Strange Behaviour

[Shadydelta]

Hey this is my first post here and im trying to find out if anyone might have experienced the same behaviour with their cat. My cat monty is male neutered and 7 years old. We live in the country so he wanders outdoors as he pleases. He is usually very affectionate but he has been acting very Stand offish for the past week. He loves being rubbed around the neck and if he comes up to me he will let me do it but if i go to him to do it he keeps shying away. His affection is suddenly on his terms only. He is still eating and drinking fine. We have had lovely weather and he has taken to sleeping outside all day under my neighbours hedge because its secluded and only comes home at meal times and will maybe hang around our home for a half hour then go out again. Im wondering if something has really stressed him out and for this theres two possibilities. My neighbour is an awful feeder of cats and they come for miles because she feeds them alllll the time. We have had an un neutred male coming round fighting and spraying and normally monty would just watch him go past but last week they got in a big fight. I have checked him over and he doesnt seem hurt or have any bumps but i know they tend to go for each others Head/neck so could this possibly be The cause?? The other thing is the day after he had a fight he got something stuck in his mouth and i had to scruff him to hold him to get it out and i dont think hes quite forgiven me for it. Do you think its just been too much at once and hes feeling really stressed out? I want to take him to the vet but theyv been saying emergency appointments only.

 

[Suru]

I think maybe he had a negative experience with someone approaching him, and so he shy's away on a self preservation instinct. Have you tried calling him over instead, if he comes when you call him over, then it's probably just the action of you going up to him that is triggering some bad memories which is making him shy away.

I think maybe you can try approaching him with treats and throw it over to him. Hopefully that way he will come to associate you approaching him with something positive again.

Mine is an indoor/outdoor cat too, but thankfully we don't have other cats around... when he boarded at my friend's place for a bit, there were other cats around and he got in a fight