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Old 10-17-2008, 02:00 PM
ashleywong ashleywong is offline
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Default Re: Need help with taming feral kittens

you know what lynie? you and i need to stay away from the name "coco"

you have a coco who is cranky, you have cocochino who is also cranky, my coco used to be cranky to all of us, now she's only cranky to ginger (who's also trying to intimidate her).

in this instances - "coco" has proven to have some "issues" with assimilation,socialising, trust, etc in the human beings.

well, jokes aside,

me thinks that nothing is insurmountable.

i don't think that coco is cranky honestly - the word is misleading if you'll pardon my being pedantic.

sometimes a cat may have experience something that causes it fear, anger, mostly fear or something unpleasant and it tends to associate this with the nearest object it sees (be it living or non-living). thereafter, the cat will react negatively to this object.

for example, you have two cats, and one day you accidentally step on the tail of one cat, this poor cat howled in pain, and at the same time, coincidentally, your cat comes along. your first cat pounced on your second cat and thrased the daylight out of your second cat- you went hysterical and try to break up the fight, etc. then first cat and second cat didn't seem to get along well.

what happened was when you stepped on your first cat's tail, you caused it shock, pain, fear. in its panic, it didn't associate you with the pain, it associates the pain and fear with your 2nd cat who innocently happened along at the wrong time and transfer the negative assocation with the 2nd cat although the 2nd cat will not know why the 1st cat is mad with him..

in your instance, cocochino has a negative assocation with you, he fears you to the extend that he feels he has to defend himself, scratching out and hissing - a cat's mechanism to defend itself - either fight or flight. sometimes, you won't bother about his hissing - he then learns that you are not afraid and he can't make you back down, then he learns to develop fear of you, always slinking away from you, hiding from you, cowering each time you're near, avoid any contact with you, etc, etc.

the only time the cat shows any "positive" (relatively-speaking) is when the cat is eating - like you said, it is driven by hunger and it will want to satiate its hunger and you're able to touch it then.

it is good to hear that your bf's sister is willing to take in cocochino. but i hope both she and you will continue to listen to cocochino and try the best to understand cocochino when he speaks out - every single behaviour the cat shows - whether vocal or not, is the cat speaking out - it is not the cat's fault that we don;t speak the cat's language and don't understand the cat. we just need to try harder and try with more patience.

the same goes to socks and her new owners.

i know how it feels because my cats took about almost a year to get to know me and to trust me enough to let me come near it and for me to get them into my house - prior to that, they were outdoor half-strays whom i fed outside in my backyard, when it rains, they will scatter to find shelter, etc.

my own coco had some issues with trust and association with us, and i can say that it was only about two months ago that we are able to gain her trust completely and lo behold we found that she's highly intelligent - she does know her name and when we're talking to her and what we want from her. all this were hidden in her "mysterious" behaviour - hissing at us, slinking away from us, hiding away from us,

what they need from us is genuine love and attention and patience and time - which all of us have in abundance.

i'll try to look up this matter in the 'net and if i find good materials i'll post it here to share with all

in the meantime,

"ganbate" lynie, don't give up on them

btw, i'm afraid i can't agree with calling mama cat "gatal" although i know it is done in a joking manner but it has such "negative" connotation - as if she did it intentionally...i'm sorry i'm being such a pedantic today.
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