Sparky came into our care last year a very frightened and timid feral, not used to human contact at all.  He was about 20 weeks old and his mum had just been re-homed. 

When he arrived we put him in the kitten pen in the garage and left him alone for a while to get used to his new surroundings.  It became painfully obvious that he was terrified of everything.  We tried to coax him with pieces of ham though the pen but he would stay permanently under his cover and refuse to come out.  He didn’t like to be touched and visibly shook at the slightest sound, running water, the sound of the kettle and even cereals being poured into bowls frightened him. After a week we decided to try and lift him out of his pen as he was showing very slight signs of not being quite as scared of us.  However this didn’t prove easy and the first attempt didn’t go well at all with Sparky scratching and hissing and generally hating every minute of it.  We decided to leave it for another week and then try again.  By keeping him in the garage he had no option but to start getting used to the various noises and things going on around him.  We moved him from the kitten pen into the large pen in the garage so we could go in and try and get to know him.  This proved very difficult in the beginning with him climbing to the furthest shelf and refusing to come down.  We persevered and spent a lot of time just being in the pen with him and after a couple more weeks finally managed to stroke him without being attacked! 

We then decided we would bring him into the house to see how he took to that.  Again, this didn’t go well, he shot out of our arms, ran behind the settee and refused to come out.  We put him back in his pen and decided to wait a few days before trying it again.  The more he refused to socialise with us, the more determined we were to bring him round!  We spent ages talking to him and just sitting in the pen.  I can still remember the first time he decided that he might quite like to come and see me.  He sat up, let me stroke him, starting purring and then without warning jumped down from his shelf and sat at my feet!  I slowly bent down to stroke him and was amazed when he let me.  I then tried to pick him up and for the first time wasn’t greeted with claws and hissing!  For the first time I really felt that we were making some headway with him and that maybe he would be ok with humans.  After that he continued to come to Mark and myself, cautiously at first and then more and more confidently.  Eventually he started sitting on my lap inside the pen and climbing up on to my shoulders like a parrot!   

We made the decision to bring him into the house again.  This time, although he was still extremely nervous he didn’t run and hide immediately.  He still didn’t know how to play and the slightest noise or sudden movement would send him running.  We carried on bringing him into the house on a daily basis and could see a change in him every day.  By this time I was feeling very attached to him and could see that he trusted me.  I can’t explain the feeling of the bond that I had with him, I just knew I would find it very painful to be separated from him.  The rest of the family soon started to feel the same way and after a lot of deliberation we decided that we couldn’t let him go to another home and that we wanted to keep him ourselves.  We had made such great progress with him and we were very proud of what we had achieved. 

He is now a permanent member of our family.  We had a puppy in the summer and Sparky took to him very well although Sparky is very much in charge!  He lies around all evening, has his favourite places in the lounge and is now very calm and friendly.  He knows how to play and enjoys a game of chase with the dog, something which I could never have imagined six months ago.  He is still wary of visitors but is a real lap cat with us.  He has even made friends with one of the kittens who we used to foster, who now lives next door!  They spend all day chasing one another and play fighting.  It is lovely to watch and great knowing we gave him a chance in life and he took it.  He is a very special cat and loved by all of us.

Mark and Liz
Fosterers