Saturday, July 2, 2016

Earning Bucky's Trust


Cap and Bucky are brothers who were born outside and rescued during a TNR project.  Volunteers Stacey and Brian, who have helped many foster kitties find their forever homes, agreed to work on these shy brothers to get them ready for adoption. Having the patience to help scared kitties come out of their shells is rewarding. Here is an update on Cap and Bucky after just a few weeks in their foster home: 

Thought I would give you an update on the boys. Cap is doing amazing, he's like a normal indoor cat, and has connected with the other cats in the house. He loves to snuggle and be pet, and is extremely playful/destructive towards cat toys. All I need to work with him is being picked up.


Bucky, on the other hand, is a different story. He's taken longer to warm up to us than any other cats we've had. He's just started to come out of hiding though, and has been VERY curious about us lately. He started out just peeking around the kitchen to watch us (I make sure he watched us interact with the other kitties in a very positive way). Now he comes out to eat with the rest of the kitties (he LOVES the other cats, he rubs all over them; he will soon learn that to be friends with the other cats he'll need to be friends with us, because the cats follow us everywhere we go in the house). He will let us get a little close to him (he will run down the stairs if we get too close, but comes right back), he does hiss and growl still, but when I go to hand feed him treats he will swat them out of my hand, he does it nicely though with no claws, so that's a good sign.
I had a breakthrough with him last night and he followed me to the living room and sat on the coffee table and ate treats I gave him. (I also caught him in the kitty tree with Cap last night.)


Little by little Bucky is improving every day with us, he just takes a little more time than some of the others. We do have a big kitty tunnel in our kitchen that he feels very safe in; you can tell he wants to be a part of the family already, but is just scared. So he likes to lay in the cat tunnel and watch us, to be around everyone and still feel safe.

A few days later:

Bucky has already improved so much since I sent that email. He is now staying in rooms with us and the other cats because he's so curious about us, and LOVES all the cats. We have now gotten Bucky to be able to eat out of our hands. He still doesn't like being touched yet, but when we do pet him, he doesn't run much. 
Cap and Bucky don't mind the dog at all, very dog friendly.
Cap has started to cuddle in bed with me every now and then, and he loves to lick and nibble on fingers and toes. 
I can't wait to see more of Bucky's progress. (He's definitely food motivated now.) :)


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