Patience has been in and out of the house now for about a month. Her night terrors are still so evident that when she starts her anxious meowing at 1:00 a.m. and continues it non-stop, I eventually cave and let her out at 4:00 a.m. I don’t wish her to be outside. Not with two neighbors not fond of cats and I know she wanders. I have tried all my tricks to calm her down; harp music, leaving on lights, putting her in a room with calmer cat, feeding her, holding her and finally giving her one-on-one playtime and nothing was working.
Thursday when I took Blake to the vet- I also bought a nutureCALM24/7 pheremone collar. I have Feliway diffusers burning 24/7 at the sanctuary in most of the rooms but they seemed to have little effect on Patience. I was skeptical that this collar would even work, but I wanted to give it a shot.
Just like clock-work that night at 9:00 p.m. she was waiting at the door to come in. I brought her in and fastened the collar on her, stepping back to see how she would react with something around her neck. She wasn’t even concerned. I fed her and just let her be and she joined the other cats in the outside enclosure.
At ten when I headed for bed, I sent a prayer skyward asking God to please let her get through the night without the demons chasing her. She woke me at 3:00 a.m. She gave two plaintive squeaks, then all was quiet! I went out of the bedroom to find her, she was curled up asleep on one of the cat towers! With a big smile, I headed back to bed.
She has been in the house ever since with the collar still on. Although in the beginning in the daytime, she was pacing a bit, she has quieted down and now just wants me to pet her and love on her.
Th collar is manufactured by meridian animal health. When you first fasten it on, all this powder falls off of it, but this powder is what activates the pheroemones. The pheromoens it gives off mimics the calming scent the Queen carries for her kittens. It has not only given Patience the time she needs to face her fears, but it has made her adoptable for the first time in her life.
This kitty born in a hoarder’s home with little hope of a normal life, now has an opportunity to be someone’s beloved pet and be cherished and cared for the rest of her life.
These photos were taken this morning. She isn’t caged any longer and this is the calmest I have ever seen her. For her to finally find her peace is a true Easter Blessing and we couldn’t have achieved this stage without the help of meridian animal health and their amazing collar.
Here she was the first night with us:
Impressive results. With luck, in time Patience will realize her demons are gone, and she won’t even need the collar anymore. In the meantime, everyone can have a chance to sleep.
That’s very interesting. I’m going to pass on the link to this post to the rescue-group I work with. They don’t have any frightened or nervous cats at the moment, but it doesn’t hurt to disseminate such information. Good for Patience!
So happy to hear about Patience! I have a rescue cat from a hoarder, also. He is 2 yrs old and still has issues. Hoarder got him at 6 weeks old and he has been with me from age 5 months. He was not socialized with other cats or humans, but lived in a tiny carrier with newspaper for food placement and litter use. He just never learned how to be a cat and doesn’t get along well with my others. I keep him separated with a passive cat and supervise closely visits with the other 3 cats. He does sleep under the covers with me and has finally learned not to bite. Maybe this will help him some. Sure can’t hurt to try.