I have three cats I’m concerned with for socialization at this point. Here’s where we stand with them.

Two of the four feral kittens we brought inside are still a concern.  Rossie is in San Antonio with Mr. L and Ajax for the next three weeks for more intense personalized socialization efforts.  Rossie responds well to the more confined environment down there.  Ajax needs more attention from his daddy (he adores Mr. L), and he helps Mr. L work with Rossie.

RubyMae has done fairly well with socialization, but I see her shying away from human contact.  She has a new hiding place in the Central Texas house, and I’m not sure where it is.  She needs to be held more and petted when I can find her.

Lastly, I’m working with Sneaky, who appears to be the last of the outside ferals I captured and got spayed or neutered.  As I’ve mentioned, I’ve not seen Little Orange since January, and I’ve not seen Peaches since mid-March.  Since that time, Sneaky appears to have taken up residence under our house exclusively.  She’s expressed interest in looking in our windows at night.  Since I was unable to trap her in a conventional way, I decided to take advantage of her apparent loneliness and try to lure her into interacting with me.  If you’ve been following along, you know I was able to capture her and get her spayed.  She’s current on shots and has resumed living under the house.  She will come out when I go outside and call to her.  We have sessions on the side porch with and without canned food.  She seems to crave having her ears rubbed, so we do a lot of that.

What we’re working on is appropriate cat to human behavior.  She tends to swat and nip at me.  I think that’s an indication that she either wants more attention or that she’s become over excited from the attention she’s received and needs a break.  Usually, she does it when I stop giving her attention, so I tend to think the former, but the latter is often the reason for that behavior, so this human is confused and not sure if she’s interpreting the signals correctly.  I’ve been saying, “No claws,” and “No bite” when I anticipate she’s going to strike, and she backs off on those commands — most of the time.  To be fair, the bites are becoming more gentle and more like the love nibbles the indoor cats give.  Sometimes the claws are more of a pat that a dig, but not often enough yet.  My right forearm looks like a cat pincushion.  I can put my hand under her body and pull her partially onto my lap and hold her near me, and she does not object.  I have a lot to learn about how to interpret her behavior, but Sneaky has shown an amazing ability to forgive my blunders.  She craves attention.  At this rate, I may have to take her in for boarding at the same time as the others when we go on vacation in July.  I’m not sure she’ll want to be left alone outside for two weeks.

At night, before I go up for bed, if I look out the parlor window, she’s usually sitting on the porch railing looking in.  Our poor lonely kitty.