I keep forgetting to post this... A couple of years ago, I raising a bunch of feral kittens, and posted to About Cats asking for ideas on how to best tame them -- one, for example, had been named Spitfire because she would become so vicious if approached! (She's now the uber-marshmallow Maree, or "Marmar" as she puts it.)

One of the best recommendations was for me to try one of the herbal products used by more experienced tamers. This page gives detailed descriptions of the best one. I couldn't find Rescue Remedy at the time, but I did discover two near-identical products -- "Calm Down" and "Good Cat" -- and those helped a huge amount. :-)