Everything started off so well this morning.

Riley ate breakfast inside the house, as usual.

Later, Samantha came and she ate another breakfast with Sam.

This close.

I thought I was achieving lots of progress with Riley.

Later, she came again to ask for food because Samantha had snatched her food in the second breakfast and she let Sam eat.

This time, I placed the bowl inside the house and while she was eating, I quietly tip-toed from Stargate2 (the catio), barefoot to try and close the security door from outside.

What do you know? Cats read minds, so Riley knew. Before I could even approach the door, she ran out to under my car. So even so engrossed in eating, Riley knew.

I went back into the house and waited.

I repeated the above three times, as quietly as I could but each time, she knew and she ran out.

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Yes, so foolish, right?  But I couldn’t think of what else to do at the time.

Riley refused to come into the house now, so I took the bowl out to the brown mat and offered it to her. She came to eat! It was more than close enough for me to scruff her, so I did that.

But she was way too fast and I could only manage to scruff the back of her middle and not the back of her neck. Everything happened way too fast. Riley turned back and bit me real hard. I didn’t let go and I used my other hand to try to scruff the back of her neck but she was faster. She bit my other hand as well.

I had to let her go. Otherwise, she would have continued biting my arm as well. I couldn’t risk getting bitten so hard.

Both of my thumbs were bleeding quite badly. I might need an anti-tetatus shot later when the clinic opens.

I washed both my hands with soap and gave Riley (and myself) a rest.

Then, I went out to offer her food, but this time, she just stayed under my car and refused to even come out. Of course, I wouldn’t have expected anything less than that.

Why should she trust me anymore?

I left her alone and kept the security door open with the food inside the house. She did not come in anymore.  Again, that is to be expected.

Later, I went out to offer her food, but this time, she walked out of the gate.

I’m sorry, Riley. If only you knew I was doing this for your own good.

Creamy is an unneutered male. There’s also Bushy and Notty G – all unneutered.

Sigh…

I wonder if Riley will come back later today for food.

I don’t have any better ideas right now.

When we managed to trap her in the house on Monday, we should have just let her go berserk and hopefully later settle down. But Tuesday was an impossible day for me. Never mind. We all have our constraints and can only do our best amidst all our circumstances.

I will try again.

It seems to me now that Riley must be a feral kitten. Her cautious and defensive instincts are intact.

My friend took EIGHT years before she could catch a street cat whom she fed daily.  Yes, EIGHT years.

An update at 8.45am: Riley is back under my car now.  I offered a bowl of food, but she moved away.  I’ll give her a rest today.  Would have to regain her trust.

During the thunderstorm this afternoon, Riley completely disappeared. But after the rain, she came back. She ate two cans of food this evening and I was able to sit on this brown mat with her while she ate. She ate part of it inside the house but preferred to go back to the porch.

Jayden also came to the door and Riley wasn’t scared off, but she was cautious.

Hopefully she will stay here tonight.

Riley slept on our shoe bench last night but later, she disappeared.

This morning she was waiting right outside our front door at 4.30am.

My attempt now is to sit on that purple stool while she eats. I managed to! She wasn’t very hungry this morning. Granted, she had a buffet dinner last night!!

I’m sitting on the purple stool.

Samantha came to eat twice this morning. Yesterday, a fun thing happened. I was walking in the neighbourhood and saw Samantha up the road, quite a distance away from our house. I called her to follow me and she actually did! She trailed me all the way to our house where I fed her. Not too close, though. At a safe distance.

But once she is at our porch, we can approach quite close.

This is her second breakfast this morning – canned tuna and seabream. Previously, Samantha did not know how to eat canned food at all.

Riley went to play with Samantha for awhile, then Sam went off and Riley came back to our porch, under my car.

I vacuumed the living room and Riley wasn’t even afraid of the loud sound of the vacuum cleaner, which is a good thing. Tabs is! Rey is totally terrified of the vacuum cleaner sound.

Little Riley wasn’t. She was quite curious and watched the vacuum cleaner from outside the front door.

The challenging thing is that I want to keep the front security door open as much as possible so that Riley can come in to explore whenever she likes, but when doing so, I have to ensure Tabs is in Bunny’s Place and Ginger is in the catio. Tabs has been very understanding about this. Also, keeping the security door open is inviting mosquitoes into the house!

Small steps…

An update: I managed to touch Riley with my finger tips (without her scratching or hissing back)!!  Hooray!

It was purely by chance.

Riley came to eat inside the house this evening and right behind her was Creamy. Creamy too was trying to get into the house because I think he was attracted by the canned food.

So while Riley was eating, I had to close the door. I was afraid Creamy would frighten her. I managed to casually walk past Riley and…I closed the door!

Riley was now in the house, with the door closed and still eating.

So I casually went out, gave Creamy some kibble and came back inside. Riley was still eating.

But the moment she finished eating, Riley realised she was “trapped” inside the house and she went berserk. She scaled the steel netting on security door many times, mewing, obviously trying very hard to get back outside.

It was only about 7pm. If I were to let her remain inside until tomorrow, it would be many hours of being traumatised by the “capture”. But I still gave her time with the hope that she might settle down. I gave her more food (she was too traumatised to eat), placed a litter box near the door. Rolled a ball towards her, tried to attract her with a string toy, sat with her and talked calmly to her. Prepared a basket for her too.

Nothing worked.

Riley was totally traumatised. She was just scaling the security door trying to get out.

Seeing how stressed she was, husband said it’s best to let her go. Maybe she wanted to go home (if she has a home, that is).

I concurred as it was truly heartbreaking seeing her so traumatised. So I opened the door and Riley went out. I thought she’d rush home, but she did not. She just went under my car.

Okay, that’s a good sign. She doesn’t hate me. I went out to check later and Riley was still in our porch.

But she sat as far away as she could, that is, at the gate. Okay, that’s still good.

Later on, she came back under my car and I offered food again. Riley came in!! Good, good…

I’m not going to attempt to close the door this time. I think we really need to be able to touch her first.

I left the front door open all night so that Riley could come in and out as she pleases, but she chose to stay right outside the door. The only way to get her inside was to offer a new kind of food.

While this was going on, Tabs had to be inside Bunny’s Place. Otherwise, Tabs would surely frighten Little Riley off.

So all night, I offered various types of food. Riley can REALLY eat. She had Cindy’s canned food, Back2Nature canned food, Primal Freeze-Dried and Monge canned food. It was an evening buffet for Riley!

I sat with her, as near as she would allow, without spooking her.

There’s a cardboard box, a basket (which Creamy sometimes sleeps in) and another new basket for Riley.

She normally does go off after eating, but despite the traumatic experience of being “trapped” inside the house just now, Riley is still here now. I guess that’s a good sign. I thought she would run away and never come back again, but thankfully, that did not happen.

One step at a time.

I think we really need to get closer to her and have her trust us more.