- Joined
- Oct 17, 2017
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I've had her since she was 2 months, and now 2 years. I found her as a stray, and she is basically my baby. She is a huge source of happiness and she is my first cat.
She is, however, so sensitive to animal smells and completely does a 180 in terms of her personality when she catches a scent. She goes from 0 to 100 in terms of hostility/aggression, becomes super anxious, and just doesn't even act like the same cat. It is crazy.
This has only happened twice, the first time it was easier to calm her down (she smelled compost I used from the garden, which has cow manure) . But the second time which happened last night really broke my heart (she smelled mice in our house). She was not as easy to calm down, and the smallest things would agitate her back up again and it was like I was trying to detonate a bomb. She was acting like a wild animal and wouldn't even let me move to get out of the room for a long period of time and made me feel so unsafe. I literally sat there avoiding eye contact, frozen, while she would glare at me or threateningly meow/hiss at me so loud when I did move a little bit. And this wasn't just a light aggression, or anything playful. She was like full out so angry. It was quite literally one of the scariest things I've experienced in my life, and I don't know if I have the heart to go through it again. I don't know if I can look at her as the same cat who slept on my chest, cuddles on my lap, who I would play so many different games with, and I honestly just feel scared of her. I don't know if I would feel safe letting her even sleep in the room with me again. Especially now that I've read other people's experiences of cats doing this 180 and just being attacked.
I'm kind of just beyond sad about it to be honest. I hate how I have to wonder if she is safe cat to keep after all this time, or if I'm a good enough owner to curb the behavior. She has calmed down since then, but I just feel heartbroken and can't look at her the same and I don't even know how to say how I feel. When she reaches out to me in the same cute meows that she usually does, I couldn't feel my heart move and I wanted to avoid her and get away from her. And that feels so shitty. I feel like I can't fully love my cat after what she did, even though I want to.
Sorry this is so long. I'm just so confused and hurt and don't know where else to talk about it.
She is, however, so sensitive to animal smells and completely does a 180 in terms of her personality when she catches a scent. She goes from 0 to 100 in terms of hostility/aggression, becomes super anxious, and just doesn't even act like the same cat. It is crazy.
This has only happened twice, the first time it was easier to calm her down (she smelled compost I used from the garden, which has cow manure) . But the second time which happened last night really broke my heart (she smelled mice in our house). She was not as easy to calm down, and the smallest things would agitate her back up again and it was like I was trying to detonate a bomb. She was acting like a wild animal and wouldn't even let me move to get out of the room for a long period of time and made me feel so unsafe. I literally sat there avoiding eye contact, frozen, while she would glare at me or threateningly meow/hiss at me so loud when I did move a little bit. And this wasn't just a light aggression, or anything playful. She was like full out so angry. It was quite literally one of the scariest things I've experienced in my life, and I don't know if I have the heart to go through it again. I don't know if I can look at her as the same cat who slept on my chest, cuddles on my lap, who I would play so many different games with, and I honestly just feel scared of her. I don't know if I would feel safe letting her even sleep in the room with me again. Especially now that I've read other people's experiences of cats doing this 180 and just being attacked.
I'm kind of just beyond sad about it to be honest. I hate how I have to wonder if she is safe cat to keep after all this time, or if I'm a good enough owner to curb the behavior. She has calmed down since then, but I just feel heartbroken and can't look at her the same and I don't even know how to say how I feel. When she reaches out to me in the same cute meows that she usually does, I couldn't feel my heart move and I wanted to avoid her and get away from her. And that feels so shitty. I feel like I can't fully love my cat after what she did, even though I want to.
Sorry this is so long. I'm just so confused and hurt and don't know where else to talk about it.