This was a first. When I reached down to pet one of the feral kittens, Skittish growled at me

[Siwsan]

A very soft growl, but a growl, none the less. That was actually the first sound I've ever heard her make. Lately, Scooter and Mittens have been meowing every time they see me, and coming right up to my feet, or my hand as I set down their bowl.

So now I pretty much know there is some hope for partially habituating the siblings, but probably none, at all, when it comes to Skittish.

[niyad]

1. Pease do not give up hope for Skittish, it may just take more time. You are doing

such an amazing job with all of them. Thank you.

[Siwsan]

3. I'm going to carry on

I think Skittish probably never had a positive human interaction when she was young. She does still walk up to me but when I go to set the dish down, she darts away. It's like we've reached a plateau in our interaction, but I won't give up.

I've been interacting with Mittens and Scooter since they were just a little older than Morgan and Madoc so somewhere in their brains they know I'm not a real threat. They just aren't quite "there" yet, but we're getting closer, every day.

[ret5hd]

2. --Everybody-- has a bad day once in a while!!!

Even me, despite my near perfection. Give him/her another chance.

[Siwsan]

4. Oh, I'm not giving up

It's the first time she's been there when I've reached out to pet her kittens. And, frankly, they seemed to ignore her. Well, they are 'teenagers' now.

[abqtommy]

5. Please don't give up on Skittish yet. At this point I think any vocalization is

progress.

[Siwsan]

6. I was just so surprised!

It looks like the rain is going to clear out before their afternoon feeding. I'm going to try and sit with them while they eat.

[Anon-C]

7. I love you Skittish. If your survival or "partial habituation" are in jeopardy because of someone

...else's need for you to perform to their expectation, that's our hang up as humans, and I apologize on our behalf. Most of us are not perfect, but you have a wonderful human with you at present and you are loved.

[Marthe48]

8. We adopted a cat from the shelter

We had her for almost 7 years. Her responses were never correct. She would head bump us, but when we tried to pet her, she slap and hiss. She was just really messed up. Maybe Skittish is the same. All you can do is what you're doing. You've had wonderful success with your clowder of ferals. You have a good heart

[3catwoman3]

9. Don't give up. One of the first, if not the first, feral pregnant cats...

…taken in by the Tiny Kittens organization in Vancouver BC was Sloane, who was off-the-charts hostile. Her kittens were successfully socialized and adopted, and Sloane was returned to her colony after she was spayed..

The Tiny Kittens volunteers continued to gently interact with Sloane when they would visit the colony with food and toys. Much to everyone’s surprise and delight, Sloane eventually decided human beings were quite OK and was eventually adopted. I don’t recall exactly how long this took, but it was months.