Our deaf, rescue kitty lives in fear

[condocat]

My husband Jim and I adopted a stray, white cat 1 1/2 years after making our back deck his home. It took a few months, but I was finally sucessful in getting him lured into a carrier and off to the vet for neutering, shots, etc. He now lives the life of luxury indoors, but we have discovered he's deaf and at times very skittish, although affectionate to me. We have suspected he was abused in his past life by the way he would cower when you would lift you hand to pet him and other observations. "Elliott" adjusted very well to our 12 year old cat, has never given us any trouble with using the litter box, eating, clawing furtniture, etc.

My concern after a year now is that he is still very skittish, especially with my husband. Sometimes he will run out of the room when Jim walks in. The worst was over the Holidays, Jim was putting on his black leather coat in front of him and you never saw a cat move so fast in your life! He fled to the guest bathroom where we later discovered he clawed off the heating vent under the vanity and crawled inside to escape. He stayed there for 2 days.

The vet gave me anti-anxiety meds for his food that finally calmed him down. He is now off of them and doing much better, but still wary of Jim.
We can only imagine a man in his past had hurt him. Jim has fed Elliott every morning, played with him, made an extra effort to pet him [holding him is out of the question!]

Also to note: when friends visit, Elliott takes off for the bedroom not to be seen for 1-2 days. We had company for a week and I had to board him at the kennel as I was afraid it woudl be to tramatic for him to have strangers in the house. Strangely, he loves the kennel!

Has anyone gone through this or something similar? Do you think it's from past abuse and time will heal his wounds or could it be his deafness exaggerating some insecurities with his environment? Any suggestions appreciated!!!

 

[my4llma]

I have a kitten Luna that was abused, by whoever owned her before us. We got her because they threw her out of their pick up truck, which was 2 cars ahead of ours.

She doesn't like men, she will run and hide. It's kinda strange though because my father is her favorite person. Anyway she's gotten much better over time, but somethings still really scare her. Raising our voices, sudden movements, like getting up quickly from a chair to answer the phone. We never yell at her, we pat her very gently, we talk to her in soft voices. She likes being with us, but she likes quiet time to. She'll go right into her carrier (which is a huge dog carrier, that has blankets for her to lay on, toys for her to play with, food and water dish) on her own. When she does that we shut the door, so Midnight won't bother her. She seems to use it as her alone time. She does run away from all visitors, but eventually she will come out, but she will not go near a male visitor. She sees a man walk by the window she sometimes runs, before she always ran. She hears a man's voice she'll run.

 

[mrblanche]

Our first cat was like that, except about men in hats and anyone carrying a broom. We made some assumptions about his past, and that's about all you can do. There is likely nothing that you can do to change your cat's fears, and the deafness makes it worse.

Have you heard of the calming potions such as Feliway? A little like aromatherapy, but many here swear it helps a lot.

 

[ldg]

Things that will help:

Have Jeff be responsible for feeding her.

Tell Jeff to get down the floor to play with her (with a wand toy or whatever) - then he's much less threatening.

Have Jeff get a t-shirt really good and sweaty and put it under her food dish.

If Jeff wants to pet her or approach her, he should lean over, and not be "tall." Also, when reaching toward her, make his hand into a fist, not open-handed (looks like a cat head, not a hand that's going to hit her). Even better if he doesn't try to walk at her, but if he wants to interact, again, sit down, and toss treats to get her to come to him. Cats tend to love baby food (the all meat baby food - gerber's or beechnut has not additives) - use chicken or ham babyfood on a spoon to help bring her over.

Move slowly around her.

Do you have Feliway spray or plug-in? Might want to look into that - often very calming for many cats.

You can also consider Bach's Rescue Remedy drops in her water dish(es) to help her feel calm.

None of this will help with her fear of men in general, but should help her stop being so scared of Jeff.

 

[ldg]

Also, don't know if you have any cat trees, or walls where you can build "cat shelves" for her - but our little deaf girl loves to be UP - especially in room corners where she can keep an eye on everything going on. Can't hurt if you've got the space.

 

[darlili]

Perhaps a silly question - does Jeff wear heavy shoes or walk heavily in general at home? A deaf cat would, maybe, be more sensitive to vibrations and maybe someone, somewhere, who 'sounded' like Jeff hurt him. If so if Jeff could wear slippers at home, maybe that might help a bit. Otherwise, all the other suggestions sound good. And, I bet leather is a particularly recognizable scent to a cat - is he afraid of leather in general, do you think? We can only guess - but I bet some guy wearing a leather jacket or cat hurt this baby at some point.

You never know what might be a trigger, though. Some cats are terrified of balloons - I've often wondered if they think a balloon is a hawk-like bird up there.

Bless your and Jeff's patience and perseverance.

 

[white cat lover]

The heavy shoes/walking thing was a thought of mine also. I have two deaf cats, one was 3 y/o when I got her & feral. She's still fairly skittish, although now at 9ish years old she's mellowing out. She still heads for the hills if company comes over & about jumps out of her skin sometimes if you startle her awake.

 

[condocat]

Thanks to everyone for your comments and helpful suggestions. We'll definitely try a few of these out!

 

[kluchetta]

Something else that might help is have your hubby treat the non-deaf cat very kindly where the deaf cat can watch. Play, pet, etc. You might also notice that Elliott will look at your face a LOT more than normal cats. Have your hubby practice the "slow blink" to Elliott when he catches his eye.

 

[phillygal]

I adopted a puppy mill rescue dog a few years ago.

She was with us for 4 years and she was always very afraid of all types of noises. She gave most males a wide berth and was quite wary of getting close to them. I was her protector and we were very close, but she missed out on so much because of her fears and how abusive her past had been. She had some health issues - missing her left eye (I can only imagine how that happened

); a bad heart and seizures. Eventually, sadly, I had to make the tough decision to euthanize her because of her health issues. They were getting progressively worse and medications were not helping.

I used a variety of Bach remedies to keep her calm and they worked fairly well. She was never going to live a "normal" life because the past had just been too hard on her and she was a senior girl when I adopted her. But I think she appreciated how we cared about her and tried to make her life a happy one. Unfortunately, we cannot make up for lost time and the abuses another "human"

heaped upon a defenseless animal. But we can give them the love and attention they deserve. They know we are trying to help them. Be patient; changes will come in tiny increments.