Question by anonymous: I need help with this strange cat behavior!?
Okay, I have a really strange cat situation. My boyfriend and I have two cats, one older (maybe eight or nine years) cat and a 3 1/2 month old kitten. We got the kitten because this older cat has some very strange behavior, and we though she might calm her down. This older cat, she was my boyfriend’s ex-wife’s before they even started dating, is nuts, and that is putting it mildly. His ex was very abusive to her and kept her in a cage 24/7 like you would a ferret or a hamster. He didn’t know about this until either right before or right after they were married. Anyways, he liberated this cat, that his ex had started to hate, and he got the cat in the divorce. Now I can only assume that her prior abuse (and we have reason to think that it carried on and perhaps even got physical while my boyfriend and his ex were married whenever he was out of the house) is the reason for this strange behavior, but that aside, we love her, but we need serious help!
She is terrified of just about everything, loud noises, sudden movements, and any kind of change, from moving a chair out of place to having a guest over. Once I turned on a light, and it startled her so badly she peed all over the bed. This happens all the time so I am always cleaning up after her.
She is incredibly obese, I think she is honestly afraid of moving around too much, and not at all responsive to any toys we get for her (which really concerns me), in fact, most of them frighten her, but of the ones that don’t she may play a little if she doesn’t have to move, but mostly she will just watch
Because she is so big, she has a hard time cleaning herself, but she is so afraid of baths that if we try to give her one, so matter how we go about it, she poops or pees in the water, so we have just been putting off bathing her since it is like one step forward, two steps backward, but she is starting to smell. We have been brushing her and clipping her nails, and I try to wipe her with a wet cloth, but when she realizes what I am doing she just panics and runs.
When she gets scared, which is often, she either poops or pees or both, or just runs plowing down anything in her path, not like a normal cat runs, but like a really panicked animal, not caring what is in her path just trying to get away, it is hard to describe, but she will go from 0 to 100 in seconds over nothing, a light turning on, or a sneeze or cough, just in a frenzy. I spend much of my day cleaning up after her, and she has hurt the kitten and broken a lot of our things by just running them over.
She likes to sleep between me and my boyfriend, which is fine, however, if one of us rolls over or moves, she will get scared and run. And that can be dangerous because she is so overweight, just last night she ran over me, left a huge scratch and a big black bruise on my rib cage. It worries me that she might really hurt one of us some night, or our other kitten, because she is just so heavy, we haven’t had her weighed in a while, a trip to the vet is just a nightmare, poo everywhere, she has a visit coming up though, but I would say she weighs around 30 lbs. Unfortunately shutting her out isn’t an option, and since sleeping on the bed seems to be the only thing she really likes or that makes her feel remotely safe, even if it were, I would feel like a jerk doing it.
Whenever we leave the house for any extended period of time, even if we leave on a TV or noise maker, she gets so frightened that she hides under the bed and doesn’t come out for a day or two after we come home (which is one of the reasons we got the kitten, which we think is helping)
We don’t want to get rid of her, she is so scared of everything it would probably stress her out so much it would kill her. And she means a lot to my boyfriend, and after all the abuse his crazy ex put her through (in my b/f’s words, the girl is an animal hoarder, she had 15 dogs on a tiny one family residential lot and this cat when they first started dating, he made her get rid of the dogs, and she got two more cats before they were divorced, that I guess she treats better than she did this one) But as much as i love her, the cat’s behavior is driving me nuts. It’s not that she is stressed, by her standards anyway, this is just her personality. But I can barely keep my house clean because she is always making messes, and when she isn’t scared, she is always in my lap, which again, she is so huge it can be painful, wanting attention. Has anyone dealt with this before? Is there anything I can do that would make her at least relax, or help with her weight, or make he a little more responsive? Anything right now would be a help!
this is really directed at Cat Woman, but I know this is long, there are a lot a odd things this cat does, if you don’t want to read it then don’t respond. If you are so rude to me, then why would I answer your question?
Thank you to anyone who takes this seriously
Best answer:
Answer by Cat Woman
im sorry u should make ur details shorter so u have a much better chance of getting an answer because i dont think someone would spend 20 minutes on one question
answer mine:http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AkHiCuc7IGc9_Dp1D8DG5Ifsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20081130123020AARqYCu
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