“That night he slept with his head in the palm of my hand”: How two feisty feral street kittens transformed into love bugs after months of hissing, scratches, treat bribes, and one tearful failed burrito attempt

Author image for Laurent Shinar
Laurent Shinar • Writer and Editor
Sep 4, 2025 5:00 PM EDT

Adopting feral kittens is one heck of a challenge. They have been raised to handle the streets, which are ten times as tough when you are a tenth the size of everything else that walks the same streets you live on. So you can imagine that the concepts of a furever family, comfort, cleanliness and safety did not exactly make sense when these cute kittens were brought home for the first time. And not just the first time, but for months they struggled to settle into the life of luxury that they were offered.

But with enough love, patience and perseverance their cat pawrent managed to get them accustomed to the fancy feline life and to leave those cold, harsh memories of their life on the street outside the front door, for they will not need them anymore.
 

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    Hey y'all! Just wanted to hop on and give hope to those who are rehabilitating "Spicy" kittens and let you know that there is hope!
    via SirMademoiselle
  • 02
    In November of 2022 I adopted two fluffy siblings, one male, one female. They were estimated to be about 4 months old when I adopted them so they were already outside of the "easy" range of time to tame them. (Typically
    via SirMademoiselle
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    between birth and 2 months old is when they are most accepting of human interaction last I read). They were rescues that had been found on the street and had actually received an ear tip before they were reevaluated for being
    via SirMademoiselle
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    cute enough to be adopted out. But still, they were a challenge to adopt because of their spice level and were without a doubt the spiciest kittens I've ever known.
    via SirMademoiselle
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    feral feline family kittens and mother
    via Gabriele Maltinti via Adobe Stock

    Disclaimer: This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

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    The female was very fearful and tentative but would allow touch as long as a Churro was involved, and after about a month, she was much more accepting of pets (albeit only for short bursts).
    via SirMademoiselle

  • Well, that certainly is some spicy feline behavior right there. How curious, we have never heard of a cat being bribed with a churro, but now that we have you can bet your bottom dollar that we are all about trying that out.

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    The male on the other hand, was extremely spicy and downright a to any approach. After a couple weeks of e introduction to their new environment (and myself) I decided to try doing a kitten burrito with them because I read this was
    via SirMademoiselle
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    the fast track to trust building. Boy this was a bad idea!! For the female, she was resistant until the churro came out and accepted it ok. But for the male, well let's just say it was tr --+ic for the both of us. After k d was drawn and trust was
    via SirMademoiselle
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    broken I definitely cried a lot that day and swore I wouldn't try to force it again. Instead I decided to gentle parent and went slow and steady. Now I know everyone's schedule is different but luckily for me and the
    via SirMademoiselle
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    kittens I had a job with a limited schedule that allowed me to give them a lot of attention. In those early days I would play with them for at least an hour in the morning and at night. The first month I would also take naps in their nursery room before
    via SirMademoiselle
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    introducing them to the rest of the house. I never tried to force them to accept me longer than they were comfortable. However I did try to entice them to come near me with treats everyday. I
    via SirMademoiselle

  • Sometimes, it feels like the way that we have to tame our feral felines would be similar to how aliens might try to tame us after picking us up off an alien street, all shivering cold and alone. It takes a lot of patience, minimal company and mainly a whole lot of time and exposure to get to a point of tentative trust. 

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    used Churro's to get them used to being near me and then slowly (over days and weeks) got them to stand on my legs as they ate the treat. Once they were comfortable with this, I started petting them on the head a few times when I fed their
    via SirMademoiselle
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    three kittens standing on a gray towel
    via g215 via Adobe Stock

    Disclaimer: This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

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    morning meals. Then I started doing this for all their meals (especially for the boy). After he started associating my touch with what he loved most: food, he really started to get more comfortable and the hissing started to die off. However he STILL
    via SirMademoiselle
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    would run from my petting if food wasn't involved, for MONTHS. At this point, I thought he would never come around. Well, after about 9 months of us all living together I needed to go on a trip for a weekend
    via SirMademoiselle
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    and had a friend take care of them. And when I came back I found the biggest change in my babies! They were super affectionate, rubbing on my legs and crying for attention and pets. The biggest change was with my little man, because
    via SirMademoiselle
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    that night he slept right by my head and had his own head cradled in the palm of my hand the whole night! After that, we were off to the races! We've been together for over a year and a half now and they are my little
    via SirMademoiselle
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    four kittens playing
    via Africa Studio via Adobe Stock

    Disclaimer: This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

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    love bugs! ESPECIALLY the male, because now he loves to cuddle much more than the female. He literally will cry for a daily cuddle session now haha. It truly is amazing the turnaround and I am grateful everyday to have been able to witness this.
    via SirMademoiselle
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    So if you have some spicy kittens right now, just know that with a lot of patience and measuring when to annoy them with love, you'll have some affectionate little fluff bs soon enough!
    via SirMademoiselle

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street months scratch treats transform burrito kitten reddit story feisty felines attempt cat story love feral night hissing
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