Hug Therapy pt 2 - No means Yes and Hiss means Purr

Hug Therapy, in all honesty, seems like a really good idea. However, in retrospect, I don't think any other people I shared my plan with were supporting it. Probably for good reason.

Hug Therapy - the Good News: In the loosest definition of the word, I got to pet Chicory.

Hug Therapy - the Bad News: I may have also permanently scarred her against black gloves, green towels and dust pans.

Here's how it went down:

I came home from work and made sure she was under my bed, threw her a token kitty treat (hissssss), and then went to block her fridge hiding spot. I went back to the bedroom, changed into cat wrangling clothes, and began to poke a stick at her (Really, why does she hate me?). This scared her out and she bolted for the kitchen only to be FOILED by a giant shopping bag blocking her sneak-behind. She froze. I moseyed into the kitchen, she darted for the bed room. Curses! The door was closed. She frantically searched for somewhere to go, hissing all the way. Finally she darted back into the kitchen and under the island.

Now cornered, fur on edge and with the meanest scowl you've seen on a cat she turned to me as if to say "bitch!" which is quite the language for a 3 month old. I sat down in front of her and began coooooing, saying soothing things and telling her she was a sweet kitty. She must have know I was lying because she continued to growl/meow.

Then I turned to bribery by opening some wet cat food and feeding her a little on the tip of a knife. This was repeated until eventually she ate it while my hand was still under the island. Then I decided it wad time to put on the OJ gloves.

It's hard to describe what went down after that. There was A LOT of hissing and spatting and her jumping around and swatting at me, then growling and then trying to escape. Eventually, with the help of my cat wrangling tool - the dust pan - I pinned her against the wall (gently-ish) and with my hand in a leather glove under the towel I was able to lightly pet her. Five more minutes of the above process and I touched her without the towel (but still the glove).

She never looked happy and she bit me once, BUT I kind of petted her so it's like a success. When that was over I gave her a little more wet food and left her looking very put out in the kitchen.

Ears flat, bitch scowl on