TL;DR: my rescue cat has had long-standing aggression/anxiety issues and i’d like to find ways to alleviate this.
i adopted a cat from my local animal shelter 3 days ago. everyone there warned me ahead of time that he was surrendered for aggression, specifically redirected aggression. they seemed like they didn’t want me to adopt him initially, but i couldn’t stand the idea of him becoming a barn cat after reading about the low rate of success and high rate of death.
so far, things have been fairly good. i’m moving into my own apartment very soon, where he will be my only pet and will have full reign of the place. it is spacious and quiet, and i think he will really like it. currently, he is limited to my bedroom in my parent’s house, where he has enough space but not a ton. i have two other cats who i’ve grown up with my whole life and i’ve created a barrier between the two bedrooms at the end of the hall (mine and my sister’s) and my parent’s room. i also have towels pressed against either side of the door so that he can’t smell them, because the shelter said he can react to that.
he seems very attached to me already. he purrs every time i come in, sits on the bed between my legs, lets me pet him and loves to play with his laser pointer. the only incident that i’ve had with him is when i went to clean his litter scoop and he darted out at the edge of the bed, meowed, and batted my foot with his paw. i immediately backed off and nothing else occurred.
my mom, on the other hand, has had two instances which, honestly, were probably due to her reactions. he hissed at her while she was folding a towel near him and then jumped towards her, but did not pursue her. she screamed and he seemed freaked out by it. i was not in the room for this. then, while i was at work today, she was sitting watching tv in my room. he may have seen something outside or heard something and started running around under the bed, jumping towards the edge of the bed and staring at her. she freaked out again and held a pillow between them and screamed for my dad. when he ran into the room, she sprinted out the door and my cat lunged towards my dad and scratched his leg. my dad returned a bit later before i got home and gave him a few treats, which he took.
when i got home, i was a bit nervous to enter the room. when i finally did, he was extremely affectionate, purring and rubbing on me, looking for attention. i got on the bed where he then followed me and nudged my legs apart with his body so he could sleep between them (something he’s never done before). there have been no other issues beyond that.
i’m a little frazzled and nervous, so i’m sleeping in the living room. he usually sleeps on the floor or under the bed, but was trying to sleep directly against me tonight. i probably should have slept in there and let him, but i’m an anxious person and didn’t know whether it was a good idea.
basically, i’m wondering if anyone has taken in a cat with similar issues and how you were able to help them. i’m looking into anxiety medication for him, but his first vet appointment isn’t until august 2nd. i believe he’s a really sweet boy and that he was just mistreated and under socialized in the past. i want this to work, so badly. if anyone can share their experiences i would really appreciate it.
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/oqkssj/aggressive_cat_looking_for_longterm_solutions/
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