CC was laying down and I thought I’d be brave. Take the chance to try and pet him. And then he ran away. Except he ran away to a countertop in the bathroom where I could easily pet him. Then he started purring very loudly. So I decided to pick him up. And he went for it. It’s very hard to pick up a CC. But he let me do it!
CC originally arrived as a feral cat that could not be tamed. Our goal was to let him know that he had a home base he could get food at and maybe partner him up with another feral orange boy that was also problematic.
A year ago he was living in a kennel in my bedroom too angry to accept pettings. And here he is purring loudly in my arms.
I love when kitties finally realize how nice pets and cuddles are! They’re very silly beings and I adore them.
I had an ex years ago who rescued what was basically a feral kitten that she found crying under a shed in a friend’s backyard. He was theorized to be the son of an apparently notoriously-feral neighborhood cat that the local kids dubbed “House Tornado” due to the inevitable results for anyone who dared to try to take her in.
That cat was insane and would claw and bite the shit out of you. He would also harass the shit out of her other, older cat. I didn’t grow up with cats, but my ex did, and she knew how to treat this cat, and I learned so much from it. One thing we liked to do was, if he went into a feral rage, we’d quickly pick him up, spin him around a couple times, then put him back down, which would usually stun him before he ran off out of confusion. It seemed to work pretty well at distracting him until he eventually forgot to be mad.
Sure enough, after a few years of bites and scratches, he slowly chilled out. He would still sometimes forget mid-pets and lose his shit for a moment, before remembering that it was ok and calming back down. Which was funny because the insane look wouldn’t leave his eyes lol. And he wasn’t always cool around strangers at first, before coming around.
Still probably my favorite cat I’ve ever interacted with. There really is something rewarding about winning over a feral cat lol
