The top left photo was taken when Scotlyn arrived. The top middle photo was taken after her surgery. The other photos show her incision healing well. But she's still shy.

Scotlyn never moves. When you touch her, she cringes. She's not feral, she's just extremely shy. She came to us from another shelter because she was too shy for them to adopt out. She came into shelter care as a stray so her history is unknown. They said she was affectionate once she realized she could trust you. Perhaps going from one shelter to another was more than she could handle; Scotlyn has not warmed up to us. Our vet believes she's deaf. If we approach her low and from the front where she can see our hands, she accepts it better.
A particularly virulent virus caused ulceration on one of her eyes. She's so skittish that it's difficult to examine her. We took her back to the vet who determined that the eye was too badly ulcerated and had to be removed. So now she has one good eye. She still lives in a new-cat cage after more than three months at the shelter because she would disappear into hiding if we put her in a communal room, and it would be impossible to monitor her health. We will take it day by day and see if she can begin to respond to kindness. She eats with good appetite and has shown tentative responses to attention. So there's hope for her.

Sept/08
The video below shows that Scotlyn is sensitive and timid, probably because of her incapacity if she really is deaf. She's certainly half-blind. She feels very insecure with contact. She seems to be lonely and she enjoys a little cheek scratch. But her insecurity puts a cap on how much contact she can tolerate. Scotlyn will just need to be allowed time to make progress at her own pace.

Dec 1/08
A volunteer noted that Scotlyn doesn't seem to be deaf since she looks up if you make a sound behind her. She's probably just terribly shy. She's loose in a communal room now that we're at the new shelter. She's doing very well although she'd prefer to be invisible when people are around. She was lying in a basket on the floor when a mother and her young son visited the room. She never moved while they met all the cats. Then with a cry of delight, the youngster bent and petted Scotlyn. Startled, she jumped and looked around anxiously but she didn't make any other move. She stayed in her basket. She will hurry into a cubby hole when people come in though. She can easily be persuaded to poke her head out if a plate of soft food is placed at the entrance. She does enjoy her soft food.

Jan/09
Scotlyn has made great strides considering she never left her bed for many months. A volunteer was proud to tell us that Scotlyn came up to her to accept a treat the other day. She's not particularly intimidated by the presence of the other cats. Scotlyn just seems to feel intimidated period. She is the epitome of timidness. But she is slowly gaining confidence and is showing more of herself all the time. She'll never be a gregarious party animal but she will one day be a nice little companion for a quiet adult.

March 15/09
Scotlyn has made wonderful progress over the last while. She is still uneasy about being handled but she is quite perky and even flirtatious with us. Watch her video below to see how responsive she is to people now.

May/09
Scotlyn is certainly not depressed anymore. She's become confident in her communal room and only seems to lose confidence if a visitor insists on trying to touch her. Scotlyn will have to let us know when she's ready for that. She likes to know who's coming into the room and she'll peek out of her cubby hole to see. If visitors talk to her through her cubby hole doorway, she'll watch them with a cheerful, inquiring face. But if they reach into her cubby hole, her face clouds with uncertainty and she'll warn them off with a smack if they persist. One day she'll be ready to enjoy cheek scratch and chin rubs. She's coming along steadily.
In her photo at right, Scotlyn wriggled flirtatiously. Then...

...in the photo above, she withdrew when a visitor became too persistent.

June 23/09
The volunteers noticed that Scotlyn seemed to be bleeding from her blind eye the other day. So our volunteer in charge of animal health rounded her up for a vet check (which was no easy feat since Scotlyn still hates to be handled). The vet discovered a small wound to which they applied a kind of dissolving adhesive patch. The dissolving patch was best because rounding her up again to get any other kind of dressing removed would be more traumatic than it's worth. She had to be sedated to be treated. While she was sedated they gave her a full check up and found her to be in good health otherwise. That was good news anyway. We can only think that she had a run-in with one of her new roommates. The cats in her room have lived harmoniously so far. We'll keep a closer eye on them in case someone needs a new room assignment.

July 19/09
All seems to be going well in Scotlyn's communal room. She's lively, perky, curious and confident when we go in there. She likes to flirt with us from a distance. If she has a problem with anyone, it's with humans. The other cats, she can handle. It's humans that capture you and whisk you off to the vet's. They're the ones she has to watch. Scotlyn reminds us to keep our distance when we get too close.

Jan/10
    Scotlyn is still making steady progress. She responds playfully when we talk to her. But if we touch her, we have to move our hands toward her from under her head. If you pet her from the top of her head she'll lash out. Our volunteer in charge of animal health feels that's a sign of some abuse. She was like that before she lost her eye so it's not that she can't see you coming.
    She has her own fan club among the volunteers. Some of them have made a project of drawing her out. One reported, "I had a fantastic moment with Scotlyn today that I didn't want to forget to share. She was being her cute little rolling-around-playfully self and was purring and being affectionate, so I put my face close enough for her to touch (either a brave or stupid move), and she leaned forward and rubbed her face on mine. I thought this was amazing. I was also playing with her with a crinkly little ball and she was attacking it playfully."
In her own way she's a happy cat.

Apr 27/10
Scotlyn had a vet appointment today. That's easier said than done. When you can't pick up a cat without traumatizing her, you must be devious about getting her into a carrier for the trip to the vet. Below is a series of five sequential, short videos of the ordeal which might make you chuckle as we did in spite of the situation. Scotlyn seemed quite serene but she defied all laws of nature in avoiding the move to the carrier. We finally did get her into it although we couldn't film for that long. She just finally seemed to say, "oh all right, if you insist." and went quietly into the carrier at last.

May/10
Scotlyn was showing signs of having an ear infection. She also seemed to be leaning to one side, which sent up red flags for our Animal Health volunteer who then tried to watch her walking. She did have a bit of a tilt (although it's hard to tell when a cat's normal walk is a slink!). We caught her and cleaned her ear. There was a little dirt, nothing major. She saw the vet. Again, the ear was clean, but the vet could see something further down. So she sedated Scotlyn and removed a polyp! There was no infection so no antibiotics were required, thank goodness. Poor Scotlyn. She's not comfortable being handled a lot. So what do we do? We grab her, hold her down and poke around in her ear. Then we crate her, shaking her out of her cubby hole like ketchup out of a bottle. Then we take her to a stranger who also pokes around in her ear. Hopefully this won't undermine the trust she's developed so far.
 She's more involved in her surroundings than ever and always wants to know what's going on. She can often be seen peeking out of some porthole with her one good eye.
 
 
 

July 2/10
Scotlyn's ear canal (after the polyp removal) looked good. She was on some steroids to reduce inflammation. Our poor girl seems to have made a good recovery.

July 8/10
We've been watching for her to see if she still has the head tilt she developed with her ear problem. But no matter how much we want to see Scotlyn out in the open where we can assess her head alignment, Scotlyn is determined not to be caught out in the open. Forcibly removing her from a cubby hole has not worked well in the past. We'll wait.

Aug 24/10
If you read from the top down, from where we say, "Scotlyn never moves. When you touch her, she cringes...." then you'll be amazed with what's happened now. Scotlyn has completely found her confidence and is cheerfully socializing with people. She's actually schmoozing and soaking up attention. It really is amazing. She came to us in April 2008 from another shelter where she'd been too shy to adopt out. To see photos and videos of the change in her, just look at what we posted on her Petfinder page.

Nov/10
Scotlyn is still a sociable girl. Her days of being reclusive are over. She doesn't greet people when they come into her communal room as some cats do. But she will come toward you, hoping to be noticed. Then if you give her some pets, she soaks it up happily and stays by your side hoping for more until you stand to leave. She won't follow you to the door. But she watches, wishing you might come back and spend a bit more time with her. This little cat would do very well in a quiet, adult home.
 
 

April/11
For a while, Scotlyn was keeping to herself again, responding tentatively if she was sought out. (When they can't get the daily company of one person or family like they'd get in a home, they can forget to be sociable sometimes.) However, just recently, she's enjoyed a very sociable spell where she's been out and visible in her communal room. She'd wriggle and roll happily on a perch and enjoy some pets.

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