- Joined
- Jun 9, 2019
- Messages
- 32
- Purraise
- 33
I don't really know if this is the right area, but I am in desperate need of, I guess, reassurance. I adopted a sweet 9 month old kitten from the shelter three weeks back. She seemed to settle in so nicely and quickly. She loved rubbing up on me and getting pets and playing and she snuggled in my bed the first night she was home with me. Fast forward a week and a half, I was getting ready for work in the morning and I followed the exact routine I had every morning. I was about to leave when I knocked some papers off of one of my bureaus and she happened to be right there. A minute later she stands on her back legs and me thinking she is looking for pets or something is about to reach down and pet her and she suddenly lunges for my leg and starts biting and clawing me pretty badly. I panicked and was yelling and trying to push her off of me and she just kept lunging at me and biting me. Eventually she backed off but had me trapped in my bedroom for a solid 5 minutes. Anytime I moved she would move with me and just kept hissing and growling. Eventually I was able to get out of there. I messaged the shelter and called the vet and they seemed to agree that maybe the papers following down spooked her and stressed her out. Fair enough. Later that night I was in my room with her and she seemed to be back to her sweet self and all seemed to be well. I got up a few times and one time I went into my bathroom to get something and as I was walking out I felt something clip my feet and the next thing I knew she was lunging at me again and attacking me, much like the morning. Being terrified I left her in my room and slept in the spare bedroom because I didn't know what was going on. I called the vet and the shelter the next day and we talked about getting a Feliway diffuser, increasing her playtime, and me going back to sleep in my room to keep her routine consistent. I did all of those things and for the next week, all seemed to be well minus two small attacks in the following days. One night I was getting ready for bed and had to get up to shut the overhead light off. I went to go put one of her toys down (it was a light up mat she could play with at night) and she came running over and kind of went for my arm and hissed and growled at me. I knew this was going to lead to an attack because it was this weird switch that seemed to flip in her head and suddenly her energy seemed different. She backed down and walked over to something in the corner and I stupidly thought if i went fast I could get into bed quickly without her noticing. No dice, she chased and jumped into bed after me and started attacking. I had to scruff her to pull her off of me and my mom had to come with a towel so we could wrap her up and prevent her from attacking again. I went back to sleeping in the spare room and the next morning when I got up to feed her and play with her she went after me twice. These were no where near the intensity of the other attacks. I called the vet and the shelter again that day and the shelter had said maybe try a calming collar and let her have some time to roam the house while the other cats were put away (I forgot to mention she was still in my room with me because there are two other cats in the house and we were working on introducing them prior to the first attack but both the shelter and the vet recommended holding off on that and just sticking to what the routine was at that point) but that even he was stumpedand it's possible that maybe she just needs to be an only cat or she's really not meant to be an indoor cat, the vet at this point was saying she recommended I bring her back because she was highly concerned about the intensity of the attacks and didn't think this was a good match for her. I decided to try and keep her through the weekend with the calming collar, letting her roam the house, and opening up her space more (my room is connected to another room). She attacked me twice the next morning but this was before trying any of the things recommended. So after work I picked up a calming collar, straightened out the extra room for her, and put the cats away so she could roam freely for a while. It seemed to work really well since that night I didn't hear her meow once and thought, okay, maybe she just needed some space. I got up the next morning and went in to feed her and she seemed to be in a great mood. Went downstairs to take care of the other cats and came back a little while later to play with her. She was half interested. She walked off at one point and I went to pick up a different toy of hers and she came running back and lunged at my arm, growling and hissing. I didn't respond and like before she backed down but her mood was vastly different and I knew another one was coming. I slowly went to leave the room and she came for me and was determined to get back. The techs at the vet's office had recommended I keep a broom around in case she attacked so I could kind of peel her off my body. I had to do this once before and it worked fine, I VERY GENTLY WITHOUT USING EXCESSIVE FORCE peeled her off and used the broom to create space between us (basically I kind of positioned it in front of her) however yesterday she just kept going around it and coming for me. I had decided that maybe this wasn't the best place for her and brought her back to the shelter. My heart is absolutely broken and I feel so incredibly guilty. Did I do the right thing? The vet wasn't thinking it was any sort of medical problem because of the randomness of the attacks and neither her nor the shelter was high on the idea of medication (both had differing reasons). I'm just at a loss, and despite the attacks and the injuries (the first day she attacked I had about 15-20 puncture wounds and about 4-5 bruises) I still really wanted this to work. Does anyone have any insights? I am stumped. As are the vet and the shelter. This cat outside of the attacks was so sweet and lovely. She would lay right next to me on her back and let me rub her belly. She went to the vet twice in her 3 weeks with me (once for her check-up and the second because they realized she needed a booster shot) and she was so tolerant. The vet checked her over, squeezing qnd opening her mouth, she got her nails clipped, she got a shot and she just tolerated all of it, barely fought to get away from them. The vet admitted that had anyone else came in saying they were attacked by this cat, they wouldn't believe them. Again, I am at a complete loss and I feel like a complete failure.
Some cats are just weirdly cat aggressive. I’m sorry it didn’t work out. Please don’t blame yourself, you tried.... and tried and tried! 
Sorry though about the circumstances that brought you here. 
