Has Cleo Crossed The Feral Cat Line?

Okay I admit it. When I wake up in the middle of the night and find Cleo cuddling next to me – I feel pretty good. No –living in a house with umpteen cats – there’s nothing unusual about finding a few sleeping with me. What is unusual, is to have one of the feral cats do it – and she only started recently -- after almost 4 years of living here.

Like clockwork, she jumps up on the bed when it’s time for me to sleep and stakes out my side. When I get in bed, she moves near me staying just far enough down that I can’t touch her. If I violate her space by trying to pet her, she’ll jump down, wait a few minutes and then gives me another chance to follow protocol. When the lights are turned off she sidles up closer, ritualistically bathes herself from head to tail, and then curls up in a ball and purrs while I fall fast asleep.

Does this mean that Cleo is no longer a feral cat? No – cats only socialize to people if they receive intense human contact when they are babies. Cleo’s behavior is more indicative of habituation – where a cat lowers her guard after repeated exposure to the same human(s) over a long time. Because I have never hurt her – and provide her with comfort (food, shelter, water) – she is conditioned to no longer fear me. In Cleo's mind I have become her “mom cat” – but her reaction to people as a group has not been altered – they are still something to stay clear of.

During the daytime, like the other feral cats, Cleo stays out of the areas where people activity is high – living room, kitchen and office – preferring to hang out in the “cat room” or other low-use parts of the house. Maybe someday she’ll be comfortable sitting with me in the living room – but right now I have to accept Cleo’s attention on her own terms. As far as the other feral cats go(Emmy, Joyce and Larry)– I don’t expect they’ll join me in bed any time soon. The most I can hope for from them is permission to pet them and sit with them in their cat room. That is their “territory” and where they are the most relaxed.

Why is Cleo more receptive of me than the other feral cats? Just like people, cats come in all personality types. Possibly she’s a more outgoing cat to begin with. I just don’t know. I do know – from the reports we get from the caregivers in our Feral Colony Assistance Program – that few feral cats maintain extreme feral cat behaviors in a committed cat-human relationship. Once they learn the caregiver is there to service them, they drop their guard and bond enough to make the relationship work.

When spay/neuter programs like ours eventually get the overall cat population down to a reasonable number – all cats may be able to live indoors with people. The term “feral cats” will fade back into the pre-1990 background. A time when -- if someone's pet cat vanished when they had company -- would simply explain their cat's phantom behavior -- not as being feral but as being extremely shy.