I apologize for the incoming wall of text, but I feel a lot of the background information is pertinent to the situation. I apologize for grammar errors, as I wrote this in somewhat of a hurry because I really need help regarding my cat.
After my boyfriend moved in, I wanted to do something special for him. He went on an 11 hour drive with me to meet my family for the first time over Christmas (he’s Jewish, so an all-around new experience for him). After assuring him that my land lady would not let us have a cat, my family and I surprised him with all kinds of cat supplies and told him upon our return, he could pick out a cat at the shelter; he was very excited.
Some additional background information, I grew up around animals. I’ve been around horses, goats, chickens, LOTS of cats with varying temperaments, and dogs big and small. My boyfriend has never had a pet. We lived in a basement apartment with 1 more roommate and his almost live in girlfriend. My roommate, we’ll call Henry, is a bit anti-social (and lacks awareness of his surroundings), or at least misses a lot of social cues. Henry had adopted a very shy dog, some kind of Sheppard mix that is very sweet. The dog was found in a field with a litter of puppies and heartworm. She has since been treated and healthy, but is still a very skittish dog. This dog is afraid of its shadow and mostly stays in Henry’s room. When Henry lets the dog out to pee or go for walks, it BARRELS out the door at full speed- likes its never been outside ever before. Something else to note before moving on is I have NEVER taken an animal back to a shelter. I detest people who buy animals as presents and at the first sign of difficulty or change get rid of the animal- I see this cat as a member of the family- I have told my boyfriend if it comes between the cat and him, the cat wins every time.
While he was busy one day I went to the shelter and found a beautiful long hair cat. This cat (2YO at the time, about 3.5 now) was standoffish, very scared, and had been there for about 3 months. I instantly fall in love with this cat and convinced my boyfriend that this was our cat, and we take her home. At first, she was not happy- she stayed in half the apartment and hissed at people who walked by and at the noises she heard coming from upstairs. After the first 2-3 days she would come over to explore and join in our company, she instantly bonded with us. She slept with us in bed, played with toys, looked out her window at our land lady’s annoying yappy dog, and could not stand it when we left. She would put her toys in my shoes if she thought I was leaving and would meow and whine for 30 minutes when came home, demanding our attention. She even LOVES being picked up and cradled like a baby. It’s important to note that the cat was never fond of the dog, and if in the same room, would “jab” it on the nose to show dominance.
The FIRST incident- She was doing so well for many months, so we did not expect any issues. On a day off I decided to hook a leash to her collar and take her on a walk around the fenced backyard. The landlord’s yappy dog makes an appearance and the cat looses its mind, breaks free from the leash, and lunges at the dog. I dive to stop her and she re-directs her anger towards me and latches on to my head, then face, then arm. I’m bleeding, but I’m able to get her back into the apartment. An hour later and she seems fine- like nothing happened.
The second incident- We move to a townhome that has 2 finished levels and an unfinished basement. The problem began with her litter box. She will pee in her box but not poop. For the last 1+ year we have come home from work and she has frequently pooped outside her box. We have tried many things, putting toys near where she poops, giving her treats when she goes to the bathroom in the right way, and more. This is besides the point though. When we moved in, we would let her stand at the glass door out front facing the street because she really enjoyed watching the people, birds, squirrels, etc pass by. One day, a neighborhood cat came by and she freaked out like before. She SCREAMED at the top of her lungs and began headbutting the door to get this other cat. When she couldn’t get to the other cat, she turned and attacked the closest person to her, in this first case my boyfriend. And when I say attack, I mean attack- like murder screams while she wrapped herself around your leg or arm and would bite and scratch as much as she could.
Since then, we have not allowed her to view out the front door. A few months go by, and we start to let her look out the windows. Sure enough, we soon have another incident of redirected aggression because of the same outside cat. These incidents seemed to happen once or twice every few months, and she calms down in an hour or two once separated.
She has had a couple of incidences around the front and back door so we had them frosted so she can sun bathe, but can’t see any animals that could set her off.
The most recent incident- Henry, whom the cat seems to clearly dislike, lets the dog out the back sliding glass door to poop. When he lets the dog back in, he doesn’t pay attention to where the cat is, and the dog runs back in at full speed and ends up trampling the cat (really jumps over) and heads upstairs to its room. The cat immediately is pissed and scared and tries to attack Henry. Henry blocks it with a blanket and I am able to coax the cat into the basement, so it can calm down alone, similarly to how we’ve dealt with her outbursts in the past.
While on a walk, not 45 minutes later, Henry texts me saying he forgot the cat was in the basement and let it out. The cat immediately tries to attack Henry’s girlfriend and ends up getting locked in my room. My boyfriend is terrified of the cat in this state, understandably, so we return from our walk and I go up to my room to try to calm it down. I start to clean the room and am moving about, picking things up and re-organizing for several hours. The cat is very calm and back to her normal self (purring, pawing for pets, rubbing in between legs, normal breathing rate, etc.). This lasted until I picked up a blanket that I guess startled her- and she went ballistic on the blanket (Screaming, hissing, growling, clawing biting). After this, and when everyone else was safely clear of the area, I let her out and coaxed her into the basement. As I’ve mentioned, In the past when she freaked out we put her in the quiet and dark basement to relax her, limit outside stimulation, and let her get back to normal. This time there’s no luck. We put her there over night, breaking our hearts with her “sad” meows, and she still hasn’t calmed down more than 24 hours after the incident. I tried to go down there and just make sure she was OK and had enough food and water. I thought she may be calm enough to come out but as soon as I stepped in she did her murder-scream and viciously attacked my shoe. Once she saw it was me, she was back to her old self and purring and asking for pets. Then she heard the stairs creek from the upper level and freaked out and attacked me again.
I am OK with being attacked once in a while, especially if it’s something that is my fault or that I can help. I generally believe I know how to work with animals and bring their trust back, but I am at a loss with this cat. We’ve dealt with freakouts before, but usually her aggression subsides; she is still SUPER aggressive 24+ hours later. She eats regularly, poops regularly (outside of a box), is a healthy 11 pounds, and we had her poop tested. I’m currently looking for a more stable job so I can’t spend a lot of money on this, but want to do the best I can. We are thinking of taking her to a behaviorist this week (after one of the first incidents the vet recommended this if her issues flared up again), and I assume they will test for thyroid issues and give us tips, but has anybody else experienced anything like this? I CANT take her back to the shelter and cant imagine that anybody else would take her so I am at my wits end. I will go to the ends of the Earth for this cat, when she is calm she is the sweetest cat I’ve ever known, but this is a difficult situation, and I would really appreciate some advice.
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/ban9mm/cat_being_extremely_aggressive_towards_me_and/
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