Trixie learns to trust humans again

Trixie came to us in July 2025, along with her 6 kittens. She had been owned, but her owner moved away and left her outside to fend for herself. Kind neighbours fed her. Trixie then became pregnant, because her original owner had not had her neutered. The neighbours then called a local rescue for help, but they did not have space for her at that time. The neighbours managed to get hold of the kittens and another local rescue took them in, but they were unable to trap Trixie.

Unfortunately, Trixie then became pregnant again. Eventually, a local rescue managed to trap Trixie and her new kittens, but put out an appeal for help as they had no space for them. We then stepped in and collected Trixie and her kittens.

Initially none of them were able to be handled. One of our lovely fosterers agreed to take them on, and with the help of her daughter, the kittens slowly decided perhaps humans were ok after all. As soon as possible, the kittens were moved to two other fosterers who continued the excellent work, and these kittens were all successfully adopted out. Trixie, however, still wouldn't let us touch her.

We knew Trixie wasn't feral, as she had previously been owned. So we continued to work with her and she became very happy having free reign around the house, watching the fosterer when she was cooking, watching TV, etc.

She gradually crept closer and closer to her fosterers, but every time they reached out to stroke her, she just moved out of reach. At the beginning of March 2026, a lovely adopter came forward on hearing Trixie's story and asked to adopt her. She worked with us, and it was so lovely when she sent us a video, showing Trixie not just accepting strokes but clearly enjoying it and feeling comfortable enough to show her belly for belly rubs.

We nearly all cried when we saw this video in the branch. Trixie has come such a long way learning to trust humans again, and we can't thank the lovely adopter enough for taking her on. She is now working on picking Trixie up and putting her down again so that by the time she is due her booster vaccination, she will be able to go in the cat carrier easily.

Sometimes it’s a very long journey socialising our cats. Our fosterers, and in this case the new owner, put in a huge amount of work so that the cats trust humans and can live in a normal home setting. We don’t give up. Animals deserve a second chance and a happy life.