GREAT success at the shelter today!!! The shelter has got some older (semi)ferals they are trying to socialize. Difficult job, especially in a shelter. Last week I tried to approach one of them, a gorgeous peach and white coloured mail. Could approach until about 1.5 metres before he escaped. Today, I was washing them all down with wet towels and a little bit of valerian. I noticed that the cats were much more relaxed. Even with this hot weather, they were hissing and growling pretty much. Well, at least some… So this cat turns out to looooove the valerian. When he was lying down and not noticing me (BIG surprise, cause I could approach him far better than last week, and nobody has been working with him ever since!!!), I kind of sneaked behind him and touched his rear feet. Of course he startled at first, but remained in this lying position, so I tried again! Then he jumped up and wanted to leg it. However curiosity caught the better of him, so he turned around. I extended my hand again, just to see what would happen. Ok, I would have deserved a good beating, but instead he just tapped me once WITHOUT NAILS!!! He hissed and walked away!! What a progress!! VERY happy about it! This is a gorgeous cat that would find a home in no-time!! If I can manage to keep this up, that would be wonderful! Another victory was brushing a cat with severe aggression problems that does not wash himself and HATES brushing for at least 15 minutes! And he even let himself be washed down, and kept coming back for more! YAY!!! Might have been the valerian or the bloody heat. But I will try this again when the weather cools down, just to see if the valerian may also work as a stress reducer. Would be wonderful for shelters!
Posted on: Sun, 21 Jul 2013 17:29:54 +0000
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