Sapphire is the feral kitten I trapped several months ago. She’s going in to be spayed at the end of the month. By my calculations, she’s 7 months old, but Dr. Val’s best guess puts her at six months old. We’re each willing to accept the other’s best guess, because we know it can be challenging when you don’t know for sure. Unfortunately, Sapphire has not chosen to allow us to handle her, which makes catching her tough. Because of that, we’ve been keeping her in the cage when we’re in Central Texas. The house is too big to track down a kitten that’s hiding, and the parlor and kitchen have too many places requiring me to crawl, and I don’t crawl easily.

Sapphire will approach and sniff our fingers through the cage bars. Sometimes, she will sniff my fingers with the cage door open. She will not allow us to pet her. I’ve been able to capture her to put her in her carrier to take her to and from San Antonio or to the vet, but she doesn’t like that. Today, I decided to capture her and tuck her under my sweatshirt (I started doing that several months ago but made no progress, and had trouble catching her, so I stopped — not wise) to get some much needed cuddle time. I had to put gloves on, because she was extremely resistant. Once I catch her, she snuggles in on my chest. After she calmed down, I moved her under my sweatshirt. She seems to be okay with that, although I’ve received a few hisses when I’ve reached under to stroke her. She’s inconsistent.

She’s curious about us. She seems like a good candidate for socialization, but we haven’t been successful with her yet. She’s a fun cat. She plays well with the other cats. I want her out and about in the house. But she’s been a ghost when she’s out. Somehow, we have to fix that.