[jaxie]

Originally Posted by Garfie

That's awful, Jaxie. Thank goodness there are people like you who will rescue cats in this situation and are willing to put the time and effort in to make them feel safe and secure again.

I adopted a feral cat that took refuge in my conservatory during bad weather. It took months of patience, lots of reassurance and quite a number of very nasty scratches but, eventually, he turned from a very aggressive cat that I couldn't approach into the soppiest, most loving little fella who wanted to lay in my arms being constantly hugged. It's so rewarding to see those changes.

What a wonderful story about your cat, he's very lucky to have found you. Most aggressive cats are just afraid, once you understand them it's easier to overcome problems. I'd love to see a photo of him if you want to pm me one.

We had a little stray guy who died a couple of years ago. He was such a character. He was older than we thought at first and had lived rough for a while, he was very sad when we took him in but turned out to be a really lovely cat. Very strong personality and unluckiest cat I've had, broke his leg badly (the vet thinks a dog got him and swing around by his leg). He had to have it amputated. He was incredibly strong willed amazed the vet by getting up almost as soon as he came round. We tried to keep him in a room after surgery so he didn't move around too much and put a baby gate on the doorway so he wasn't shut away and he jumped it, 4ft, the day after his amputation. He didn't want to be in that room, he wanted to lay in the toilet.

After he recovered the vet thought he ought to be an indoor cat with his disability but he wasn't having it. He started to deliberately piss on my foot in protest and sit by the back door until I gave in and started to let him out. He was fine and used to leap fences and all sorts 3 legged. He lived a few years after that, eventually died of kidney failure. Miss him loads.