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| Name: |
Rosie
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Age: |
Four years old
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| Gender: |
Female
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Kind: |
Torbie
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Home: |
Clearfield, Utah, USA
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Rosie is a feral-born kitty we brought in to our home rescue her. Her integration into the family wasn't an easy one. The first year, she refused to come down from the rafters. I had to feed and water her up there and clean up her mess she left in one of the space she liked to hide in. With a lot of patience and understanding I eventually won her trust starting with making sure she had enough food and water. Then later I tried using a long dowel so I could reach her from the floor to gently scratch her sides and anywhere else I could reach. Later I would climb up on a step stool and reach my hand out to her. She took a swipe at me a few times, but with her claws mostly in. I was actually pleased she did that because I happened to know that cats like to beat the crap out of things they are afraid of and it's their way of getting past that fear. So let her smack at me. Slowly over time I managed to scratch one of her ears and let her discover how nice that was. I kept doing this same routine of feeding, watering, cleaning up after her and always trying to pet her. She was really beginning to enjoy the human contact.
Then one day I came down into the basement to do my usual cleaning routine and she had moved to the other side of the room for the first time ever. She was standing half in half out of another space in the rafters looking down at me. So I took a gamble, climbed up there with a step stool and slowly picked her up and she let me hold her. I petted her and tried to put her on the floor, that was too much for her and she promptly ran back up into the rafters. Next day, tried again, only this time I put her on the window ledge, then fed and watered her there for a week. Always I petted her gently and slowly, giving her time to think about it. I don't remember how long it was before she decided all on her own to come down to the floor, but she did it. To my surprise she began to use the litter box all by herself, no longer doing her business in the rafters, much to my relief.
Ooska, our very large grey and white cat had been watching her for a very long time, wanting her to come down and unable to get up in the rafters himself. Well, when she came down, he loved all over her in his feline fashion. I think his attention also helped to calm her down as well as mine.
After some long observation, I noticed that she never did her business anywhere other than the litter box. So I began the slow process of encouraging her to come upstairs. She had learned to come at a whistle since I do that a lot when I pass out the food, so I called to her with voice and whistles. It took a long time, but eventually she learned it was okay to come upstairs and be comfortable with it.
Now days she spends the night in the basement like the others where there are beds, food, food, water and litter boxes all the time. Then they are all let out in the morning. She gets along great with her family and she sleeps on my bed, the floor, the couch...pretty much where she wants. She never climbs up on the counters or the shelves in the living room, something none are allowed to do and we never had to tell her not to.
She eats cat food, but she also enjoys tuna and chicken. She can be a tiny bit skittish once in a while, but mostly she's calm, happy and relaxed. She enjoys the company of her feline and her human friends, never has to go hungry or be cold and wet again.
I'm guessing that Rosie is about three to four years old. She's also one of our very smallest cats. She can't be more than five or six pounds.
We adopted her when she was already full grown. She was never an aggressive cat, she just hissed and spit a lot until she learned that no one was going to hurt her.
She's amazing. Not only is she remarkably well behaved, she's relaxed enough to roll over and let me pet her belly, which is something a nervous cat would never do. She even will give me kisses on my hand and as you can see in the pictures, will come and sit in my lap.
She always looks unkempt, even after I finish brushing her. Though her fur has developed a healthy shine she didn't have when she was running wild in our back yard.
She's definitely worth the trouble and time it took to tame her.
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