Sunday, September 11, 2005
Taming the Shrew
Well, not really a shrew - more like a cat. For the past 2-3 years, my girlfriend and I have been "taking care of" a stray cat that has lived in her neighborhood for at least 4 years (we know that because the lady that used to live next door took care of her before my girlfriend moved in). We have been feeding her, petting her, and giving her her pet control medicine when she would stick around long enough to let us. However, since my girlfriend is moving, we had to make a decision on the cat: should we leave her or try to tame her and take her with us.
It seems pretty obvious to us that at one point or another, this cat was tame - she will walk right up to you (if she knows you) and let you pet her and she is incredibly affectionate. I've never seen a true "stray" that is like that. Usually, they are so wary of people they won't even let you near them.
We decided a couple of months ago that we were going to try to take her away from the house when my girlfriend moves. The trick then became to get the cat to come inside and become "tame." This proved harder than we expected. Before we actually decided to "tame" her, she would come inside my girlfriend's house, look around, eat inside, etc. Once we made that decision, however, she wanted nothing to do with that. She started becoming more skittish, less personable, and less likely to let you come near her. I don't get it.
Finally, after about 6 weeks of trying it the nice way, my girlfriend decided to take things into her own hands the other day: when the cat came up to the house in the morning to eat (we feed her soft food, so we only put it out when she is there to keep the other cats and the neighborhood dogs from feeding themselves), my girlfriend grabbed the cat and threw her inside the house. She was so proud of herself, she called me at 5am to tell me she'd done it. :)
Anyway, ever since then (the last 2 days) Toto has been an inside cat - mostly living in my girlfriend's room under her bed. Today, we moved most of her furniture out of the house, so Toto no longer has anywhere to hide. I sat in the room with her for about 30 minutes today and pet her - she seemed to eat it up! She was purring and snuggling up against me. After a couple of tries, she even let me hold her on my lap! Not too bad for a first try...
Anyway, so now we have the cat inside. She will again be "domesticated," whatever that means for a cat... and we won't have to worry about her starving to death after my girlfriend leaves. Problem solved. ¶ 2:03:00 AM
It seems pretty obvious to us that at one point or another, this cat was tame - she will walk right up to you (if she knows you) and let you pet her and she is incredibly affectionate. I've never seen a true "stray" that is like that. Usually, they are so wary of people they won't even let you near them.
We decided a couple of months ago that we were going to try to take her away from the house when my girlfriend moves. The trick then became to get the cat to come inside and become "tame." This proved harder than we expected. Before we actually decided to "tame" her, she would come inside my girlfriend's house, look around, eat inside, etc. Once we made that decision, however, she wanted nothing to do with that. She started becoming more skittish, less personable, and less likely to let you come near her. I don't get it.
Finally, after about 6 weeks of trying it the nice way, my girlfriend decided to take things into her own hands the other day: when the cat came up to the house in the morning to eat (we feed her soft food, so we only put it out when she is there to keep the other cats and the neighborhood dogs from feeding themselves), my girlfriend grabbed the cat and threw her inside the house. She was so proud of herself, she called me at 5am to tell me she'd done it. :)
Anyway, ever since then (the last 2 days) Toto has been an inside cat - mostly living in my girlfriend's room under her bed. Today, we moved most of her furniture out of the house, so Toto no longer has anywhere to hide. I sat in the room with her for about 30 minutes today and pet her - she seemed to eat it up! She was purring and snuggling up against me. After a couple of tries, she even let me hold her on my lap! Not too bad for a first try...
Anyway, so now we have the cat inside. She will again be "domesticated," whatever that means for a cat... and we won't have to worry about her starving to death after my girlfriend leaves. Problem solved. ¶ 2:03:00 AM
