After a year of being fed by a cat-loving lady, stray cat finally trusts her enough to get close and ask her to pet him: 'He requires a good pet session before he will even start to eat'

Giuliana Tiscioni • Writer

Oct 14, 2026 9:30 AM EDT

Cats can be very distrustful creatures, so getting close to one is harder work than most people think.

When animals are abandoned or alone, they become extremely territorial, distrustful, and scared. They have to learn to fend for themselves under complicated circumstances, and it takes a toll on them. Their health can deteriorate, and they can find it difficult to trust human beings again. Rescuing them is not always easy, even though it's the right thing to do. They could get aggressive or avoidant at first, since they have no way of knowing that we're actually trying to help them.

My cat was a rescue. A friend of mine found her on the side of a highway when coming home from work. When he saw her, he parked his truck on the side of the road and spent a good deal of time trying to catch her. She was scared, and she ended up hiding under the truck, after which he crawled under it himself to get her. He brought her home, and he and his wife gave her food, a bath, and a warm place to sleep. They couldn't keep her because they didn't have enough space: their house is relatively small, and they already have pets, so they asked me if I could keep her, since they knew I was a cat lover without a cat at the moment. I said yes, and they brought her home. I took her to the vet, got her vaccinated, spayed, and gave her all the freedom in the world to wander around the house in peace.

The thing is that, at first, she got scared of everything. She would go running to hide every time we opened the front door, and all she did all day was sleep. I was worried about her, but now I understand that she was taking time to rest now that she was safe and wasn't under that much stress. After a few weeks, she started coming back to life, getting more energetic and playful. Now, she's entering crazy-cat territory, since she gets these random outbursts of insane energy and starts running all around the house.

All of this to say, getting a cat to trust you can take time, but it's totally worth it. A woman who's been feeding a stray cat she named Fred for over a year knows this very well and has shared her experience with all of us.

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The woman who feeds Fred shared a little piece of their story:
“I've been feeding Fred for about a year now, but only within the last few months has he started to let me near him and pet him. Before, he would keep his distance and wait for me to set down his plate of food and walk away before he would go to his plate and eat. Now, he requires a good pet session before he will even start to eat. I wanted to get it on video, because I think it's so cute when I call his name and he comes running down the alley for his meal. Another quirky little detail about Fred is that he will only eat dry food. I've tried feeding him multiple different kinds of wet foods, even boiled him some chicken once and he wasn't interested. He only wants the dry stuff, so that's what he gets.”
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After a year of being fed by a cat-loving lady, stray cat finally trusts her enough to get close and ask her to pet him: 'He requires a good pet session before he will even start to eat'

Cats can be very distrustful creatures, so getting close to one is harder work than most people think.

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