Update: Dell

When we first met Dell back in the spring, he was determined to make sure we were every bit as scared of him as he was of us. His cage even had a sign on it warning "Caution: Attack Cat." We hoped he'd mellow out in time, but knew it would be up to him to decide when and how that might go.

Once Dell had been at the sanctuary long enough to be released from his cave cage, he was moved to one of the back pens where he could hide from us to his heart's content.

The first couple of times I went out there to check on him, he was hiding a bit too effectively, so I wasn't able to get a look at him, let alone a photo, for some months. More recently I've been able to follow his progress through a couple of photos that Phaedra shared on her Facebook page.

Here's one from late November:

"Dell did NOT run out of the hut while cleaning today."

photo and caption from Phaedra

 And one from early December:

"Dell snuggling with friend"

photo and caption from Phaedra

These photos are quite consistent with the results I got with my own camera a couple of weeks later:

OK, so he's still looking at us suspiciously and occasionally having a good old hiss... but he's not freaking out or running away. Baby steps, and all that. Progress is progress.