What irrational thing is your cat afraid of?

[cmshap]

One time, years ago, I splashed Willy with some wet food gravy when I was plopping it down onto his dish from the plastic packaging. I was holding it a little too high above the dish, so it fell a few inches and splashed him.

Now, whenever I am serving him his wet meals, he runs away whenever I get to the process of squeezing out the wet food from the packaging. He bolts to the other side of the room, then comes back after the food is safely on his plate.

 

[CakesCats]

Garbage bags. Our girl has a box she lays in in the kitchen. Anytime we even open the cabinet where the garbage bags are kept she runs away as fast as she can go. I’m not sure when or why this became a thing.

 

[cmshap]

Garbage bags. Our girl has a box she lays in in the kitchen. Anytime we even open the cabinet where the garbage bags are kept she runs away as fast as she can go. I’m not sure when or why this became a thing.

I've seen this before with other cats, and I believe it is from the noise they make when you are opening them up before putting them into the bin.

Many people do the "shake" thing where you move it up and down quickly to force air inside of it to open it up. Do you open bags like this? They can make a loud noise that I've seen startle a few cats.

 

[CakesCats]

I've seen this before with other cats, and I believe it is from the noise they make when you are opening them up before putting them into the bin.

Many people do the "shake" thing where you move it up and down quickly to force air inside of it to open it up. Do you open bags like this? They can make a loud noise that I've seen startle a few cats.

I think this is exactly what she is afraid of…Odd thing is she just recently started disliking the sound(or running from it anyways). We have tried to open them more gently, but she now knows that the cabinet is opening so she must run. Now we apologize to her every time we go to get a new bag

 

[daftcat75]

Betty doesn’t care about the garbage bag noise. She also doesn’t react much to the vacuum. It’s not a run the other way thing for her. But another no thank you if she’d prefer not to be in the same room.

 

[cmshap]

I think this is exactly what she is afraid of…Odd thing is she just recently started disliking the sound(or running from it anyways). We have tried to open them more gently, but she now knows that the cabinet is opening so she must run.

It's possible that in addition to the noise, you may have also fanned some air in her direction when opening a bag. I don't know about other people's cats, but mine hates when air is blown in his face.

And as we all know, cats never forget anything. Like I mentioned in my above post, I splashed Willy with wet food gravy like 3-4 years ago, and have never done so since, but he still runs away from the wet food serving process.

 

[maggie101]

New wand toys. It takes my cat peaches a few days or longer.

 

[Alldara]

We could smell it here and had severe bad air quality alerts, we had to stay inside and mask when outside. The kitties knew something was going on. I don’t know if they were scared of the smell or just because they knew something was different and it was bad etc. I was worried about the smoke affecting them because you could smell it even inside the house.

Us too! But we have a couple air purifiers and kept some fans running to help.

The boys all new something was a little off, but anytime Ghost could smell the smoke he was REALLY agitated. We don't know his history, and there was a lot of apartment fires here this winter and spring. He may have been around or in one of those? Now we have the hang of it and the smell doesn't come in as much. We have plastic on the windows to keep more out too.

 

[DreamerRose]

Mingo is a door dasher, and I have to go to great lengths to make sure screens and doors are locked to keep him in. BUT, once he's out, he's terrified. He drops to the ground and hisses. When I try to pick him up, he turns into a wildcat, scratching and biting me. None of this makes any sense.

Lily is scared of anything new. She likes her familiar routines. The vacuum cleaner is the worst, but visitors scare her too.

 

[Lorraine97]

Nothing, strangely My irrational fear is probably Atlas' apparent lack of fear, like he has no survival instinct at all

 

[GranolaLouise]

Truck motors,rain tapping on the window, big prints on quilts and fabric, carriers and crates,the big,loud dog downstairs.

 

[Kenny_T]

My buddy Pirate is afraid of the ceiling fan in the living room, we have 2 but he is only afraid of the one. Not any of the others in the house.

 

[Caspers Human]

Casper is afraid of shoes. More specifically, when you sit down to take them off.

We had adopted him only a few weeks before when I came home after work and he came to greet me. I sat on a wooden stool in the kitchen to take off my shoes and, when he saw me do that, he bolted.

I can only guess that, sometime in his past, somebody threw shoes at him and that's why he's afraid of shoes.

It's been several years, now, and he's not *as* afraid. He doesn't bolt like before but he still shies.

So, what's up with throwing shoes at cats? Throwing anything, for that matter? It's stupid! Afterward, you have to go get your shoe from wherever it landed after you threw it.

 

[Alldara]

So, what's up with throwing shoes at cats? Throwing anything, for that matter? It's stupid! Afterward, you have to go get your shoe from wherever it landed after you threw it.

Same reasons people spray them with water I guess. Get them off things or shoo them away.

People even take the fearful approach for children still, so I expect they won't change for their pets yet.

On my Buy Nothing Group my wife noted that someone is giving away their cat's Churus because "the cat is bugging me too much for them." The same person makes a lot of posts of, "come before my child or husband gets home and take this!" Always getting rid of things other family members like or love. Breaks my heart. I don't like all my wife's stuff or think all my cats' things are pretty but I'd feel bad for getting rid of even a broken beloved toy.

 

[IndyJones]

Same reasons people spray them with water I guess. Get them off things or shoo them away.

People even take the fearful approach for children still, so I expect they won't change for their pets yet.

On my Buy Nothing Group my wife noted that someone is giving away their cat's Churus because "the cat is bugging me too much for them." The same person makes a lot of posts of, "come before my child or husband gets home and take this!" Always getting rid of things other family members like or love. Breaks my heart. I don't like all my wife's stuff or think all my cats' things are pretty but I'd feel bad for getting rid of even a broken beloved toy.

As long as the toy isn't broken in a way that it could be swallowed and choked on. Ive seen a few of my cats toys get to that point. If the stuffing is pulled out for example i throw them out.

 

[catloverfromwayback]

My two are scared of the vacuum cleaner, but given how sensitive cats’ hearing is, that makes complete sense to me. Phoebe’s not scared of anything else, but Daisy doesn’t like the sound of velcro - again, probably much worse to her ears than mine.

 

[DreamerRose]

My two are scared of the vacuum cleaner, but given how sensitive cats’ hearing is, that makes complete sense to me. Phoebe’s not scared of anything else, but Daisy doesn’t like the sound of velcro - again, probably much worse to her ears than mine.

Mine don't like Velcro, either. I have a back brace that's attached by Velcro, and whenever I take it off, they both head for the hills.

 

[cmshap]

As several others have mentioned, the vacuum cleaner, which I'm sure is very common. In fact, I wouldn't consider it an irrational fear, because it's so loud, and I can't imagine what it sounds like to cats, with their sensitive hearing.

However, I'm wondering if any of your cats react to it like mine. Willy is definitely afraid of it, but he doesn't hide from it at first. He actually seeks it out and attacks it.

When I start vacuuming, he always comes over from wherever he was resting, and cautiously creeps up to it. While keeping as much distance as possible, he whacks it a few times and then recoils. Then he repeats. He does this for the first 5 minutes or so, before eventually moving to another room in my apartment to hide.

It's like the vacuum is a monster that he feels he has to take initiative against and put down, for the good of all felines.

 

[daftcat75]

As several others have mentioned, the vacuum cleaner, which I'm sure is very common. In fact, I wouldn't consider it an irrational fear, because it's so loud, and I can't imagine what it sounds like to cats, with their sensitive hearing.

However, I'm wondering if any of your cats react to it like mine. Willy is definitely afraid of it, but he doesn't hide from it. He actually seeks it out and attacks it.

When I start vacuuming, he always comes over from wherever he was resting, and cautiously creeps up to it. While keeping as much distance as possible, he whacks it a few times and then recoils. Then he repeats. He does this for the first 5 minutes or so, before eventually moving to another room in my apartment to hide.

It's like the vacuum is a monster that he feels he has to take initiative against and put down, for the good of all felines.

Betty is not scared of the vacuum as much as she just says, "no thank you" and calmly changes rooms. Now that she has a cat cave she enjoys in each half of the home, she'll just switch caves, and go back to sleep.

 

[GranolaLouise]

As several others have mentioned, the vacuum cleaner, which I'm sure is very common. In fact, I wouldn't consider it an irrational fear, because it's so loud, and I can't imagine what it sounds like to cats, with their sensitive hearing.

However, I'm wondering if any of your cats react to it like mine. Willy is definitely afraid of it, but he doesn't hide from it. He actually seeks it out and attacks it.

When I start vacuuming, he always comes over from wherever he was resting, and cautiously creeps up to it. While keeping as much distance as possible, he whacks it a few times and then recoils. Then he repeats. He does this for the first 5 minutes or so, before eventually moving to another room in my apartment to hide.

It's like the vacuum is a monster that he feels he has to take initiative against and put down, for the good of all felines.

Louise just hears it and walks into another room.Not afraid,but just a nuisance .