Hi all,
I've owned cats my entire life and have never experienced aggression like I'm seeing from a cat that I'm housing for a while.
Some context: The cat's name is Rico. He belongs to a friend who needs to re-home him temporarily to give her older cat some peace (Rico is very playful and tries to pounce on old frail cat). Rico is a very happy, social, and playful cat who is a purry and attention-loving big baby.
We picked up Rico two days ago (Sunday) and prepared my office room in our house for him. It has a tv and futon and I was planning on spending lots of time with him to make sure he was comfortable before introducing him to my kitty.
For the first 5 minutes, he was fine, ate some dry cat food instead of the wet food we placed for him, and was rubbing against mine and my boyfriend's legs like he normally acted at my friend's house. Then he hid under the futon for the majority of that night. I slept in the room with him because I'd met him at my friend's house multiple times and was hoping me being there would give him some familiarity in a new place.
The next day when I was working in that room (my office), he threw up on the side of the futon closest to me. Cleaned it up and he hissed at me the entire time, despite be on opposite sides of the futon. I know this is normal for a car in a new environment and wasn't concerned.
Later that day he rubbed against my legs a little bit, but hissed whenever my boyfriend or I touched him. Also normal, and we know he still just needs time to warm up to us so we're taking it slow.
This is where things begin to get weird with his behavior. Yesterday evening I was on the futon watching tv and Rico was laying in my office chair right next to my futon. I had to get up to leave the room, where I had to walk right next to the chair. No reaction from him. When I came back into the room to grab my phone and a paper plate from the table, he growled and hissed at me from the chair, then walked up to me, growling and hissing the entire time. I didn't move while he approached, as he was between me and the door and I didn't want to startle him. He came and hissed at my feet, then rubbed against my legs and continued to hiss and growl. When he got to the other side of me, I was able to slowly walk out of the room now that he was not between me and the door. I slept in my boyfriend's room that night to give Rico some space.
This morning I went in my office to work and he was much more out and about today. He was letting me play with him with some toys and was acting pretty close to his regular self, but still wouldn't let US touch HIM, he would hiss. HE wanted to be the one to touch US. He was even rubbing on our hands today and generally being more social. He jumped up on my desk at one point, came over to my face and hissed in my face, then hung around on the desk a bit and walked away after a minute maybe. He later put his front two paws on my lap, hissed when I offered my hand to sniff, but later was rubbing on our hands and legs. We were even able to give him very very mild pets today while he was rubbing his face all over our hands and he seemed pretty chill and happy.
A couple hours ago, he was eyeballing a hole in the ceiling above my desk (from a plumbing issue, our landlord never repaired the ceiling) so I had to bring in some cardboard to block it off. He hissed and growled when I walked in with the cardboard piece, but I was able to get the hole taped up without much lip from him. When I walked into the room after putting the tape away, he was hissing and growling at me and even took a swipe at me. He followed me across the room while I got my phone off the futon and while I was reaching for my phone, he was rubbing his face on my hand like he wanted pets, but then hissed at me again. I grabbed a laser light toy which he immediately started playing with and used that to distract him while I left the room. I had to go back in for one more thing and had to use the light again, which barely worked that time.
So the weirdest thing of this all is that there are no other signs of aggression when he's like this. Ears are perky, back isn't arched, fur isn't raised, and he rubs against me while he's being aggressive. My friend says she doesn't think she's ever heard him hiss or growl and has had him for over a year. There is no history of abuse or anything like that either. He is neutered.
How do I move forward while keeping Rico comfortable in this house and while keeping myself safe and not in fear of him? Please let me know if anything is unclear or needs more detail. I'll take whatever advice there is to help him.
[link] [comments]
from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/jf4tq7/new_cat_is_aggressive_in_weird_ways_and_i_dont/
No comments:
Post a Comment