefully it would all bring her threat level down to as close to zero as we could get it.

4) Contact with KIDS - Calm, understanding children seem to have a way of connecting with animals even when adults can't.  Getting the kids involved in a calm manner might help to create a level of connectedness with Lomasi that she may not evolve with an adult.  You never know until you try, and nevertheless, kids seem to be less intimidating.  Anything to remove that factor is a bonus.

5) Exposure therapy - Instead of keeping Lomasi in a quiet, sterile environment, which does NOTHING to move past her trauma but instead keeps her cushioned in it, I knew that we had to start exposing her to the sounds and movements that would normally shut her down, but do it in a controlled, safe way that can allow her to get used to the noise and movement of a busy household, but not put her back into her trauma shell and force us to start over.   Any quick movement would make her run or cringe, and loud noises sent her scrambling for cover.  Definitely NOT a good thing when trying to get a cat adopted.  If they hide all the time and are always scared, well, people don't want them as a pet.

6) Play and Confidence building -   If I could get her engaged enough not to be afraid of our presence, we could really build up her confidence getting her engaged in structured play.  It has the added bonus of also siphoning off some of that anxious energy, and oftentimes a tired, played-out cat is more responsive to all kinds of attention and/or training. 

The plan was set.  But would it work?  Any one of these elements could help, some may do nothing at all, but at least we had a full plan to crack the nut as best as we could.  The only thing left was to enact it....

Such a pretty girl.  Out exploring the wider world of the house...  

At first, feeding times were a bit of a challenge.  I generally feed all the cats (residents and fosters) at the same time... This prevents fights, and issues with fairness.  And if you don't think cats understand the concept of "he got more than I did", time to check yourself.  They ABSOLUTELY do and it can cause infighting in an established group.   Lomasi was still in her own space, but she could hear the other cats clamoring for attention, and they all knew when I went in to see her.  My method was to take in the food, and sit for her ENTIRE TIME EATING with my hand on the plate, almost in the food, laying on the floor.  A few times I got a cramp, or would get itchy, but any quick movement would send Lomasi scampering, and that doesn't help.  After a while she got used to me, and even started to look out and meow when she saw me coming.  This was HUGE progress.. .but she still wouldn't let me really touch her willingly.

Lomasi was in my daughter's room.  My youngest daughter is a lovely girl who adores cats and loves helping them.. but she can also be very loud and vibrant.  Bad idea to have Lomasi with her?  NOT AT ALL.  Lomasi VERY quickly realized that all the noise and movement from my daughter was not a threat in the least, and this exposure to the noise really started moving her along quickly, dulling her hyper-alert startle reflexes, and started to peak her curiosity.  She would watch what was happening from a safe place, and although she didn't come out, even getting her attention was a good sign of engagement.  I also spent a lot of time with my face jammed under my daughter's bed talking to Lomasi sweetly, getting her used to the sound of my voice associated with my smell (I spent a lot of time with my glasses off and her sniffing the stems, good way to keep arm's length and still have them SMELL you).  It seemed to pay off, and she started to come out, at least pop her head out, more and more.  These are the times I really expressed the "come hither" kind of eye contact.  The let's be friends we're ok slow blinks and the respectful, slow approaches, to the point she trusted us if we approached her that way, and stopped hissing and cowering, and was more curious..  Breakthrough!  It was time to really ramp things up.    Enter - Trouble.

Lomasi hanging out with foster-daddy on the couch!

As I mentioned earlier, Trouble was PERFECT for Lomasi to watch.  She's a HIGHLY people-oriented cat.  As soon as she sees a person it's a meow, tail up in the air, and an approach demanding love and pets.  Cats learn a LOT from watching the behavior of other cats, and we would leave Trouble in the room with Lomasi (who accepted her immediately - much to our pleasure), and when we would come in the room Trouble would greet us with jubilation.  Lomasi watched this very closely, almost like she couldn't figure out why at first... But when Trouble gets her pets and flops down rolling around and purring, Lomasi observed this trust of us, and saw that no harm came to Trouble, either.  I think this, more than anything, encouraged her on to the next step.  Her curiosity got the best of her, she had no reason to be scared that she could see, and eventually, SHE started to greet us when we came in.  Not coming out all the way, but poking her head out, meowing, and actually WANTING to be pet.

I have to say, once the floodgates were opened for this little girl, she turned into a love MACHINE!  You could not pet her fast enough or long enough and she would thrust her head into your hand demanding more pets, while running in circles to make sure you pet all of her!  She started more and more to come out from her hiding place to seek love, and really started to actively engage in play (instead of just the odd swat at an object).   She had made leaps and bounds in only a short time, but it all started with her ENGAGING with us, instead of just fearing us.

The lovely Lomasi, confident and comfortable in her environment.  A long time coming!

The next step... to introduce her to the wider world of the house and resident cats.  This made me especially nervous, because we also have two large dogs.  Now, to qualify that, although both dogs are 65 pounds, they are both EXTREMELY good with cats.  They have been trained from puppyhood that cats are higher than they are in the pack, they never chase cats, bark or nip at them, and in fact, our resident cats often mother and groom the dogs, or cuddle up with them.  I wasn't sure, given Lomasi's sketchy background and time in the big world, what her experiences with dogs had been, so that was definitely a factor.  But the only way to really know is to try, so we just opened up the door to her room, and let her have free roam in and out.   At first, she hid under the bed, but from a vantage where she could look out the door and see everything happening.  Before long, though, she was wandering the house, exploring, and although she would startle and run when loud noises or unexpected movements would occur, instead of just diving, she would run a few feet, then turn around and investigate.   She was past ONLY her instinct self-preservation reactions, and although she still has them, they are less and less literally every day.  Her first encounter with the dogs involved some hissing and poufy fur, and even now she's not particularly "friendly" with them, but she tolerates or ignores them and is no longer afraid.  She can meet new people with confidence, and is quickly inserting herself into the family routine.  She's even starting to help me with a few other trauma cats we have taken in (more about these guys coming), and has made incredible progress!  The other day, she jumped up on the couch WITH us for the first time every... planted herself down, and cuddled up!   We were blown away but so grateful..... This is where she needs to be.  NOW she can find a home and live a normal, happy, fulfilled kitty life!  Really all that's left is to get her ready to be in a cage in a pet store.  Her experiences with cages in the past were not good, but with some exposure therapy (feeding her in an empty cage with the door open, etc), before long I am very confident that won't be an issue either.  The months of work and effort paid off.... we couldn't be more happy!!

This is a beautiful little girl, and out there, somewhere, is the perfect forever home for her.  Whoever her future family are, they are VERY lucky.  This little girl is going to be the best cat anyone could ever ask for.  And I'm not just saying that... She's just AWESOME.

If you are interested in potentially adopting Lomasi, you can find all the contact information for Neveah's Charity of West Lincoln on their webpage, http://ncwl.weebly.com/, or their Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/NcwlCatRescue

To read the first part of Lomasi's story, it is here:  http://traumacatdiaries.blogspot.ca/2014/04/about-as-feral-as-my-kitchen-table.html