A (mostly) happy outcome for our friendly visiting cat, Gigia

I reported a few weeks ago that Gigia, a nice but partly feral cat had adopted us, and that she was pregnant. She disappeared about three weeks ago, and we figured she had gone off to her hidden den to give birth. After about three days, she came back around, no longer pregnant, but without any kittens in tow. We thought maybe she just left them for a short time to get some nourishment, but in the following days, we realized that there were no kittens. For reasons we would rather not think about, they didn’t survive.

Gigia started coming around more and more often, and we realized that her behavior had changed considerable from our first weeks here. She is now very relaxed. She no longer jumps when we first touch her, and she rubs against my face if I am low enough. She sometimes used to bite my hand unexpectedly after I petted her for a minute, not hard, but not something I appreciated. She never does that any more.

In the past week, though, she has come less frequently, and she seems very content to just visit and be petted. She does not come to eat but just to say hello. We feel quite certain that someone else has adopted her, and that makes us very happy. We will only be here another week, and we would feel bad if we didn’t know that she had someone with more permanence to feed and love her.

In a little more than two months, Gigia has changed from a half-feral scared and nervous animal into a friendly, relaxed and nearly domesticated pet. We are happy for Gigia and glad that we were able to play a part in making her more desirable for some neighbor to adopt.