October 24th, afternoon...
Good first day stuff: the cat has eaten food, drank water, and used the litterbox! I was pretty sure he'd eat and drink okay, since I know he's a hungry guy, but the litterbox I had no idea. Even setting asisde unknown behavioral history and his being outside for most of a year, cats often pee/poop on non-litterbox things when they're upset or stressed or insecure, which he certainly is.
He has parked himself in a hiding spot and covered his face in cobwebs and is generally looking/acting quite thoroughly put-upon and pathetic. He hisses at me when I walk over and talk to him. I'm keeping a polite distance and not flinching or leaving when he hisses; I just continue to talk to him and then leave when he's quiet. Hopefully this helps communicate both that I am calm and not scary and also that I am not scared of him. The situation isn't going to escalate, nobody's gonna fight here.
There's a blanket that B has slept with for a few days and one that I've slept with for a few days down here, so he can get accustomed to our smells; this is common new-scared-cat type advice, for helping them get used to people without necessarily needing the added stress of the person being actually present.
Even when he's hissing, it's not suuuuper worrying; eyes normal dilation, ears back but not flat, no bristling fur or puffed tail. He's unhappy, of course, but it could be worse! And he hasn't lunged at/attacked me, which I've seen him do to other cats outside, so I'm glad about that.
A few hours later...
An evening update: this evening he decided, apparently for no reason while B was spending time in the basement, to switch from hiding in his hiding spot to climbing all over them for attention. He's spent a good while now headbutting, nuzzling, and demanding pets from us. That was very fast.
He seems eager for attention and wants to play, although he also seems like he can't decide what he wants. He'll flop in a spot and then get up and move and flop in a different spot and then get up and headbutt me for pats and then roll around and play with a toy for a few seconds and then flop again and so on. He's quite soft, although sort of grubby. He has a few lumps that might be ticks or injuries or mats, hard to tell; I'm not pushing things by picking at them just yet.
He's just clambered up onto my lap... this guy really wants to be with people.
When we stand up he charges at our legs and hisses, then just rubs up against the legs friendly-style It's odd. I think he's not really used to communicating and it's gonna take him some time to figure out how to say what he wants to say. Right now he's a bit overwhelmed, but hopefully as he keeps settling in that'll resolve.
He did try to wrassle with my foot and with my arms a few times, so we brought him some of B's cat's bigger toys for kicking and wrestling. I think I'm going to get some small stuffed animals for him at Goodwill and see if he likes those. Our cats aren't into kicking/wrestling type play so we don't have much in that vein at the moment. Maybe it'll also give him some comfort to have something to cuddle with, I dunno. He's kneading everything - the air, the carpets, the blankets, the couch, my lap - so I figure it might be nice to have something that's good for that. I'll see if they have any cushions that seem like a good size (and washable).
He has now relocated from my lap to my legs (I'm sideways on the couch). He's still a little fidgety, but I think he's settling a bit.
I'm not seeing excessive scratching or twitching, which is nice. Probably no fleas. No straining in the litterbox. He's a bit thirstier than I'm used to cats being, so that's something I want to keep an eye on, but so far it doesn't seem super excessive. Still no peeing anywhere outside the litterbox. So that's all great!
I was imagining this would be a much slower long-term project but maybe not... although since his switch was pretty abrupt it's hard to tell if it'll stick or if he'll be kind of moody and unpredictable.
October 25th...
He was quiet his second night. This morning (...well, afternoon. My sleep schedule is not so good) I came down and he was in his hiding spot again behind the pile of stuff. He hissed a bunch of times and cried a bunch and I thought we might be back to square one, but then he walked out (still hissing) and did his hissing-and-headbutting routine, then climbed all over me when I sat down on the couch.
He's very cuddly and floppy. I think he's been so starved for attention/affection that it feels urgent; he does a lot of flopping around and wiggling when demanding pats and cuddles, and it takes him a while to settle.
He's still kind of grubby - patting him leaves you with that unpleasant unwashed-cat residue on your hands, and he's got a burr stuck on his chest and some scabs and maybe ticks - but I think that'll get better as he gets petted and feels comfortable enough to bathe himself and is indoors instead of outdoors. The basement is kind of grubby, admittedly, but there's clean spots and it's not outdoors.
uyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy7877777777777777y
(That's a bit of input from the fellow himself.)
It is really wonderful to see him so comfortable so fast. It feels good to feel like my judgement of the situation is pretty good, and to be able to help a little creature. It should be pretty easy to find him a new home since he's such a cuddlebug. (C wants him, but that's probably not going to work out since they have other cats.)
I was all ready to write a series of posts about the difficult process of socializing a traumatized cat and celebrating small victories and stuff, haha... sometimes things just work out fine, it turns out! Sometimes things are good and easy. I'll still update as things progress, but probably not a lot!
He did scratch me for trying to pick a bit of leaf out of the fur on his hind leg, but that's a perfectly normal reason to swat. (And I'd just played with him, so I think he was a little wound-up still.) No hard feelings.