Fear of christmas wrapping up happening

[tiggerwillow]

Poor Willow's hiding again from the wrapping up, she always has been afraid of christmas and birthday wrapping ups happening

Is there a good way of proving to her that the wrapping up and the sticky tape isn't going to hurt her? She'll smell the paper but she's always been terrified and runs away from the sticky tape, poor (fur) baby

"Meowmy that is a SCARY WRAPPIE UPS and SCARY STICKY TAPE i'm out of here "

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi
I'm assuming it's the noise of the crinkly paper and the sound of the tape when it's pulled off the roll. If she lived elsewhere before you, maybe someone stuck tape onto her .

Anyway, try some white noise, cat music, or classic music, anything to help dampen the noisy sounds, or just put her in another room I don't think there's anything, even working with her with a roll of tape and unrolling it in tiny increments and giving a treat each time, that will convince her those loud sounds aren't scary.

 

[tiggerwillow]

Hi
I'm assuming it's the noise of the crinkly paper and the sound of the tape when it's pulled off the roll. If she lived elsewhere before you, maybe someone stuck tape onto her .

Anyway, try some white noise, cat music, or classic music, anything to help dampen the noisy sounds, or just put her in another room I don't think there's anything, even working with her with a roll of tape and unrolling it in tiny increments and giving a treat each time, that will convince her those loud sounds aren't scary.

She lived in a home before me, her previous meowmy had a baby and cause Willow reacts badly to babies she ended up in rescue, she will lash out at kids - when they are walking home from school past the house, if Willow's in the yard she will rush the gate with her ears pinned back and swipe under the gate at the kids, so I keep her in when I know kids are going to be walking home from school - she's kept indoors while I'm at work as well, so she's not feeling trapped outside and lashing out at kids out of fear, her previous meowmy did love her but cause she will never be safe around small children, her previous meowmy had to make the difficult decision to ask the rescue to take her in,Willow spent months in rescue cause nobody was in a position (before I felt able to get Tigger a new friend) to give her a home where there was literally NO children, whether visiting or living there, ideally she would of gone to a home with no other pets as well, but by the time I went to the rescue they had to split Willow up from the other cat she had gone in with (the previous meowmy wanted both to stay together) but Willow turned into a bully so the rescue decided "we have to split them both up, so the other cat can feel secure"

The rescue decided they had nothing to lose by letting me try her with Tigger, and she's fairly patient with Tigger and doesn't even try to bully her adoptive sister (Tigger herself wouldn't know how to bully other cats even if someone handed a "bullying other cats for dummies" book to her, she just does not have that behaviour in her)

To my knowledge, the baby wasn't able to do much by the time both cats ended up in rescue - Willow and the other cat she went in with

I did say to the previous meowmy over facebook that I couldn't be sure about the other cat, but I do know she made the right decision for Willow, cause Willow has proved she will never feel safe around children

Willow's come jumping up next to me now, to make sure the fact I mentioned children doesn't mean any will magically appear through the laptop

Can't read through my own message now, so idk if I said that Willow cannot be around young children, she even gets wary of teenagers, although she doesn't get nippy towards teenagers, often with kids if she can run away from them she would rather run away, its just in the yard she feels she can't get away so will swipe under the gate to tell them to back off

 

[arr]

I think exposure therapy will eventually help- just have the wrapping paper out all the time, mess with the wrapping paper frequently. Our cat inexplicably became terrified of the flickering light that the gas fireplace makes on the ceiling. He used to lay peacefully in our laps in the basement, now he remains tense, staring at the ceiling. We’ve been keeping the fireplace on more often and last night he laid with us more peacefully. He stared at the ceiling a lot but didn’t run this time. So I think desensitization helps.

 

[susanm9006]

If this is something that happens every year, I don’t know if you can change her opinion of it now. Choosing to just ignore her discomfort is just fine and may help her to accept that nothing special is going on. But you could try leaving all of the paper and wrapping supplies out and on the floor so she can check them out when you aren’t using them. And last alternative is to get your wrapping done in a few sessions and shut her in a different room while you do it.