I wouldn't give up on the idea. My dad "hated cats" until I made friends with a wild one form a nearby house. It came in and at first he spluttered about it loudly, saying it was restricted to my room. After a couple of weeks he progressed to scowling at it and following it around the house to "check on it" with a bemused expression. The next week he gave it a short greeting when it came in and actually reached down to touch it. From then on it rapidly progressed to where he would actively let it in the house (it was always at the kitchen door) and stroke it, even getting to the point where he murmured to it like you would to a kid. The rest is history.

If I had a house and a garden I would have one of these in a shot, the mohican one, simply adorable.