This past weekend I took a cat from my grandparents' house that they had pretty much kept in a cage for most of her life after kittenhood. She is 1.5 to 2 now. The story is that they are 90 and took in a stray female who gave birth to a litter. A year and a half later, they had five cats in their small and now very smelly house: one isolated in her own bedroom, two in cages, and two mostly wild ones that stayed in the basement. When the wild ones came out, they harassed the cage cats. I took Esme as an act of mercy. I have a jealous house/outside cat and didn't really want another. But I couldn't stand to see Esme stuffed into a cage for 95% of the time. The other cage cat was let out more and had a larger cage.
I brought her home Saturday and have given her the run of the garage until she is acclimated. She finds whatever hole she can and hides whenever anyone goes into the garage. Several times a day, I go out, pick her up if I can reach her, and just hold her and stroke her. When I just went out there, she growled at me. She is petrified of everything. I probably should have taken her disgusting cage with me, but I couldn't put it in DH's nice car (he would have thrown a fit). She has hardly touched food.
So I'm wondering the best thing to do with her to make sure she adjusts to our house. She is going to be an indoor cat despite DH's objections because I can't see that she would do well outside. Callow, my current cat, has ignored Esme following the first day home when she growled at poor Esme.
Would it be better to bring Esme into the house now and lock her in a room? I want her to do well and adjust, but don't want to take too big of a step at once.
I brought her home Saturday and have given her the run of the garage until she is acclimated. She finds whatever hole she can and hides whenever anyone goes into the garage. Several times a day, I go out, pick her up if I can reach her, and just hold her and stroke her. When I just went out there, she growled at me. She is petrified of everything. I probably should have taken her disgusting cage with me, but I couldn't put it in DH's nice car (he would have thrown a fit). She has hardly touched food.
So I'm wondering the best thing to do with her to make sure she adjusts to our house. She is going to be an indoor cat despite DH's objections because I can't see that she would do well outside. Callow, my current cat, has ignored Esme following the first day home when she growled at poor Esme.
Would it be better to bring Esme into the house now and lock her in a room? I want her to do well and adjust, but don't want to take too big of a step at once.
Feed her. Often. Yummy yummy things. Tuna and bits of salmon and cheese. Anything to entice her to see you as her friend. Stroke and talk to her but don't force her at this point. She'll come to you if she will... and she might not for a long time.
) for six full months. I never ever saw him. I'd lay down next to the hole sometimes and talk to him and stuff. 
And I noticed he was coming out to eat and use the litter box at SOME point, so I just let him be.
I talk to her when I'm working, but haven't tried to pick her up or anything since moving her in her. Callow, my feisty cat, started hissing and growling at Esme through the office doors last night. Since then, she has totally ignored her.
