There's always another cat who needs help...

Lori is awesome.  Just figured I'd put that out there.  She is all over the place, and spends a lot of time at HAC in and out.  When she's there, she often pulls cats that she knows would not be given a chance, or would not be pulled by most rescues because they may be a "challenge".   Well, she did it again a few weeks ago.  A couple of beautiful kittens, about 4-6 months old.  They were born feral, and were trap cats.  As I've mentioned before, feral cats have NO chance of surviving HAC without help, and are often "dealt with" fairly quickly.  She saw these two, a sweet little orange tabby male, and a beautiful, petite tortie female, and she knew they wouldn't have a chance.  They were scared, hissy, swatty, and definitely wanted nothing to do with people.  Who can blame them, though?   After their only real experiences with people being trapped, poked, prodded, and confined, what reason would they have to like us?     Lori, being the amazing person she is, pulled the cats.  They were trapped in Hamilton at "Tradewind", an industrial area, I'm told.  So she named them "Trade" and "Wind".  Suitable names.  She asked if I could help with them, and of course, who am I to say no to a challenge?

Wind in her HAC picture.  Fairly obvious she's unhappy to be there.

Trade in his HAC portrait.  Mr. Attitude.

So Trade and Wind came to me, and I've started the process with them.  I always start my process by WATCHING first.  Trying to figure out how their minds work, what their personalities are like, how they react to different stimuli.   These two are DEFINITELY feral... but by no means aggressive.  Mostly, they were just scared.  Not sure what to make of everything, and easily overwhelmed.  Oftentimes, being overwhelmed with stimuli will make cats attack or act out somewhat aggressively, but mostly, it's bluff and bluster to protect themselves.   No different with these two.  Just have to get them engaged...

I started out with the usual steps.  Feeding them with my hand in the dish....  Spending quiet time just sitting near them so they can see me, smell me, and see that I mean them no harm.  Respectful eye contact, keeping low, keeping slow, and over time, it worked.  Trade is a vibrant and curious little boy.  Sweet and inquisitive, he immediately tried to figure out my angle.  Wind, well she mostly just hid, scared, saucer-eyed and timid under furniture for a week or so.  She wouldn't come out to eat or drink when we were around.  I figured that would take some time, but that if I could get through to Trade, she would follow along.  

I noticed that Trade LOVED to play.  Immediately upon seeing any kind of toy, he forgets his fear and fully engages in play.  This is one of the benefits of working with cats when they are young.  They still are so motivated by play and fun, it's a good easy way to get them hooked.  As soon as I came in the room, I would pull out a feather or the laser pointer, and have a good play session with Trade until he was so tired he flopped over.  Wind watched from under her safe little sanctuary, but I could see that less and less her eyes were consumed with fear, and more and more they had a spark of curiosity.  She really wanted to play, but could not move past the paralyzing fear she was feeling to actually take a swat at a toy.  I figured that would come in time, so I just kept doing things like that.   Within a few days, Trade would greet me when I came in the room by coming out from under the dresser and meowing.  It was like his way of saying "Hey, it's you.   Playtime, right!?" , and he started to follow me around until I played with him.  When playing, I could get him fairly close, but as soon as he REALIZED he was close, he would skip back a few feet and start playing again.  But then..about a week ago, I saw something that made me REALLY happy.  I was playing with Trade, he was ALMOST done..... and then I saw a dark little paw slide out from under the dresser and swat at the toy.  AHA!  Wind was trying to play.   She doesn't play as hard as Trade, but once she started, she wanted to play.   YAY!!

Fast forward a week or so, with daily feedings with positive scent associations...  Daily play.   Some treats.   We still can't pet them, but they are working their way closer and closer every day.   Now, they get so involved in play that they will brush up against our hands, our legs, etc, and may startle very briefly, but are now starting to get INTERESTED in these two-legged things.  When they come close, they stop to take a sniff, and just two days ago, I was SHOCKED to see, but Trade and Wind BOTH jumped up on the bed to play, right on top of my husband and me!  They even hung out for a while, and even when Wind jumped down, Trade stuck around for a while, lounging at the end of the bed.   My husband and I both did a quiet "YAY" but had to act like it was no big thing.  We didn't want the cats to think that we were paying TOO much attention to them (that usually causes them to scatter).

Just last night, Trade came up to lay RIGHT beside me to play with a toy I had, and let his face touch my hand a few times.   He backed up a bit after, and would not allow ME to pet HIM, but he had NO problems touching ME.   He's funny, it's almost like he has to keep up "appearances".  He is SO incredibly curious, and it's like he and Wind really WANT to be around people.  They see the other cats coming and soaking up love and pets, and when they watch, they tend to move very close and stay there.   They just aren't THERE yet.  It won't be long though!  Engagement has been made, and barriers are quickly dropping.  Trade likely already has a home when he's ready for adoption... which is great!  Wind doesn't yet, however she is GORGEOUS and a lovely little girl, so I have no doubt it won't be long before she gets adopted once she's available.  She's quite shy, and is often eclipsed by the boisterous Trade, so I don't mind spending a little extra time to give her the confidence she deserves, even if he gets adopted.  Lomasi has been coming to help, throwing herself at us for love and looking over at the aloof Trade and Wind with something I would call akin to condescension.  The look on her face is like "Hey, losers, you're missing out.  Your loss, my gain!  HAHAHA!"   She plays with them as well, and Quark and Trouble often round out the group by coming to visit and showing Trade and Wind just how awesome it is to love people.   I'm making a goal for us to have Trade allowing us to touch him by the end of the week.  Of course, reality may be entirely different, and animals don't work on human timelines, but it's something to work towards.  I believe in celebrating the small victories, because each one is another brick in the foundation, and every journey begins with a single step, followed by one more at a time.  I'll make sure to post anything new that happens, and I'm working on getting updated pictures for them both.   Thank you to everyone who reads!