If you read my first post, you had learned a little bit about me and @pusen's adopted stray cat.
Leo is a three year old cat that was found outside when he was about 18 weeks. His mom was left alone while she was pregnant, that means Leo and his siblings lived all those weeks all by themselves. Therefore Leo and his siblings had no experience with people. In the shelter he didn't get along with other cats, and he didn't have the opportunity to relax and try to get to know people either.
Leo have lived with us for 2 1/2 year. His first year we became his foster parents. And on his second year we adopted him.
The shelter named him Leopold. But when I carried him out from the shelter I said, "Im going to call you Leo", maybe with a little hope he turned out to be braver one day.
Me and @pusen didn't have any doubt, if we were going to have a cat, it had to be a cat from a shelter. We didn't care about what kind of cat, therefore we let the owners of the shelter decide. Leo was very submissive and he was scared everyday and night at the shelter. Dominant cats was Leo's biggest fear, and the shelter had many of them. A few months after we became foster parents for Leo, his vet told us that he was in so much psychic pain at the shelter. They almost had to euthanize him because of that suffer.
We are really happy that we could save this beautiful soul, and hope this story will help and motivate YOU and others to save some beautiful souls too.
The morning after he arrived, we didn't see him at first. But after a little search, we found him really scared behind the tv and under all the tv-cables. The last thing he wanted was to come out from there. We couldn't imagine how scared he was after that first night, all alone in a place he doesn't know anything of.
Because of his condition (chronic nerve wreck as we want to call it, haha) and his poor knowledge if humans was a threat or not, we have never forced him to do anything. It is important to us that Leo decides everything. We only challenge him to dare to do more.
Food and candies may be his biggest motivations, and the first months he trusted us a little by little. It took maybe a six months before he came to us for cuddles (or just because we had candies). He always ran away if we did a little move or came too close to him.
The first 3 months we had his food and water in the living room, where he had his comfort zone and his hidingspots. His toilet stood in the same space the first week. But we moved it further and further away, until it stood in an another room where it belonged. When we moved his food, he figured out that the kitchen wasn't as scary either. Small steps has always been important for Leo to dare more.
He has always liked to be alone, but he have progressed a little by little every day to be comfortable around us and get a little bit more like a "normal" cat. He really love cuddles, but he never meows (or he may do so if he sees a insect he can't reach, haha). If we try to cuddle him on the floor or in a spot outside his comfort zone, he'll run away. We've never been able to pick him up either, but we respect that.
We really love this little cutie. Now he like us really much too, and he has his own routines on everything. When we eat dinner, he always come and stares at us. Thats his way of begging for food. And he know exactly what preparing his wetfood sounds like.
He always sleeps in the bedroom with us, and keeps us safe from other predators. That's what we like to think. Haha!
He loves to hunt insects and definitely eating them alive. We have seen a lot of spiders and flies been eaten. Not the prettiest sight.
He is our best friend and an important family member. It wasn't a doubt that we had to keep this little beautiful weirdo ❤️
My boyfriend, @pusen have written about:
- Click here to read how it went to take Leo to the vet. It was really heartbreaking to hear how afraid Leo was, and how hard it was to just get him into the travelcage
- Or click this to read about my boyfriends smart DIY project for fixing up Leo's cat scratcher. Very genius if you want to save some money and making your cat very happy.
If you are interested in the reason why to adopt from a shelter, I will write more about it in my next post!😃
