Why is my cat ignoring me?

CarlyRose

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Morning everyone, in a different post I was left with an abandoned cat Silver (by my Aunt and her grandson) who I took care of and yesterday I brought her to my Vet and she was very sick and was put to sleep.

For the past 4 days or so my cat Rocky who I have had since he was a kitten has been ignoring me. It started when Silver started to sleep in my bed which was always Rocky's bed. I call him but he doesn't respond.

What do you think is going on?
 

ArtNJ

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Hyper vigilance maybe? A cat that is dealing with a new cat being in the house will often become hyper vigilant, like they are on constant guard duty. He just has no time for you, he must keep an eye out for the invader. Its a normal stage during an introduction process, and its better than constant hissing/growling, but means pretty much the same thing -- there is a stress level because of the new cat.
 
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CarlyRose

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Hyper vigilance maybe? A cat that is dealing with a new cat being in the house will often become hyper vigilant, like they are on constant guard duty. He just has no time for you, he must keep an eye out for the invader. Its a normal stage during an introduction process, and its better than constant hissing/growling, but means pretty much the same thing -- there is a stress level because of the new cat.
The new cat who was 18 years old was put to sleep.
 

ArtNJ

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The new cat who was 18 years old was put to sleep.
The smell is probably still present in the house. I believe much more scent is released near death. Some say that other cats recognize the smell of a very sick/dying cat for what it is, and I've seen some evidence of that myself. So hyper vigilance is still an expected result. Alternatively, if the 18 y.o. was there long enough to form some sort of relationship, your cat might be grieving, even if they mostly ignored each other.
 
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FeebysOwner

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Hi. I am so sorry about Silver. Even if Rocky and Silver didn't have a good relationship, Silver being sick and getting worse could still have impacted Rocky - as noted above. You could take measures to remove Silver's scent from your house to see if that would help Rocky settle down quicker, but it will still likely take some time for him to re-adjust to Silver's absence and to get over the effects on him of her illness. You could at least clean all of the bedding, and any other parts of your bedroom that Silver spent time on/in, so that Rocky might be more inclined to join you again in his old sleeping area.
 
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CarlyRose

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Thanks everyone. I didn't know that cats could grieve as well. I started cleaning yesterday (it was hard for me as I'm still upset) and today I will mop all the floors with pine sol as Silver urinated almost everywhere including my Mom's blanket. I had towels placed most everywhere where Silver would lay and leak urine and all the towels were washed yesterday.

Rocky came out of my Mom's closet this morning to get his breakfast and he stayed with me longer then before and was purring as I petted him and talked to him.

I guess this will take time. I miss snuggling with my Rocky. I also realize how much attention I gave to Silver because she really needed it, yes, she was begging for attention.
 

ArtNJ

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I think you'll continue to see improvement now that those towels are taken care of, especially if you use an enzyme cleaner on the areas underneath. To a cat's sharp nose, the whole house must have smelled like sick/dying cat. In the wild, that is a signal to stay away so the cat can avoid disease. I remember a 9/11 story about a rescue dog that came back from duty and was highly depressed for weeks. His owner was getting panicky. Finally, the owner gave the dog a bath, and he immediately perked up. You see, there was very little actual "rescue" involved after 9/11 -- the dog was mostly helping find bodies, and he was apparently covered in dust that was retaining the smell of death. I think something similar was going on with your pet, with the smell percolating through the house.

Good luck!
 
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CarlyRose

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I think you'll continue to see improvement now that those towels are taken care of, especially if you use an enzyme cleaner on the areas underneath. To a cat's sharp nose, the whole house must have smelled like sick/dying cat. In the wild, that is a signal to stay away so the cat can avoid disease. I remember a 9/11 story about a rescue dog that came back from duty and was highly depressed for weeks. His owner was getting panicky. Finally, the owner gave the dog a bath, and he immediately perked up. You see, there was very little actual "rescue" involved after 9/11 -- the dog was mostly helping find bodies, and he was apparently covered in dust that was retaining the smell of death. I think something similar was going on with your pet, with the smell percolating through the house.

Good luck!
That is very interesting that Rocky may be staying away to avoid disease (makes sense to me). Animals are truly amazing aren't they? The story about the rescue dog and 9/11 is also fascinating.

Well, Rocky has been sleeping which he normally does and I have been so busy cleaning, mopping, etc. After I used the pine sol I got out my enzyme cleaner and mopped the floors again (yes, I'm really tired). Then I sprayed the enzyme cleaner everywhere that I could think of where Silver would lay down. I may have to get rid of my couch since Silver leaked urine on that as well. It's only 4 years old. I did spray the couch with the enzyme cleaner but time will tell. When I'm not so tired I will research urine on couches and see if the urine can be removed.

Thanks again
 

ArtNJ

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Ah couches and urine...wife and I thought we had cleaned our couch well years ago. Then summer hit, and unlocked a tidal wave of urine smell. I think the key is that you don't want the enzyme cleaner spray, you want the liquid, so you can really drench those spots. Of course if you don't know where the spots are, that can be tricky, and it might be worth buying a $10 blacklight on amazon.
 
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CarlyRose

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Well, Rocky finally came back to sleeping in bed with me last night. I noticed he was scooting his butt on the floor so I searched this forum and after watching a couple of different video's I washed his butt (no soap, just warm water) and he actually didn't mind it at all to my surprise. He acted so much happier! Oh, he is most definitely overweight but I'll address that problem another time since everything is getting back to normal.

As far as the couch I think I'm just going to buy a new one. Rocky scratched on part of it and ripped it which bothers me and now with the urine problem I just think it's time for a new one.

I do have the liquid which I poured about 2 cups of it into a spray bottle.

Thanks again!
 
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