Originally Posted by Ramona Byrd
Not right away. Taming an outdoor cat takes time, and if she is really feral, then you'll have a long time job on your hands.
I have a long haired rescue cat, and she flat out refuses to let me brush her. She stares at the other one while I'm brushing him, he absolutely loves his blue people brush. So I'm taking it one step at a time, I rub her back with a glove on, that gets a lot of the hair.
As for the matted hair, I'd suggest you get her used to petting, and hold a tiny pair of scissors in one hand while petting her with the other, with maybe a treat to get her attention away from the other hand. Then clip a tiny bit at a time when she's used to you tugging at her hair.
Like I said, this'll take a lot of time, but well worth it when you get a loving cat out of this scared one. It's good of you to even try, sounds like this poor thing has been abused in her tough life.
You should never ever clip a cat this way, you can clip huge portions of the skin off, scissors are a no no with cats, i have seen some nasty cuts from people doing this when i worked at a vet, always use clippers, cats usually don't like them which is why you need the sedation