Help, frightened angry cat

[Kithra]

Loki seems to be frightened and angry. He’s constantly checking out each room and angrily moving his tail back and forth. It started a couple of days ago when he came in from being out for a while in the morning and kept dashing round the house, which he’s never done before, then sitting on the windowsill for quite a long time. Every sound and movement put him on alert.

Yesterday he only went out for a total of around an hour, most unusual for him as he loves the outdoors. He kept, and still keeps, looking at the cat flap while he’s eating, and at other times, although no other cat can get in. Then he spent all day, and all evening, on the windowsill checking the outside. Always looking in the same direction and agitatedly moving his tail.

I wonder if something, or some other animal, frightened him when he was out, and I didn’t seem able to calm him at all. Eventually I carried him with me when I went to bed as he likes to lie beside me while I read each evening. I managed to get him to lie down and petted him, which only produced a very small purr – unlike the “steam train” purring I normally get. Then, at last, he relaxed and went to sleep for a while. All night he wanted to be near me, and still seems to want to be in the same room as me.

This morning he didn’t really want to go out but after some encouragement he went out for a couple of hours, then sat in the window for a while. A little later he played with one of his toys for about 5 minutes and then went to sleep in one his preferred daily places. He’s still curled up in one of his usual ways and seems fast asleep.

He’s eating as normal, and today seems a little brighter. He doesn’t seem to be ill in any way, and he hasn’t got any sign of injury on his body. But he worries me with this behaviour and I don’t know how to help him. So I’d appreciate any suggestions.

[Mollycat]

He's a youngster isn't he? My first guess would be he has had his first brush with a local tough cat, hopefully, or maybe he had a close escape with a dog or car - any whichway as long as he is unharmed if he has just had a little knock of confidence for the sake of a big lesson in safety, i would say all's well that ends well.

Of course it hasn't ended yet, he is still nervous, but with a few days of love safe at home with you I'm sure he will recover. Just maybe at first go out with him if you can so that he has his special bonded protective person nearby encouraging him, if you can, to rebuild his confidence a bit? Does he normally go away and out of sight when he goes out, or does he mooch around your garden and the next couple of gardens? Does he go out of earshot? At his young age I think I'd have been still calling him back regularly for a treat and letting him go off again, to build on the message that near home is better. Have you had him fixed yet?

[Kithra]

Thank you Mollycat for your reassuring reply.

Yes, he’ll be one year old on 6 March. He has met other, bigger, cats before as we have at least a couple who all wander the same area. At the end of my very small garden there is a footpath and then allotments and all the cats seem to like using that place. There is just one dog who lives next door and they get on OK. As for traffic he’s never seen it as I never allow him out of the front door, only the backdoor into the garden.

A couple of separate times about 2 months ago, before I closed the cat flap, two different cats came in to try and eat his food at night. He made a heck of a noise at them and I was able to chase them out. The first time he also shot outside while I was dealing with the intruder and didn’t come back for a couple of hours. The second time I managed to keep him in the bedroom while I chased that second cat out. He was a little disturbed by it and kept checking to see if it was still outside but with some love from me he soon calmed down.

Unfortunately I’m not able to go out as I’m housebound. But my garden is very small and he doesn’t stay in it long before he wanders off, although I don’t think he goes far. I’ve trained him to come when I whistle and associated it with giving him food, so a couple of whistles usually brings him home pretty quickly.

And yes, he’s been fixed, also inoculated and micro-chipped and insured. So I don’t think he’s off chasing any female cats. He seems a lot calmer now, having had me up since 4:30 this morning! He hasn’t gone to sleep at the end of my bed, which he loves to do during the afternoon, and is asleep on a chair in the lounge next to me. He won’t want to go out again now until his usual time just after tea, so I’ll have to wait and see how that goes if he does.

[Ruth B]

Poor lad, i have to agree, it sounds like something has given him a fright, but at least he hasn't come to any harm and will have learnt from the incident (hopefully). It could have been almost anything, a strange cat or dog, someone doing something noisy at the allotments, or even just getting a bit closer to a road then he is used to. If he doesn't want to go out i wouldn't force him to, he will again in his own time, but sometimes they need time to think about what happened and to let their confidence build again.

I remember not too long after we first had Blue, the Ragdoll we used to have. We had had him from January and it October, over that Summer he had started to go outside and like the other cats, to use the garden, so the litter tray had been packed away. Then one evening he had gone out to use the garden when some idiot set off a firework, it was about 5.30 and not even dark. Blue came in like a shot, and I could see from his behaviour that he still needed to go to the loo. I went back out with him and stood guard over him while he used the garden. I then went and dug out his old litter tray and some litter we had left over and set up a tray for him again. We have never not had a litter tray since, through the Summer it may never get used, but if any of my cats don't feel safe going out, they don't have to, and I feel that is the best compromise I can come up with. Blue got over his fear of the garden soon enough, but I guess there are times when you feel far more vulnerable and want to be somewhere you know is safe. He never got over his fear of fireworks though.

We may never know what scares them when they venture out, but if they know that home is the safest place and they have everything they need in there, then there is a good chance that that is where they will run when scared.

[Kithra]

Hi Ruth,

Thanks for your reply. I, too, hope he’s learned from whatever it was he encountered. I won’t force him to go out if he doesn’t want to. If he needs it I just hope he’ll remember how to use his litter tray, which he hasn’t used for weeks and weeks now as he “goes” outside.

Oh, poor Blue. How lovely that you went out with him after the fireworks so that he could finish his business in relative safety. Thank goodness this year we had hardly any fireworks and the one or two we heard didn’t disturb Loki. Personally, I think fireworks should be banned and only enjoyed at properly organized displays. Here, our local fire brigade does one most years.

For me it’s the not knowing what scared him that I find annoying as there’s nothing I can do about it. I think he really does know that home is the safest place, and he’s really bonded with me now. At last he’s gone to sleep on the bottom of my bed so he must be feeling a lot better. Long may that last.

[Mollycat]

Kithra he shares my dad's birthday then, my dad has been gone 10 years but we always celebrated our birthdays together so it's still very very special. I know it's not the weather for it but the door open? But it sounds like you have it all well in hand and Loki is just a little more dramatic about it when he gets spooked. Hope he's back to normal very soon.

And Ruth there's nothing quite like a blue Raggie ball of fluff in full panic flight, is there? I will never forget one evening my pressure cooker hissed and I very nearly peed myself at poor Bobby, while nervous Molly watched him and looked at me with this air of, What's his problem?

[Kithra]

Hi Mollycat,

I think that’s lovely that Loki shares your Dad’s birthday and I’m sorry to hear you lost him 10 years ago.

I’m afraid it’s far too cold to have the door open, especially as we often have very strong wind, and lots of rain – as we have today. The price of living near the coast, LOL.

However, I’m happy to report that Loki is much better now and back to his usual self. He’s going out with no problems, although still checking things out of the window from time to time. Being a ginger cat I’m not surprised he seemed to be so dramatic about things as they all seem to have such characters. I knew that before I got him and so called him Loki after the Norse god of tricksters because I had a feeling he’d turn out this way!

I had to smile at your reply to Ruth. It reminds me that whenever I use the hoover Loki shoots out of the cat flap in a panic. I think a lot of animals are like that, and they never seem to get used to it.