Topaz was a feral cat that we were going to Buddy up with another feral cat. But the other feral cat got fixed and got extremely friendly and chill and became adoptable. Topaz did not get adoptable. We ended up keeping her.
My wife fell in love with Topaz. And Topaz fell in love with my wife. I can't approach topaz at all. Topaz will disappear for a day or three on occasion. But then she comes inside the house through the cat door and they seek out my wife. If they see me because my wife is already gone to bed they will vanish. If they see my wife they will come up and become the stupidest one brain celled cuddle machine on Earth.
It's been like this for three years. I still can't approach her.
I dated a girl in my 20s who rescued what turned out to basically be a feral kitten, and boy was he a handful. But she never treated him differently. As someone who grew up in a dog house, he's the one who made me love cats.
She found him crying under a shed in a neighbor's yard. It was theorized that he may have been the son of a notoriously feral neighborhood cat that the kids and teens in the area affectionately named "House Tornado" due to the inevitable results any time someone tried taking her in lol.
Son of House Tornado.
He would scratch and bite the shit out of you sometimes, but you could tell he didn't mean it. Sometimes he would pause mid bite, look you in the eyes, then run away as if to apologize.
If he was acting particularly feral, I would sometimes quickly pick him up and spin him around 360 and then set him back down a couple of times and it kind of reset his brain and he'd run off in confusion lol.
But it just made all of the times where he'd unexpectedly turn into a little cuddle monster even more special.
He definitely chilled out over the years. I was able to stay friendly with the ex, and visit him like a decade later (he's since passed), and he was (almost) a normal house cat.
Feral kitties deserve love too. RIP Puck
I love the 360 reset