I adopted this 6 years old, 18lb chunky cat. He’s very mellow around the house, which is great. I chose him based on this - public shelter(instead of a no-kill shelter), adult cat (not kitten), relaxed.
[[tldr; at the bottom]]
And he’s been here almost a week... Maybe he needs more time to settle in, but I’m getting very nervous.
When he first got here, I set him up in the bathroom (it’s big and also contains washing machine room which I have not needed to use yet). There are a couple of great hiding spots there, he spent 20-30 minutes in them the first day then came out on his own (I wasn’t even trying to coax him out, I was in the other room and let him be). He pawed at the door after a few hours so I let him check out the main room. It’s a 1-bedroom apartment.
The first day was fine.
The first sign that worried me was when I tried to cut his nails. With my childhood cat, I could lift and hold on her back to trim her nails. When I tried that, he instantly started scratching and growling as soon as his stomach was up. So I stopped and met him chill out. Several hours later, I tried just clipping when the cat is laying regularly. (It worked on the cat I fostered for the first half of this year, but she returned to her real home)....
This is when I found If I grab his paws at all, he starts to bite. If touch his paws while he’s laying regularly, he’ll get agitated and won’t let me pet him - he’ll start to bat or bite at me. Even if I try to touch then lightly while he’s relaxed, he’ll wake up and get agitated.
So I thought.. ok I guess the vet will clip them next week.. but moving forward all I can do is try to get him used to minor paw touch and do one nail at a time over several days.
Due to my day job, I’m home all the time. 1 bedroom apartment. Even after COVID restrictions are lifted, I’ll primarily work from home.
He’s fine with a little attention. If I sit on the couch in the morning, he’ll sit on the back of the couch and I can pet him a little or just be on Reddit or whatever. But I feel like he gets more annoyed as the day goes on - even though I’m across the room working for 4-5 hours at a time, I’ll go to say hi here and there for only a couple minutes at a time.
I’m watching for signs of agitation. There are times if I try to pet him - he seems fine, his tail is not moving, he’s laying and seems relaxed - he’ll just roll over a little to be able to bat at me or move his head towards a bite. Earlier today he was purring then (slowly but widely) opened his mouth to bite at me. He isn’t drawing blood or anything and obviously I’ll let him be after that for a bit... but I’ve never lived with a bity cat before.
And finally, I’ve been trying to play with him — just in case the biting or whatever came from a previous owner using their hands as a toy — but he is fat and lazy and does not like to run around. He likes watching the toy but over 20 minutes, he may go after it only once or twice. The play isn’t a problem - the problem is the defensiveness.
I don’t know what to do. Is this probably his personality or have I just not given him enough space to settle in?
I’m really sad and scared and embarrassed about this whole thing. I’m honestly considering bringing him back & feel terrible about it. I think if I worked out of the house, he might even be happy to get some attention.
FYI I am 100% committed to waiting at least a few more weeks to see if we can work it out.
[[tldr; I adopted a cat this week. I am home 16-24hr/day in a 1bd apartment & I think this cat might need more space / time alone. I can’t clip his nails & he gets bite-y if I hang around too much ]]
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/ka92v3/pets_reddit_i_adopted_an_adult_cat_a_couple_days/
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