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- Aug 29, 2018
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Hello! I'll keep the intro brief to compensate for the rest! I'm desperate for some advice for what to do about my partners cat who becomes randomly aggressive towards me. I'm not a cat person myself and don't know where to turn but I'm increasingly desperate because of the strain this is putting on our relationship.
So here's the background:
My partner and I have been together for the best part of 10 years. For the past 3 years we have had a very unusual setup where we live in different countries. He is in the USA and I visit him for about a month at a time from the UK every few months. About 2 years ago he adopted a very young female cat, Maya, from an animal shelter. He adopted her at about 6 months, my understanding is that she had a bacterial infection as a kitten and was then abandonned (there really are some horrible people out there!!). Maya was neutered by the shelter before being adopted and she is now about 2 and a half years old. She is a house cat and stays in the apartment at all times.
For the first year everybody got on well. Just over a year ago however my partner moved to a new apartment and since being here I keep having a problem with Maya attacking me randomly while I'm visiting. During the first week or so that I am here (not necessarily the first day, this time it's 5 days after I arrived) she will aggressively attack me at least once, sometimes more. This always happens in the evening, after she's had her dinner but before we go to bed, it seems to be connected to my boyfriend going into the bathroom and possibly turning on the shower or closing the door. After he has gone into the bathroom she will come over to me sometimes calmly, sometimes charging right at me, and then puff up, start hissing and then start swiping at me and pursuing me across the apartment.
This happened most recently yesterday, 5 days after I arrived here. I had been throwing her silver ball for her and she had been happily chasing it while my boyfriend brushed his teeth but then as soon as he pushed the door and turned the shower on she came over looking innocent, started sniffing me and then puffed up and started hissing and then swiping at me.
We're at a loss for what's triggering this behaviour and therefore what we can do to prevent it happening, we are now keeping the bathroom door open as much as possible but I'm sure anyone can appreciate that's not a long term solution! Any insight or thoughts would be much appreciated. This has been happening on or off for a year now, my boyfriend is increasingly resigned to the fact that it's just something I have to prepare for and deal with but it's really frightening me and I don't want to spend the rest of her life constantly on edge and second guessing my every move.
Thanks for any input! Troublemaker photo attached
So here's the background:
My partner and I have been together for the best part of 10 years. For the past 3 years we have had a very unusual setup where we live in different countries. He is in the USA and I visit him for about a month at a time from the UK every few months. About 2 years ago he adopted a very young female cat, Maya, from an animal shelter. He adopted her at about 6 months, my understanding is that she had a bacterial infection as a kitten and was then abandonned (there really are some horrible people out there!!). Maya was neutered by the shelter before being adopted and she is now about 2 and a half years old. She is a house cat and stays in the apartment at all times.
For the first year everybody got on well. Just over a year ago however my partner moved to a new apartment and since being here I keep having a problem with Maya attacking me randomly while I'm visiting. During the first week or so that I am here (not necessarily the first day, this time it's 5 days after I arrived) she will aggressively attack me at least once, sometimes more. This always happens in the evening, after she's had her dinner but before we go to bed, it seems to be connected to my boyfriend going into the bathroom and possibly turning on the shower or closing the door. After he has gone into the bathroom she will come over to me sometimes calmly, sometimes charging right at me, and then puff up, start hissing and then start swiping at me and pursuing me across the apartment.
This happened most recently yesterday, 5 days after I arrived here. I had been throwing her silver ball for her and she had been happily chasing it while my boyfriend brushed his teeth but then as soon as he pushed the door and turned the shower on she came over looking innocent, started sniffing me and then puffed up and started hissing and then swiping at me.
We're at a loss for what's triggering this behaviour and therefore what we can do to prevent it happening, we are now keeping the bathroom door open as much as possible but I'm sure anyone can appreciate that's not a long term solution! Any insight or thoughts would be much appreciated. This has been happening on or off for a year now, my boyfriend is increasingly resigned to the fact that it's just something I have to prepare for and deal with but it's really frightening me and I don't want to spend the rest of her life constantly on edge and second guessing my every move.
Thanks for any input! Troublemaker photo attached