mr. j green

by john
(toronto)

Our 6 year old cat has never done anything to anyone, but yesterday one of our children fell and was crying. when my wife went to pick him up to comfort him, the cat went beserk and attacked her. later in the day the same thing happened with the other child getting hurt. in the evening we did an experiment when the kids were alsleep and i pretended to be hurt and the cat again attacked my wife like he was trying to protect me. after that, my wife pretended to be hurt and the cat attacked me. i have been around cats all my life and I am not talking about the cat just being upset, teeth were barred, tail was fat and the cat was growling like a dog while on hind legs swatting non stop.


What could be causing this change??

Comments for mr. j green

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Answer
by: Kate

Hi
this sounds like trauma naggression to me. It is caused when something frightyenes the cat and they react by acting aggressivily. When the kids fell over i expect they cried loudly and this could have been the trigger.

The only way the cat will stop displaying this kind of behavior is by feeling secure again in the home environment and around the people who were present at the time of the trauma. It can be slow process of making a fuss of the cat in a calm quiet environement and to try and make the children act calmly and quietly when the cat is around as he is obviously stressed out by noise and stress. Difficult i know but it is probably the only solution. If the behavior doesn't subside you may have to comsult a vet about some calming medication.
Hopefully your cat will calm down and return to his normal self soon. :)

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