Volunteering in rescue, every new day and every new cat presents new challenges. Here’s one of our latest challenges: The Crusher.
Crusher was a stray, rescued from impound through Feline Rescue’s outreach program. His kennel card read, “Caution! Will bite” which turned out to be no lie. When picked up from animal control, the Crusher emerged from his carrier very angry—hissing, snorting, and lunging. “Uh oh,” I thought. This was not one of those scared, shy and predictable feral cats with which we're quite comfortable. Here was a huge, in-your-face, understandably angry cat. We could see in his face that Crusher was really a sweet boy, and we wanted to help him. But honestly, he was big and scary!
While Crusher spent a couple more weeks in a kennel to recover from his neuter and vaccinations, several volunteers helped by talking to him nicely and slipped food dishes and treats through the bars of his cage. Slowly Crush started to trust and relax a little. Eventually he even started to play with us at a distance.
Crush and I worked out an understanding, and he would let me open his door to clean out his kennel and give him fresh water every day. But he still lunged at me if I tried anything fancy. We were not getting along.
So I brought Crusher home to foster. It took Crusher a few days to settle down again. But when he stopped lunging and we were able to safely let him out of his cage, then things really started to change. Crusher was able to see that he could trust us, and then we could trust him too. Turns out, he’s a Lap Crusher, a real snuggler.
Crush likes to receive chin scratches and to give head-butts (and everyone had to take a major leap of faith to find this out). Crush still has some progress to make before he’s a totally comfortable and predictable house cat. But it’s just a matter of spending time with people he can trust. Crush loves his new buddy.
If you too have faith in this big, sweet boy and can offer the Crusher a home and be his next buddy, please call Molly at 651-295-3758 or email outreach@felinerescue.org.
Crusher was a stray, rescued from impound through Feline Rescue’s outreach program. His kennel card read, “Caution! Will bite” which turned out to be no lie. When picked up from animal control, the Crusher emerged from his carrier very angry—hissing, snorting, and lunging. “Uh oh,” I thought. This was not one of those scared, shy and predictable feral cats with which we're quite comfortable. Here was a huge, in-your-face, understandably angry cat. We could see in his face that Crusher was really a sweet boy, and we wanted to help him. But honestly, he was big and scary!
While Crusher spent a couple more weeks in a kennel to recover from his neuter and vaccinations, several volunteers helped by talking to him nicely and slipped food dishes and treats through the bars of his cage. Slowly Crush started to trust and relax a little. Eventually he even started to play with us at a distance.
Crush and I worked out an understanding, and he would let me open his door to clean out his kennel and give him fresh water every day. But he still lunged at me if I tried anything fancy. We were not getting along.
So I brought Crusher home to foster. It took Crusher a few days to settle down again. But when he stopped lunging and we were able to safely let him out of his cage, then things really started to change. Crusher was able to see that he could trust us, and then we could trust him too. Turns out, he’s a Lap Crusher, a real snuggler.
Crush likes to receive chin scratches and to give head-butts (and everyone had to take a major leap of faith to find this out). Crush still has some progress to make before he’s a totally comfortable and predictable house cat. But it’s just a matter of spending time with people he can trust. Crush loves his new buddy.
If you too have faith in this big, sweet boy and can offer the Crusher a home and be his next buddy, please call Molly at 651-295-3758 or email outreach@felinerescue.org.
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