by Josie Townsend
Words fail us at times. Just as artists and photographers lack the ability to recreate the stunning beauty they long to portray, so do written descriptions fall short of conveying the profound gratitude that pours from a heart aching with the realization of just how barren life has been.
Two Novembers ago, Merlin Alexander became our latest back-yard blessing. He arrived, wild as the March wind, with a family who rented a house down the street for two years until escalating domestic violence shattered their relationship. Lord, bless the beasts and the children. Children can be transferred to a safer environment by a court order. Little beasts are not so fortunate.
Someone in the family apparently put food out for their little gray cat, but they provided no further care. Perhaps they had none to give. Sometimes in the midst of a battle, surviving is the best we can do. As the dust settled across the couple’s breaking point, they abandoned the house and each other and the one member of their family who had no voice.
During the next couple of years, we saw the gray cat sporadically. We can only wonder if someone down the street put food out for him, and perhaps he established a territory close to the source. That person must have moved on as well, for Gray Cat began roaming the neighborhood, hunting in the field behind the subdivision, wolfing down scraps people tossed out for the night shift – opossum, raccoons, skunks, and foxes who patrol back yards as humans sleep – while avoiding the cruelty of people who had taught him the danger of loud voices and hurled stones.
He grew thinner. His coat became dry and dull. He fled at the mere sight of a human. But Mom has a heart for healing the abandoned and abused. She and Dad began feeding Gray Cat daily on our deck. At first, they couldn’t even watch him through the glass door; if he saw them, he would disappear. We knew Mom was making progress the first time Gray Cat waited by the steps for her to place his dish on the floor, instead of darting under the deck to hide until she came back into the house and closed the door. When he finally allowed them to watch him through the glass, Mom invited him to dine while she remained outdoors. All summer long, Mom sat on the opposite end of deck each afternoon and talked to Gray Cat while he devoured his dinner. She told him all about our family and how much she loved him. She told him over and over that he was a good and handsome boy and that he didn’t have to be afraid, for she would never, ever hurt him.
But other people had hurt him, so Gray Cat refused to be touched. He hissed, spat, and swatted at outstretched hands, even when they offered food. He eventually approached Mom and rubbed ear-to-flank against her legs, scent marking her in defiance of the indoor cats he smelled on her clothing. He allowed Mom to move closer until she sat right beside him as he ate. He began to purr as she talked to him and photographed him. He occasionally meowed and trilled. But he refused to be touched.
He also declined to be trapped.
As summer dwindled into autumn, Mom and Dad set a Havahart trap on the deck. Baited it. Waited. And waited. And waited.
Gray Cat entered the trap day after day, ate the food inside, and left without ever placing a paw on the trip plate. When Dad rigged the trap so that Gray Cat could not avoid the trip plate, the hungry feline stepped inside and finally sprang the trap. However, instead of spinning around like a normal cat to see what had thwapped him in the backside when the door dropped against his rump, street-smart Gray Cat went still for a split second and then backed out from under the door. With that, Dad gave Gray Cat a real name, and Merlin (the Magician, the Magnificent) advanced one step closer to becoming a Townsend Cat.
Merlin ate beside the trap. He sat in front of its open door and surveyed his domain. But he refused to enter it after that incident, no matter how much of what kind of food awaited within, no matter how many days passed in which he ate only what he could hunt for himself.
The situation grew critical with the arrival of cold, rainy weather and two large raccoons who confronted Merlin on the deck one night. They fled when Mom turned on the light, leaving a terrified Merlin pressed against the glass door, still hissing in fear at the help he so desperately needed.
Days later, human love and persistence resulted in The Acquisition Of Merlin, another story in itself. Though Merlin initially protested his incarceration – loudly – he quickly discovered that, this time, he could not escape. Within 24 hours, he wasn’t sure he wanted to try. He had a whole room to call his own. A consistent source of delicious food. Fresh, clean water. A brand-new cat bed in a soft pillowcase. A litterbox. Two kind humans with reassuring voices. This room was warm and dry, unlike the not-so-great outdoors. And it was completely safe. No raccoons could get inside to back him into a corner and threaten his life.
Merlin did not appreciate being confined in a carrier and taken out of his safe room the next day only to arrive at a frightening new place with bright lights and overwhelming scents and sounds. He spent the night at the animal hospital for his neuter and complete wellness exam. The veterinarian said the little guy had been a fighter. Under dull fur and a layer of flea dirt, Merlin’s body was covered with scars that recorded a lifetime of battles.
Miraculously, Merlin was FIV negative. After a thorough check up, clean up, and blood work, after flea treatment, vaccinations, a microchip, and his neuter, Merlin returned home to begin his transformation from feral cat to Townsend Cat.
Integrating a Feral Feline Into Your Family
Time and Patience
His time.
Our patience.
The captive feral cat has no way of comprehending life from a person’s point of view. Fortunately, we are able to make the compassionate choice to see our world through his eyes, to respect his need for distance, and to understand that his suspicions and fears are completely justified.
Like people recovering from neglect and abuse, each feral cat and unsocialized stray will progress at his own pace. Attempting to rush interaction is unfair to the cat who is being asked to surrender the survival mentality and defensive measures that have kept him alive for most or all of his life. He cannot instantaneously trust strangers who might be cruel, nor can he immediately adapt to an utterly foreign, frightening indoor environment and lifestyle. Remember that for him, everything has changed. The vast, open world he has always known is gone, and every detail of his new habitat is alien and intimidating. The exchange of familiar dangers for unknown threats is a traumatic adjustment for anyone – human or animal.
Security
Your feral cat’s personal safety measures included a flight response that allowed him to disappear in the blink of an eye to any of several secure places where he could remain hidden. He still needs to be able to ensure his own safety.
Prepare an isolation room for him away from people and other pets. Make sure all doors and windows are fastened. Don’t underestimate his resourcefulness and determination! Cover windows if necessary to calm the frightened cat who may attempt to climb the frame or escape through the glass. Dad covered the window in Merlin’s room with a square of lightweight foam-core board for the first week.
Visually tour the room and take out or safeguard anything – objects, handles, cords, sharp staples or tacks protruding from the back of a cabinet or the bottom of a chair, etc. –on which the cat could become entangled or injured. Remove any small objects he could potentially ingest.
Create dens in the room in which your cat can take refuge. A cardboard box placed on its side and lined with a fluffy towel makes an ideal corner cave. Merlin could hide and sleep in comfort or survey the entire room from that vantage point. If he wanted to change locations, he could move to a second cardboard box in another corner.
Merlin’s third den was a pet carrier with the door propped open and a soft blanket inside. As your feral cat will require a visit with a veterinarian for his initial medical care, introducing him to the carrier as a positive and comfortable safe place can make it easier to transport him to his first appointment.
Purrsonal Space
The isolation room is now your cat’s territory. It is critical to offer him consistent peace and security and allow him time to adjust to his new life. He needs the confidence of knowing that his dens are sanctuaries in which he cannot be intruded upon or endangered. Resist the urge to approach your cat when he is hiding in them, and don’t try to prevent him from retreating to one of his cardboard caves whenever he feels the need to seek shelter.
Though you want to comfort him and offer affection, keep in mind that he doesn’t trust you yet, and your presence is frightening. As far as he is concerned, you are a predator from whom he needs to escape. The kindest thing you can do immediately upon placing him in his isolation room is to leave him alone for a few hours so he can begin acclimating to his surroundings.
Try to visit several times a day on a regular schedule. Predictability will help him settle into a routine. Before you open the door, announce your presence with the same soft voice and gentle knock every time so that he knows who is entering his territory. He will soon come to associate you with food and friendship and will welcome your visits.
Relax and talk to him or bring a book to read while sitting in his room so he can become accustomed to you. Don’t try to engage him in play right away. He may interpret erratic movements as aggression. A feral cat hasn’t encountered toys and won’t understand their purpose. Merlin ran and hid when Mom tossed a treat to him, because he thought she was throwing something at him. Never try to sneak up on the cat or corner him, and never make loud noises or behave in a threatening manner toward him, even if he has scratched you out of misdirected self-defense. Trust takes time and can only grow in the absence of fear.
Gain his trust by consistently proving you can be trusted. Demonstrate that you will always be kind to him and do good things for him and that you will never hurt him. Regard him as an individual with his own unique personality. Let him take the lead in establishing his relationship with you.
Your unconditional patience provides the feral cat the opportunity to progress at his own pace as he learns to relax and begins to recognize humans as Bringers of Good Things –food, fresh water, a scooped litterbox, delicious treats, quiet conversation. It is important that he sees his caregiver as a pleasant companion who respects his personal space and places no pressure on him to interact before he is ready. He will gradually learn that he doesn’t have to be tense or on guard when his human enters the room.
As he becomes familiar your presence, the former feral will feel comfortable expressing interest in you. Allow him to approach and sniff you as you sit still and speak softly to him. Say his name often in conversation so he can come to recognize when his human is talking specifically to him. Resist the urge to reach out and pet or take hold of him. That opportunity will present itself when he at last walks across your lap or sniffs your fingers, and you can respond by gently scratching his chin and stroking his fur.
While we can’t know critical details about what the cat’s life was like and what experiences shaped his perspective before our paths crossed, we do know that capture leaves him feeling defenseless and alone. The sad reality is that feral cats are intimately acquainted with danger, abuse, and neglect. They are always hungry and on guard. Shadows of self-preservation will haunt even the tamest of spirits.
From Feral to Family
Merlin lived alone in his own room for ten full weeks. For him, this was the perfect amount of time for socialization, adaptation, and physical recovery. Socially, he bonded with his two humans while becoming accustomed to the scents and sounds of his new home and the cats who already lived here. Physically, the extended time allowed all the tomcat hormones and the assertiveness they produce to filter out of his system following his neuter. By the time he met the resident cats, he no longer behaved or smelled like an intact male.
In the meantime, love, nutritious food, petting, and grooming brought forth an incredibly soft, shimmering, striped silver coat. Wariness gave way to trust in those wide green eyes. With his burgundy nose leather and tomcat jowls, Merlin earned the nickname of our own Kentucky Wildcat.
Mom and Dad were concerned that Merlin might not fit in with us Townsend Cats. Outdoors, he had been an aggressive defender and a territorial sprayer. But as the testosterone left his system, so did his desire for combat and dominion over his world.
Two and a half months of isolation concluded with Merlin’s transfer upstairs to a room with a door through which he became acquainted with his new feline family. The following weekend, he began enjoying supervised integration with the rest of us Townsend Cats. During his first night of exploration, he discovered a sofa all by himself and lay on it with the wide-eyed wonder of a five-year-old homeless cat who could hardly believe the comfort of the large, soft bed onto which he was welcomed.
Two weeks later, Merlin became a free-range Townsend Cat with full access to the entire house. He displayed an open, friendly personality as he mingled easily with the rest of us, approaching to exchange greet-sniffs and an occasional head-butt. A couple of initial hisses from other cats came and went, after which we all accepted the new guy as a member of our family.
Forever Home
Heaven is the utter amazement filling a former feral’s eyes when he looks into his rescuer’s face upon discovering yet another miracle of love or comfort in his new home. Love is observing his tentative interactions with his new feline siblings, the transformation of strangers into friends; it is watching him learn from other cats how to play with toys and experiencing his sheer joy at throwing every ounce of his energy into wholehearted, fearless play; it is smiling as he follows the examples of resident cats who show him how to make himself at home on cat trees and sofas; it is watching him sleep deeply with utter abandon, safe and happy and completely unafraid.
All because he made the difficult decision to trust the humans who brought him into their home.
Three of us Townsend Cats are former ferals. Two of my sisters were trapped by animal control when they were more than a year old and taken to a shelter, where humane society volunteers spent months teaching them to trust humans. Since being welcomed home, they and Merlin express constant appreciation for the countless blessings that fill each day. Mom and Dad provide all of us a strictly indoor home. They set the standard that going outside is not an option, and they adhere to that rule for our safety and well-being. They don’t have to enforce it; none of us have any interest in walking away from the love that brought us here and keeps us healthy and happy.
Happily Ever After
Merlin the former feral is now a lap cat. Sleeping on the bed with his humans is a nightly pleasure. He converses with Mom with mews and trills and loudly purrs his appreciation for his home and its countless amenities. He plays and naps with feline companions, grateful to have friends of his own species with whom to share the joy of living.
And Merlin smiles. Anxiety no longer clouds his features with uncertainty and fear. He smiles because he finally has a life to smile about.
If you want to experience pure, unconditional love and awestruck gratitude, adopt a stray cat or a shelter cat. Welcome him into your home as a member of your family. Provide him with medical care, a healthy diet, and a safe, secure environment. Be his friend, communicate with him, get to know his personality, accept all that he freely offers. Love him, above all. Love him with all your heart. And prepare to be loved, more than you could ever imagine, in return.
The transformation from homeless to Forever Home – this is the kind of magic Merlin The Magician, Merlin The Magnificent, Merlin Alexander Townsend, knows all about. It is waiting as close as the nearest animal control facility; perhaps even just outside your own back door.
Welcome a heartful of unconditional love and feline magic into *your* Extra-Ordinary World!
