Hey there,

 About 5 months ago I trapped a black, female kitty approximately two
years old.  She was quite feral.  I had been feeding her for many months
near my office and she never let me pet her.  But every day she was
waiting for me to show up with food.  Before she ate the food she'd make
sure I was at least 5 feet away.  We started having trouble with kids in
the area mistreating animals so I decided to take her in and make her my
third house cat.  "Princess" did not want my vets to mess with her, so
they had to gas the little gal just to give her a check up.  Then they
spayed her.  My vets think she was born in the wild because there are a
lot of feral cats in this particular area.

 Anyway, she's been in my guest bedroom for the past several months.  I
have a screen door that separates her from my other two cats.  At first
"Princess" would just hunker down and try desperately not to move.  She
was scared to death. I felt horrible for her.  But over time she
loosened up a little.  The good news is that she instinctively knew how
to use a litter box :)  And now she follows me all over the room - as if
she's interested in everything I'm doing.  And she finally learned to
play with toys - she especially likes it when I move a feather on a
string.  And she jumps up on the bed with me now and lays down next to
me.  Pretty cool.  But I still can not touch her.  LOL.  As long as my
hand is under the covers, I can scratch her though.  She loves getting
petted that way - she immediately starts purring and kneading her
claws.  I can even pet her with my bare hand as long as her back is
turned to me and she doesn't see my hand.  If she sees my hand, she will
try to claw it or bite it.  And she bites hard - she really perceives my
hands as major threats.  It's the strangest thing.  She is blind in one
eye and the vet saw signs that she suffered a trauma to it.  So perhaps
a human hand once hurt her or something.  Or perhaps it's just an
instinct to be afraid of human hands.  Anyway, I feel like I've made so
much progress with this little gal over the last few months, but I just
can't seem to get her to not want to hurt my hands.  I've tried wearing
gloves to protect my hands - but that scared her even worse.  I've tried
putting baby food on my finger but she refuses to come near my bare
hand, even if it has food on it.  I love that she gets on the bed next
to me every night and I get a thrill from having her purr so much when I
pet her through the covers - but it's hard for me to always remember not
to let her see my hands.  Any ideas??

Thanks,
Brad