HELP - newly adopted cat won't stop hissing
Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2021 4:35 pm
So first let me say we only adopted this cat yesterday and I know that's not much time at all but I'm just looking for some advice moving forward. This post might get long.
We adopted a 2 year old female cat from my husband's coworker. They told us she was sweet and a cuddle bug but had to get rid of her due to allergies. So we went over there and she seemed fine, other than some light hisses at first but then she let us pet her. We took her home and put her in the spare bedroom we had set up for her with a litterbox. She had peed herself in the carrier on the drive but I wasn't able to properly clean her because she immediately ran out of the carrier and under the bed, hissing. So we let her be, but sat in the room for a while with her. Left food and water out.
This morning it didnt look like she had come out at all and hadn't eaten or used the litterbox. She was so far under the bed that we can't even see her and I had read that you shouldn't let scared cats hide in inaccessible places. So I had the idea to try to move her to a smaller room where she could still hide but wouldn't be inaccessible. I know I shouldn't have tried to get her out of her hiding place, you're supposed to wait for them to come out on their own, and I don't know what I was thinking. I moved the bed so we'd be able to see her behind it and tried to get her to go into her carrier. That's when the hissing and growling got worse. Constant hissing and growling and at times lashing out trying to attack us. I realized I made a mistake by trying to move her so we are now going to leave her in that room and not try to move her again.
But now im worried I completely traumatized her and she'll never warm up to us. My husband just went into the room to put her food and water back in there and she was just in the middle of the room in attack mode, hissing and growling.
We don't know what to do at this point. Did I just ruin everything by trying to move her?? What can we do moving forward? We have 2 other cats in the house that are being kept away from her. I just want to help her adjust and be a happy cat, I've owned many cats in my life but have never had one react to me in this way.
Thank you in advance for any advice.
We adopted a 2 year old female cat from my husband's coworker. They told us she was sweet and a cuddle bug but had to get rid of her due to allergies. So we went over there and she seemed fine, other than some light hisses at first but then she let us pet her. We took her home and put her in the spare bedroom we had set up for her with a litterbox. She had peed herself in the carrier on the drive but I wasn't able to properly clean her because she immediately ran out of the carrier and under the bed, hissing. So we let her be, but sat in the room for a while with her. Left food and water out.
This morning it didnt look like she had come out at all and hadn't eaten or used the litterbox. She was so far under the bed that we can't even see her and I had read that you shouldn't let scared cats hide in inaccessible places. So I had the idea to try to move her to a smaller room where she could still hide but wouldn't be inaccessible. I know I shouldn't have tried to get her out of her hiding place, you're supposed to wait for them to come out on their own, and I don't know what I was thinking. I moved the bed so we'd be able to see her behind it and tried to get her to go into her carrier. That's when the hissing and growling got worse. Constant hissing and growling and at times lashing out trying to attack us. I realized I made a mistake by trying to move her so we are now going to leave her in that room and not try to move her again.
But now im worried I completely traumatized her and she'll never warm up to us. My husband just went into the room to put her food and water back in there and she was just in the middle of the room in attack mode, hissing and growling.
We don't know what to do at this point. Did I just ruin everything by trying to move her?? What can we do moving forward? We have 2 other cats in the house that are being kept away from her. I just want to help her adjust and be a happy cat, I've owned many cats in my life but have never had one react to me in this way.
Thank you in advance for any advice.