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Question about this article from here, Willow gets very anxious and stressed when stuff is happening outside that disturbs her routine - it can even be something like a smell getting in through the door
For example, today, a stupid neighbour across the road managed to block their drain and had to have a repair man out with a scary machine to unblock their drain, a load of black gunk had to get removed from their drain (I have no idea what exactly was being got out of the drain)
My question is, stuff like this (unplanned and impossible to know when or even if something like that will happen again), how can I tackle the stress of that sort of thing happening? She keeps trying to find places to hide tonight, she's very on edge, even to the point when Tigger took her a toy mousie, she decided the toy mousie itself was coming to get her, simply cause the drain man scared her just by using a scary sounding machine across the road
I'm currently sat with her, after she changed hiding places from behind the freezer and decided "hiding" on a towel that smells of me cause I used it when I had a bath, the towel is a safe spot that apparently the long-since-left-for-other-jobs drain unblocking man cannot find her on, I'm letting her comfort herself on the towel, allowing her to keep the towel seems to be helping her to relax a bit, but she's still on alert and watching in case the scary noisy machine comes back just to frighten her, she thinks anything that scares her its only reason for doing a scary thing is to scare her (anything that she gets scared by is plotting to get her, she seems to believe)
To the point she will get defensive towards the vet when the vet touches her blankie, she will allow the vet to touch her without biting, but she will nip if the vet touches blankie, so I get her and blankie in and out of the carrier at the vet cause she won't bite me for touching her blankie, she knows I won't steal blankie from her
She's never liked her routine getting changed at all, she's always been this sensitive, she can't deal with workmen coming here, she can't even handle workmen going to neighbour's houses for work being done (and I cannot say to neighbours can they never have anything done in their house in Willow's lifetime cause sometimes they literally need to have stuff done, like the stupid neighbour messing their drain up, or the fire brigade having to visit the flats on the corner cause someone had managed to do something stupid, there's a few things in this house I would need to get done in Willow's lifetime (for example: having a new boiler put in as mine will get to the end of its life before Willow), and historically I had to have the electricity man out cause the fuse box had gone bang, Willow could not cope with him fixing whatever had gone bang in the fuse box
She can cope with normal household sounds (like the washing machine, for example), she just can't cope when something happens outside of her "normal" and I'm unsure how I can move forward with this, its literally only when something happens that she gets this scared and anxious, its not medical related.
Stress in Cats - The Ultimate Guide - TheCatSite
Discover the ultimate guide to understanding and managing stress in cats. Learn about the common causes, signs, and effective strategies.
thecatsite.com
For example, today, a stupid neighbour across the road managed to block their drain and had to have a repair man out with a scary machine to unblock their drain, a load of black gunk had to get removed from their drain (I have no idea what exactly was being got out of the drain)
My question is, stuff like this (unplanned and impossible to know when or even if something like that will happen again), how can I tackle the stress of that sort of thing happening? She keeps trying to find places to hide tonight, she's very on edge, even to the point when Tigger took her a toy mousie, she decided the toy mousie itself was coming to get her, simply cause the drain man scared her just by using a scary sounding machine across the road
I'm currently sat with her, after she changed hiding places from behind the freezer and decided "hiding" on a towel that smells of me cause I used it when I had a bath, the towel is a safe spot that apparently the long-since-left-for-other-jobs drain unblocking man cannot find her on, I'm letting her comfort herself on the towel, allowing her to keep the towel seems to be helping her to relax a bit, but she's still on alert and watching in case the scary noisy machine comes back just to frighten her, she thinks anything that scares her its only reason for doing a scary thing is to scare her (anything that she gets scared by is plotting to get her, she seems to believe)
To the point she will get defensive towards the vet when the vet touches her blankie, she will allow the vet to touch her without biting, but she will nip if the vet touches blankie, so I get her and blankie in and out of the carrier at the vet cause she won't bite me for touching her blankie, she knows I won't steal blankie from her
She's never liked her routine getting changed at all, she's always been this sensitive, she can't deal with workmen coming here, she can't even handle workmen going to neighbour's houses for work being done (and I cannot say to neighbours can they never have anything done in their house in Willow's lifetime cause sometimes they literally need to have stuff done, like the stupid neighbour messing their drain up, or the fire brigade having to visit the flats on the corner cause someone had managed to do something stupid, there's a few things in this house I would need to get done in Willow's lifetime (for example: having a new boiler put in as mine will get to the end of its life before Willow), and historically I had to have the electricity man out cause the fuse box had gone bang, Willow could not cope with him fixing whatever had gone bang in the fuse box
She can cope with normal household sounds (like the washing machine, for example), she just can't cope when something happens outside of her "normal" and I'm unsure how I can move forward with this, its literally only when something happens that she gets this scared and anxious, its not medical related.