Looking for a kitten or young cat when I came across Margarita

[Omaha Steve]

http://theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/clickToGive/ars/story/scaredy-cat232




After I moving back to Florida with my almost 2 year old male tabby Sammy whom I rescued as a kitten, I decided to adopt a friend for him. I went to the local SPCA and was looking for a kitten or young cat when I came across Margarita. She was crouched up against the back of the cage and looked petrified. Gray striped with the biggest gold eyes my heart melted. Though she was feral and not the loving mush cat I wanted I could not leave her there knowing no one would take her. She came home with me that day in August and after a few days I introduced her to Sammy. They are inseparable now. Margarita would not let me touch her, ran away every time I got close. Slowly she has come around. It's January and now she will sleep on my bed, eat from my hand, and come when I call. She still runs from me most of the time and touching her is a process in the works but I think my Lil Girl will let me all the way in. Most people ask me why I keep an animal I cannot pet, and my answer is simple. She was supposed to be mine and love given needs no repayment.

Gina Calogero
Fernandina Beach, FL

[rjsquirrel]

1. Oh she's gorgeous

and that is the perfect name (presuming you are citing Bulgakov).

I love ferals the most. Once you do win their trust they are fiercely loyal.

[Daemonaquila]

2. She's gorgeous, and she'll come around.

I don't get that way of thinking at all. My cat army (minus one, a rescue from a household that had no idea how to handle exotics so the poor thing was half-crazed but is a total love now) are feral foundlings who fetched up at our door at one point or another. Even the feral guy who we feed but who flees the porch when we come home, has come to groove on petting during his "safe" feeding time. Cats are fabulous - you just have to work on your relationship sometimes before they'll decide you're 100% safe.

[F4lconF16]

6. Yep.

So many people just don't want to invest the time or have the patience to understand the animal they've decided they want. They figure it must be the animal, and oddly enough, it rarely is (at least I've yet to meet one).

My roommate is taking care of a friends cat for a few months. So far, I think I'm the only one she's fairly comfortable around, and I've only been able to sit down with her a couple times in the last week and a half. She's a wonderful cat, a total sweetheart. She loves hopping in my lap at the least convenient times in the morning when I'm in a rush. And yet my roommates still think she's super skittish, that she's not that nice, etc., etc. It's because they don't understand the cat, and worse, they're not interested in understanding.

I came closer than I ever have to yelling at my roommate last week. What happened is that we have a dog that one of my other roommates owns. Lovable, if a bit doofus-y, but still a nice dog. He tends to get along fine with other animals, but he still terrifies the cat. This is because my roommates decided to introduce the two in the absolute worst way possible: when the cat first arrived, they let her out of her cage into the biggest room in the unfamiliar house, surrounded by people, with a big dog 4 feet away (thankfully at least on a very short leash). Oddly enough, she was not particularly enthusiastic about this, and hid behind the couch before the dog got too close and she went at him, causing him to panic and the whole thing escalated. I was not happy about this, and made it clear, and since they've been better about keeping the two farther apart when they do the controlled introductions.

Still, there was a night when the dog got too close again, the cat panicked, and the dog was forced out of the room. Afterwards, the cat was still nervous as hell, and was sitting behind the table growling. My roommate got annoyed with her, and started speaking in a loud, aggressive* tone to the cat, telling her to be quiet, she needs to calm down. At that point I was furious, and went off on him for blaming the cat for every stupid thing they had done. I would have been screaming at him (I was pissed), but I was too close to the cat and attempting to help her calm down.

Thankfully, he did come to me the next day and apologized, saying he appreciated me telling him, and that he would try to be better about looking from the cat's perspective. While I'm glad he said so, and I think he's a nice enough guy that he'll actually be decent to the cat from here on out, it's a perfect example of what people tend to do: buy or accept care of an animal that they like the concept of, ignore the reality of the animal, and then blame the animal when they screw up. I can't think of a single animal I've known, even the "aggressive" ones, that my friends have introduced to me that I haven't gotten along fine with after some time and patience.

*aggressive from the cat's perspective, an annoyed tone to us humans

Edit: oh hey, 1000 posts. Wheeeeeeeee!

[BrotherIvan]

7. You get a gold star

People sometimes have a strange view/fear of cats. It's nice that you care helping and protecting the cat.

[Arugula Latte]

3. When I was growing up we took in many kitties including a "feral" mama and her two babies.

We would "find homes for them" when we tamed them, we said. Well, mama and son came around right away and were big love bugs. The little girl took, no joke, about 13 years to come around to the point where we could pet her. The family joke was "well, I guess it's time to find them homes now!" ... Hah!

[Hestia]

4. Totally understand - our foundling has taken 6 years to pet but only on his terms not yours

You get a chunk bit out of you if he is annoyed with you petting him. But boy, when *he* wants lovin', he wants it *now* and he wraps his arms around my arm and won't let go!

[hifiguy]

5. Poor little kitty.

I adopted a very scaredy older kitty some years ago. It took him a few weeks but he decided the ear scratching, wet food and spoiling were more than worth it. It can take a scaredy-cat a while to get their cattitude back.

[Vattel]

8. I love it when people make excellent choices.