Better to get down and scratch the

A friend of mine did that with  a rescued feral 10+ year old he'd taken
from the shelter after neutering because the shelter didn't have space
as it was just after Xmas and loads of "unwanted presents" were
crowding the shelter. He'd got attached to Smoky and decided to give
him a temporary home until the backlog of kittens cleared or maybe
forever..as he was himself getting on in years and didn't want the long
term commitment of a kitten so he'd been helping out at the shelter and
had always had it in his head that maybe he could give a senior cat a
home.... But Smoky was considered a bit "Wild" (afterwards he said if
it didn't work out he would have paid the shelter to make sure Smoky
lived the rest of his days there)

The first night he demonstrated to Smoky how he would like him to use
the box and he swore Smoky's look said "You want me to scratch this? In
exchange for which, since I am no longer young and winter's hard on my
poor old bones, you will give me warmth, shelter, stroking and above
all FOOD..OKAY your'e on!"

Smoky lived another 9+ years and was a perfect gentlecat

Lesley

Slave of the Fabulous Furballs

Yes....I have four cats, and they each have completely different
personalities....Most of them are independent as all hell....they are
usually pissed off all the time anyway. but that's why I like cats.....They
aren't fawning slobbering pets like dogs....They would just as soon scratch
the hell out of me as not.....:^) The only one that really likes me is BK,
the one I picked up in a Burger King parking lot, where he was living on
French fries and onion rings and anything else people threw at him. When I
came out of the place just before closing on the Wednesday before
Thanksgiving 2004, he stood on his hind legs, put one paw on my knee, and
pawed at my bag of burgers and said, "Gee dad, can I have a little of one of
your burgers?" I threw the bag of burgers in the front seat of my car, and
picked him up and threw him in the back seat, and got in and started the
car. I thought he would panic, but he just settled down on the rear deck and
said, "It's OK dad, I'm going wherever those hamburgers are going." I
brought him home and fed him kibbles and milk, and he hasn't eaten any
people food again from that day to this. This is the only cat I've ever had
that really likes me. He stands behind me on the bed in the morning while I
am putting on my socks, and puts his front feet on my shoulders and presses
his head against the back of my neck, and says, "Thanks, Dad...." He does
still like milk shakes....And he knows how to drink one without spilling the
glass....He sticks his paw down into the glass and wets it, and then he
licks it off....He can drink a whole shake out of a glass without spilling a
drop. Every other cat I've ever known just knocks the glass over and laps up
what he can before it soaks into the ground.....BK also likes to drink milk
out of my wife's cold cereal bowl in the evening....She can barely get
enough milk herself before it's all gone.......Otherwise, it's nothing but
kibbles for him....He won't even eat wet canned cat food.......