We recently took a feral cat ("wild-domestic" cat) into the house.  While
this is not ordinarily a wise thing to do, he had been the victim of the
ignorant bliss of sleeping on a warm and cozy car engine at a very bad time.
We found him pretty close to death.  The people who told us about him were
about to smother him in a plastic bag.  We took him to the vet and had the
necessary work done.  We also got him his shots and neutered him (not all in
one pop, the poor thing had already been the victim of enough trauma).  He
has to be tended to for the next couple of weeks and is making a remarkable
recovery.  He's only about 6 months old and is not large, brave or
frightened enough to pose any real threat to our cats or ferret.
 
He refused to stay in the cage (in fact he opened the wounds on his paw
while beating on the door trying to get out - and kept on beating
relentlessly once the blood began to flow).  After we had him re-stitched,
we gave him free run of the appt (to avoid another episode of cabin fever)
and he spends his time hiding, although he loves getting physical and verbal
attention from us.  We're able to pet and scratch him while he purrs along
as if he were an ordinary housecat.  We believe he's young enough to learn
to function as a housecat, and our vet concurs.  He's made a LOT of social
(as well as physical) progress in the course of the last week or so.
 
Our two cats are apprehensive about him and keep their distance, although
quite interested. Same goes for him. I suspect sooner or later they'll all
come around if current trends escalate.
 
Maggie (the ferret) has assumed a rather strange role in the whole thing.
Maggie is the only creature in the house the cat won't run away from when
approached, including us.  Maggie's intrinsic fearlessness and social nature
draws her towards the cat, but there seems to be more to it than that.  When
it was caged for the first few days, Maggie would sit outside the cage and
keep the cat company as if it knew it was injured and needed reassurance.
She'd lay there in that "pouting" position beside the cage and stay much
longer than the duration of her average attention span.
 
We let the cat out, Maggie now spends a lot of time in direct contact with
it. It likes to hide in tight places and Maggie joins her there when she's
let out of her cage (she's locked up while we're not at home, but has free
run once we are). We're not quite sure what they do in their hidey-holes,
but it certainly involves a great deal of dooking.
 
The other night we were worried sick cause we couldn't find the cat.  We
tore the place apart looking for it.  I got the idea to let Maggie out to
"track" the cat down.  Maggie disappeared.  About 10 minutes later I heard
dooking from within the dresser, which is Maggie's favorite sleeping place.
Strange that she'd be dooking in there, I thought to myself, and opened the
drawer.  There they both were.  The cat must have been there all along
because we looked literally everywhere else in the appt.  I didn't think it
could use Maggie's "back door access" to get in there in the first place,
but underestimated the cat's contortionist abilities.  I think it climbed in
there in the first because the clothes inside had a strong Maggie smell and
represented some sort of comfort to him.
 
It is almost as if Maggie has assumed a nurturing role to the injured animal
and posesses a sense of empathy towards his condition.  There's also a great
deal of play involved between the two.  I'm amazed at the cat's acceptance
of Maggie - it was instantaneous, like Maggie were a mother or litter-mate.
Any other living thing is still perceived as a potential threat and
approached carefully, if at all.
 
Perhaps Maggie is helping to "tame" it.  It's making more frequent public
appearances and also seems to be "talking" a lot more.  It is my
understanding that wild cats do not meow and that domestic cats meow as an
adaptation to the human environment.  If it starts to dook, I'll die :)
 
Has anybody had a similar experience with ferrets "nurturing" non-fert
creatures?  The whole thing is a trip to watch, and sheds a whole new light
onto the psychological profiles of ferrets.  They really never cease to
amaze me.
 
Ken
[Posted in FML issue 2189]