Hello! About two weeks ago I adopted a 4-year old female cat from the shelter named Myrtle. When I went to meet her she was hiding in her cage and very scared. She had come to the shelter about a week before from a 3-cat household whose owner got hospitalized. She got neutured and 3 teeth pulled. This is my first cat as an adult and I wanted to ask some questions about her behavior.
The first week that she was here I kept her barricaded in the kitchen (my bathroom would not even fit her litterbox). During the night she was escaping into the rest of the apartment so I took down the baricade and let her have access whenever she wants. Because I knew when I met her that she was probably a shy cat and very scared I bought cat hideouts for all the rooms. She only uses the one in the kitchen and is in there most of the day. When I leave for work or go to bed she will explore the other rooms and likes to hide/chill behind the curtains.
The thing that is confusing me about her behavior is at least twice a day I have been sitting near her just chilling so that she can get used to me. A couple days ago I decided to try petting her and she immediately started purring. I found out that if I sit with her I can pet her for 20 minutes with her purring, kneading her paws and moving around her head and body to wear she wants me to pet her. When I do this I noticed I am able to offer her food and she will eat a lot more than she usually does (I am struggling to get her to eat enought food - visiting vet in two days for booster vaccine and to get her to check out this issue). Is it possible that she is a social cat in "hiding" (haha) and in a couple of weeks she will feel more confident about coming out of hiding? How can I increase her confidence? She has four scratching areas distributed about the room but only rarely uses the one in the kitchen. I was thinking of putting a blanket in her kitchen hideout and after a week of getting her scent on there move it to another hideout in another room? Is it also possible that she misses the other 3 cats she used to live with? I was watching a video with a cat meowing in it and she started meowing back in a way that seemed a bit sad (please don't laugh at me).
TLDR: I know I have to wait many more weeks to see her true personality out but for anyone that has adopted a cat before have you ever had the experience where they really like getting pets but only if they are hiding?
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/jrxv2e/newly_adopted_cat_is_shy_but_loves_pets/
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