Georgie and the Clicker

Before I get into Georgie's training session I want to mention the two cats at the over capacity shelter near Chicago. I am delighted to say that Cody and Simba are in foster and loving being in their new home. We still need foster homes though...

Sooooo like a politician drumming up support I took to the streets. Well.. not literally the streets. Petsmart was my destination on Saturday morning armed with Great Lakes Bengal Rescue leaflets. I took all three of my gorgeous Bengals with me in their stroller. Mowgli was the eye catcher but people wanted to know what these beautiful cats were and I did manage to hand out a few leaflets. What I asked people to do was let any cat loving friends know who might be interested about our foster and adoption program and invited them to look at our website. Seeing two such lovely rescue Bengals as Apollo and Sakura really helped a lot.

Okay. On to Georgie. I did my first clicker session with her today and made a surprising discovery. Georgie was not so much interested in the dehydrated chicken as being cuddled.. amazing.

I bought a clicker with a pointer attached thinking I was being clever but Marilyn says a cat can feel the vibration and it might scare them. So I went in armed with an unshaven pencil, a small dish of dehydrated chicken and the clicker. First off it was very difficult to find a spot for the chicken. I couldn't secure it round my waist and Georgie can jump 5ft a lot quicker than I can stand up. But I managed. I held the pencil.. Georgie touched her nose to it like a pro and I gave her a bit of chicken, she gulped it down, I repeated the action, nose touch, click, food, but this time Georgie wasn't interested. But she desperately wanted to be petted. So I changed tactics, pencil, touch, click LOTS of praise and petting with tons of good girls! And that worked. I then tried a placemat and to my astonishment the moment I touched the pencil to the mat.. Georgie ran to it and stood on it all four paws and looked at me. It was as though Georgie had been doing this forever. She does get distracted by sounds outside (nope she isn't deaf) but she would stand on the mat and take all the praise and love I could give her. At one point she Bengal flopped and I did make the mistake of rubbing her tummy but she actually grabbed me less hard than Sakura would and let me go faster than she would when I went limp.

The next session I am going to work on sit on a stool with this amazingly clever little cat as a prelude to teaching her not to door dash. Georgie's door dashing is really bad. She only growled once today and that was when I walked towards her at the doorway. It was clear to me she felt threatened by me looming over her so I am going to be working on that with her too.

I do have a lot more hope for Georgie than I did. She is a sharp and clever cat who is actually a big love bug. All we have to do is understand why Georgie goes on the attack and I believe we can teach anyone how to avoid it happening in the first place. And if it does.. what they should do so that she doesn't follow through.

Sunday

Hope everyone else has had a great weekend. Mine was lovely. Lay ins, husband cooking, walks in the woods with our dogs and of course... cats.

It was Mowgli's 8 month birthday today, how time flies. My little guy is very special to me, very beautiful, to me he looks very ALC. He is cute and funny and I really love him being around.

I posted photos of Sakura today, my lovely girl had chronic pee problems as some of you know. It didn't go too well that she peed all over the back of our loveseat and curtains. I sprayed it with as much anti pee stuff as I could and I put the curtains in the wash. I took it as a sign Sakura needed more attention and her routine sharpening up.. sometimes things go a little awry over time. It may also be the mystery cat I have in the house.. not Georgie... a mystery secret cat.. all will be revealed eventually. So Sakura has been spending lots of time with us and having lots and lots of Mommy cuddles, good food and treats. When Sakura is happy.. we are all happy.

Then Georgie. I had a play session with her today. We are now well established in her routine, she gets fed twice a day, there will also be two play sessions a day and a treasure hunt. I discovered Georgie had found every single piece of freeze dried chicken and eaten it all. That might have been why she puked up a bit.. I have no idea, she is certainly getting good food and lots of it. So another treasure hunt for Georgie tomorrow but with tiny pieces of Chicken which I will have to pre break before I go in or she will go NUTS for the stuff.

I did the slow play that Marilyn said to do and had Georgie stalking and pouncing on her prey nicely. She didn't get over excited but I noticed one of her problems is door dashing. She has run out of the room twice before I could react and then she is either growling at the other cats or growling at me for blocking her way. She has not attacked though and I think that is FANTASTIC. In a couple of weeks time we are going to introduce Georgie to clicker training, as a door dasher this will be a really useful thing to do with her to train her not to.

I am already hopeful for Georgie to do really well but if she does as well as hoped I already figure she is going to have to be a one pet household with a person who has a lot of time to devote to her and continuing her training. I think Georgie will be the absolute follow you everywhere and want to copy everything you do kind of Bengal.. very intense.

But I do have a lot of hope for her.

Georgie after Shopping Trip

James and I did the big shopping trip today for Georgie. Going along with Marilyn's instructions I got a couple of scratchers for her, she already has a vertical post but I added a flat one and a sloping one, very simple corrugated cardboard and I sprinkled it with the accompanying catnip and rubbed it in.

Oh myyyyyy... I don't think I have ever seen a cat so happy. I have some lovely photos of Georgie I will post tomorrow just loving her new furniture, scratching it, rolling all over it, rolling on the floor near it.. she was having a BALL.

Then I gave her some new mice, 3 different textured ones, one smooth with catnip, one like a lambswool and one fur, she loved the catnip best and did some wonderful moves tossing her mouse around in the air and catching it. Georgie would be a wonderful hunter of live mice.

By this time Georgie is looking like one happy girl but I didn't stop there. Next came the treats.

Instead of buying cat, Janet suggested I buy dog freeze dried chicken, made in the USA as it is cheaper than the cat version. Although some people refer to catnip as kitty crack, many people refer to this chicken as kitty crack because it apparently drives most cats nuts like nothing else. Try it. Please. Your cat will love you for it. I tried Georgie with a little bit I broke off.. ohhhh yeah! Pawing at the dish to get it out and eat it. So then I tried a treasure hunt, just as Marilyn had suggested and I almost couldn't hide the chicken fast enough and she was loving running around after me finding the chicken. It is a game to keep her mind occupied while she is alone.

Not feeling too great tonight but all the cats had supper, Georgie included, getting her beloved Friskies and tomorrow I will hunt with her in the morning and tomorrow night when she is the most ready for it.

Tomorrow.. photos.. promise.

The Call

I talked with Marilyn Krieger on the phone last night and there is a plan in place for Georgie. First of all.. the things I DIDN'T know.

I read somewhere that if you extend out your fingers to a cat to a cat it means your claws are out..WRONG.. the closed fist is actually more of a threat. The only thing extended should be the index finger. I did know about the greeting ritual but now I will be mindful of how.

Second.. cats can mark scent with the pads of their paws.. so Georgie is going to get lots of new scratching things and toys today so that she can mark her entire territory and have fun in it.

I was absolutely on the right track with giving her a firm schedule she can rely on, this builds up her confidence and security. I needed to find a food she absolutely LOVES and as luck would have it.. my portion of food donated to us by Purina arrived last night. Georgie LOVES Fancy Feast and will lick the bowl totally clean.

My next trick is to find treats Georgie loves and will respond to. I have some free ones that were donated I will try and I am also going to try dehydrated chicken that most cats go nuts for. Janet tells me there is a very good one in the dog food aisle, it just needs breaking up into little pieces.

The jury is still out with me whether Georgie has hearing impairment, I noticed this morning her ears are mobile which would indicate she has hearing but we can't take her to the vet for an examination yet. We will. But we need to be further along with Georgie so that a vet visit will not upset her.

I do have a concern that we will do a lot of work with Georgie and she will be considered adoptable and then someone will undo all the work we have put into her. She is a very pretty girl though a bit peculiar with not tail, but she has a very lovely face.

So after shopping for Georgie I will update you all.

Two days of Georgie Girl

Yesterday I took Da Bird in Georgies room and she charged out instantly wanting to play. During the session she sniffed my hand and marked me with her cheeks. I know reading this you might want to jump up and down but it isn't that much of a breakthrough. Georgie has been like that in other homes.. it is that one dark side of her that is causing all the trouble.

As I said I will be working with Marilyn Krieger on this. Marilyn relayed instructions through Janet to only go in to see to Georgie's needs but other wise ignore her making sure she has a place to hide, also not to confront or corner but Janet assured her that was no problem with me.

Marilyn should be calling me on Friday afternoon, I spent all of last night filling out the Behavioural Questionnaire she sent to me. I put down as much of Georgie's past, my observations and her current housing as I could. I am sure I am going to have some very concrete things to work on after Friday.

Pencils, Georgie, and Bursting Excitement!

This morning I went to check on Georgie and her food and water. It looks like she has eaten virtually nothing at all and her litter tray looks barely used too. Same old too.. crouched in the corner yowling and hissing.

All too aware of how important it is to get this right with Georgie I told Janet this morning that I wish I could work with Marilyn Krieger. And guess what??? Yeah!!!!!! I am going to work with Marilyn Krieger on Georgie!!! THE Marilyn Krieger, Cat Whisperer, Cat Behaviourist, Author of Naughty No More and an ace with clicker training. I am.. oh words just fail me. I would LOVE to be a cat behaviourist and to work with this lady is almost as good for me as winning the lottery.. well.. almost. But the biggest thing here is that I will have guidance and instruction for dealing with a truly difficult case and whether we succeed or fail everything I learn will benefit my fosters in the future.

This afternoon I had a brainwave. Georgie's owner used to toss pencils and Georgie LOVES to play fetch with pencils. I couldn't find pencils but I found some pencil crayons, I figured that to Georgie pencils are fun, good things and it might break the ice.

Going into the room greeted by growling and hissing. I called out to Georgie and after a few calls out she came, low to the ground, yowling and hissing, she was about to charge when, right at that moment, I tossed her a pencil. Georgie stopped in her tracks, she sniffed at the pencil, still hissing at me but stopping long enough to sniff the pencil. I crouched down and started talking to her softly, once again she came hissing, once again I tossed a pencil and just as before she stopped and examined the pencil. As she came forward again I held my ground, spoke to her kindly and held out the pencil turned sideways on to Georgie, this time she came right up to the pencil and examined it in my hand. Then she turned and ran away, she dived into her cave and commenced hissing and yowling again. She reminded me so much of Golden Boy when he first arrived but Golden Boy had Squeaker to help his confidence. Right now Georgie has no one but Georgie.

But tomorrow hopefully, Georgie will have me and Marilyn. Please pray for a happy ending for Georgie.

Georgie Day Two

As is often the case with best laid plans.. my plans for Georgie got overhauled this morning.

I don't know if you have ever been attacked full on by a 6lb cat with ears laid back and coming out punching and snarling, but if you haven't I can tell you it is a scary experience. But I can't afford to be scared of Georgie.. and she can't afford it either. I did the only thing I could do.. I faced her down. I refused to retreat, clapped my hands hard several times and said.. Georgie! NO! It took her a few seconds to work out what was happening and when she did she slunk down glaring at me, I glared back, she glared, I glared back.. she turned her head, I didn't. Finally I get the slink away I have seen so often when two cats come face to face and the less Dominant of the two backs down. Thank you my darling sister for teaching me to face down a charging mare protecting her foal when I was just 10 years old.. that really helped now.

James was also attacked this morning.. he made the mistake of turning his back and she charged and scratched him.. he won't be making that mistake again.

To be honest, had I not known this cats history I might have said she should be euthanized immediately, I can't see anyone wanting to adopt a cat that will come in full attack mode meaning to do harm. Then I talked to Janet, then I saw a photo of Georgie sitting with a baby and started scratching my head. Bewildering.

Then I discover Georgie HATES change and even attacked her former owner when she returned after being away for a few days.

So I decided that we need to give her a chance to settle. With that in mind I am leaving fresh water and food down for her to eat as she wants. I don't want to put further stress on her when she is already stressed out.

I looked in on her earlier and I got grumbling, growling and undulating yells coming from the corner.. I walked casually away again and left her. Tonight I went in to get her dishes and put fresh water and food down. Not a sound, I couldn't see her either but I knew where she was hiding so I was careful not to turn my back. I did what I had to do and it was obvious from the spotted behind I could now see she had peeked out and retreated again

I am hoping that tomorrow she is relaxed enough in her Feliway scented room to come out and play. I got some very cool string toys for her. That will be the first step of the journey to bonding with her before I can even attempt to start to address her issues.

I still think it is going to be important with Georgie that she has routine in her life, feeding, play periods, attention periods and she needs to learn that those will end when WE feel like it and not Georgie.

And although this morning I felt a bit discouraged I am going to be cultivating utter confidence in myself that I can turn Georgie around. As my hero Cesar Milan would say.. I need to radiate a calm and confident energy only using loud sound to discourage her if she attacks.

Georgie Girl Day One

It's been a looonnnggg time since I did any blogging but now I really do have something to blog about and record. Georgie is a 6lb Bengal package of trouble with a capital T. See Georgie isn't your usual fun loving, naughty, paper shredding, wall clawing, ornament destroying.. well okay they don't all do that but you get my drift.

No.. Georgie has a far worse problem she attacks people. In a shelter a cat like Georgie would not be alive for long and even for Great Lakes Bengal Rescue it isn't the best habit to have. Georgie has been in foster for a year now, she has already been adopted once, that lasted three months and with two attacks under her teeth and claws, Georgie was returned. We have exhausted all avenues, sanctuaries won't have her, because she immediately attacks other cats and it is very serious. We can't adopt her out, because we can't adopt out an aggressive cat.

Yesterday I get a letter.. you are the cat whisperer.. can you help Georgie? I said I would try, so after a trip to De Kalb today to pick her up at a gas station from her former foster family, LOVELY people by the way. Georgie came here. Another interesting fact about her.. she has no tail.. she looks like a Manx cat.. her mother ate her tail when she was born.. ouch!

Georgie HATED her new apartment. She spent the first half hour growling and snarling and hissing especially hissing at me every time I walked in the room. I put food down.. Georgie wouldn't touch it. I took her some treats, she got stroppy. So I have ignored her. A few minutes ago I went in the room and heard meowing, she was in the back of her cave, no hissing this time. So I picked up the food she had not eaten and took it away leaving her fresh water, litter trays, toys and plush comfy beds. I also have a Feliway diffuser plugged in so that we can work on her mood and de-stressing her.

I walked out tonight, turned off the light and left her.

What comes next? It seems that the times Georgie attacks are when there is something she does not like, perhaps the scent of another cat, or, when someone stops playing with her and she wants to continue. It seems to me that she is using Dominant behaviour so the steps I take will be to redress that balance. The first steps in that will be structured routine. Her environment is Bengal perfect. She has a window shelf, scratch post, toys, comfy bed retreats and a cave. Morning and night I will offer her food, none left down so that she understands humans bring her food and good things and she is dependent on that. We will also start a play session before supper at night that hopefully she will find interesting, stimulating and will wear her out!

Note some Cesar Milan ideas here?

Georgie is extremely smart and very energetic. She was turning cartwheels in her cat carrier today just because it was fun. She plays fetch with pencils and loves that particular activity. And it looks like she has been thoroughly spoiled. The problem is being spoiled right now is the last thing Georgie needs.. her life depends upon it.

Leopard Trainer Extraordinaire

Okay that might be exaggerating just a little bit but it got your attention didn't it?

Squeaker and Golden Boy were two fosters I will never forget and who taught me so much. They came from a Breeder seizure done by Animal Control, nine Bengals came out of the most appalling conditions. I already had one Bengal from there someone went in independently and rescued so I heard first hand how bad it was.

Imagine a dark basement, cages piled one on top of the other, not cleaned properly, urine and faeces dripping everywhere, the scent so noxious you could smell it from the driveway. Cats not vaccinated, no medical attention, if sick they got over it or they died. Bengals so ill bred they were actually deformed according to breed standards and therefore had health issues because of it. They were fed sporadically and they were starving. Worse than all of this they were unsocialized save for one 15 year old named Cougar who will probably live out his days in his foster home.

All nine of these cats were considered unadoptable by the shelter and would all have been euthanized. This is a record of how I took two of the three I had and made them adoptable. I will preface it by saying that the third cat I had, Sophie, had to be euthanized after I had her for 7 months. Our vet said we did the right thing, Sophie was so psychologically damaged and so ill bred that she probably had no awareness her circumstances had changed and her quality of life was so poor, euthanizing her was a necessity. I cried with anger that day at the person who ultimately brought a cat into the world that should not have been born and killed her at only two years old.

I chose Squeaker and Golden Boy to come with me. It was an unconcious selective process, I already had a girl with me, boys would be easier. Squeaker was the only cat to approach me and sniff at my finger, he was engaging his nose as Cesar Milan would say. Golden Boy I took simply because he was a pretty golden color, unconciously I think I knew his chances of getting adopted purely because of his color would be higher. Squeaker was three years old, Golden Boy was five.

This is Golden Boy in a characteristic pose from the early days. You can see he is tucked up. This is not a relaxed pose, in this position he is always ready for flight. In this photo something had attracted his attention so he was looking the other way, most of the time he would have his attention fully on me to see what I was doing.

The cage is 5ft tall and over 4ft wide with shelves, I have two in the foster room and Squeaker would use the outside of these as his personal jungle gym. One is positioned by the window and has a wooden platform on top so that the cats can look out of the window at the back yard if they want to. The other has no platform but that never stopped Squeaker climbing.

This is my favorite photo of Squeaker, it shows his pattern just beautifully. If nothing else Squeaker is a great representative of survival of the fittest. He is just a mass of compact muscle.

I have been asked what did I do to tame these two cats and that was difficult to explain because a lot of what I do is pure instinct. But things have come back to me that were effective. Firstly I read a lot about handling feral cats because basically they were. I also talked to and wrote to others who had feral experience to help me. But ultimately it was pure instinct and timing.

At first I had furniture in the foster room and these cats hid all the time. Squeaker hid behind the sofa and Goldie under the hutch. Goldie would poke his head out to get food but run if I approached and hide again. Squeaker would not approach at all if I was near the food.

It was suggested that I cage the cats and I intended on caging Squeaker first because I knew he would be the easiest, but it was Goldie I trapped in there. Sophie was also caged at the time, but it didn't work for her at all. It didn't work for Goldie either. I would open the upper door and put my hand inside slowly. Goldie would literally throw himself at the cage walls while hissing and spitting at me and threatening to attack. I would keep perfectly still and just hold my hand near him while talking to him softly. I wanted him to 'engage his nose' as Cesar would say. Yes I know that Cesar is a dog specialist, but his teachings on energy are also very useful when dealing with cats. And the techniques I learned with horses at an early age were also useful.

With cats slow movement and confidence are key. Just like with an aggressive dog if you move in an antagonistic jerky way that dog will attack. A cat will threaten just like a growling dog and I have found that Bengals are more likely to simply communicate in this language than other cats. I learned that from my own Sakura who would complain at me like a miniature Jaguar but was complaining TO me not threatening me, there is a difference.

Bearing this in mind I ignored Goldie's show of aggression through fear and kept still and quiet. I would not withdraw until he remained still and stopped threatening. Those tactics ceased when Goldie escaped from the cage.

By that time Squeaker was coming close enough to sniff and letting me touch him briefly so I changed tactics with the cats.

Asian Leopard Cats have Dens or trees. I believe this is why a lot of Bengals like boxes and burrowing under blankets and being up high. For them they are just following natural instinct. However, when you are trying to socialize a cat giving them any place to hide initially is not the best move. A Den is for safety but it is also a place that is easy to defend against predators.. and guess what we are folks? So the next thing was to have every piece of furniture removed from the foster room.

I kept a strict routine, I would feed wet food and change the water twice a day and also clean the litter trays. When I did this I ignored the cats. After a little while they began to associate those food times with good stuff, they had dry down all the time but the wet was a big treat for them, I doubt they had ever been fed wet food and so when food came they would approach. That was the time I would go in just to visit and I would target Squeaker because he was quite simply the easiest, bold and curious as soon as he discovered how good being scratched under the chin was he wanted it all the time. I am very blessed I had Squeaker because he was the one who helped me with Goldie.

I can remember Squeaker would be on the top shelf of the cat cage and I would pet him, Goldie would bounce from shelf to shelf in agitation and then one day he simply came over to see what Squeaker was purring for. As he rubbed against Squeaker so I began to fuss Goldie making sure that he got my scent covered as it was by Squeaker's scent. As soon as I was able to do that it was all downhill from there. Goldie hissed, I ignored him. I focused on Squeaker, Goldie wanted attention too. And that was how it went.

Goldie was funny because he would hiss all the time, even when I brought food Goldie would hiss at me, so I began to train him not to. It frustrated the hell out of Squeaker because they fed from a double bowl but as I lowered the dish and Goldie hissed I would say NO and lift up the bowl, we continued this until he stopped hissing and then he was allowed to eat.

I still remember the night I picked up both of the boys. It was just a whim, I took a deep breath and just put my arms under Squeakers belly and lifted him, he didn't fight, I carried him into the living room and said, look what I got to James. I then took an even bigger breath and lifted Goldie, who I lifted only briefly and then set down.. and then I burst into tears. It was one of the best moments of my entire life.

Squeaker and Goldie went to a wonderful home near the Missouri border with dogs and quarter horses and a vet for an Aunt. They couldn't have gone to a better place and it is a home that has been prepared to work with them as they transition to living in a real home. I think about them often.