The first one was totally wild for the first couple of years. She did not approach when I was feeding her. She was giving birth to kittens, regularly. The first pack I just distributed when they started crawling around. The second pack was hiding in the crawling space, so I could do nothing until they grew enough to be caught. They were small, but totally wild. They ate squirrels their mother broght them.
But eventually I managed to catch her with my bare hands, take her to the animal service to neuter - and they had released her back into our area. With years she got accostomed to us. Not domesticated, she could not imagine getting inside.
And then another one came over. She sa me feeding our Muska (Муська), jumped off from the fence, and started jumping around me like a circus horse. I was impressed. She stayed. We called her Xena. She was pretty big. Муська behaved like a boss, controlling Xena. But the never fought.
Later Муська had a stroke and later she died. Then Xena became the boss of the backyard. From time to time she entered the house. Once she even got to the second floor. But she went crazy at the hint of her being taken to the garage.
Still, while living outside, she was totally domesticated. Spending time on the couch with us. She had a pet possum: asked for food, then left it for her possum. Oh, she knew how to ask for food. Just point at the drawer where the food was. Also, she did not have problems with raccoons. She was friendly with them - not all of them, with a couple of females raccoons. Shared food with them. Hissing at the male.
At times she walked with us a little bit when we were going for a walk.
Xena had died in the Spring of 2022, and basically that was the end of our life in California. Nothing was keeping us there anymore.
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Date: 2024-01-29 12:28 am (UTC)The first one was totally wild for the first couple of years. She did not approach when I was feeding her. She was giving birth to kittens, regularly. The first pack I just distributed when they started crawling around. The second pack was hiding in the crawling space, so I could do nothing until they grew enough to be caught. They were small, but totally wild. They ate squirrels their mother broght them.
But eventually I managed to catch her with my bare hands, take her to the animal service to neuter - and they had released her back into our area. With years she got accostomed to us. Not domesticated, she could not imagine getting inside.
And then another one came over. She sa me feeding our Muska (Муська), jumped off from the fence, and started jumping around me like a circus horse. I was impressed. She stayed. We called her Xena. She was pretty big. Муська behaved like a boss, controlling Xena. But the never fought.
Later Муська had a stroke and later she died. Then Xena became the boss of the backyard. From time to time she entered the house. Once she even got to the second floor. But she went crazy at the hint of her being taken to the garage.
Still, while living outside, she was totally domesticated. Spending time on the couch with us. She had a pet possum: asked for food, then left it for her possum. Oh, she knew how to ask for food. Just point at the drawer where the food was. Also, she did not have problems with raccoons. She was friendly with them - not all of them, with a couple of females raccoons. Shared food with them. Hissing at the male.
At times she walked with us a little bit when we were going for a walk.
Xena had died in the Spring of 2022, and basically that was the end of our life in California. Nothing was keeping us there anymore.