help me with my crazy cat

My cat Junior has always been a little strange. His mom was killed a week after he was born, which may be one of the reasons. He is a very sweet cat to my husband and I, normally. He gives lots of kisses and sleeps with us all the time. But he does not like other people or loud noises. Whenever we have people over we have to put him in the bedroom otherwise he growls and hisses at them. So yesterday I had a work party at my house. I put him in the bedroom with all his toys and food , ect... But the girls wanted to see my house so I went in first and picked him up. I was comforting him while the girls were looking around. He then freaked out and scratched my face and knocked my glasses off my head. I told everyone to get out and went to my bathroom to check my face. I was bleeding quite a bit so I was in the bathroom when Junior came up and started hissing at me again and going crazy! I shut the door and he stayed out there waiting for me. Whenever I would open the door he would start again. I tried to remind him that I am his mama and that he should be a good boy and that it's ok. I was stuck in there for 20 minutes too afraid to go by him. My guests were getting quite worried. Finally I threw a bathrobe on him and ran out. When my husband came home he went to see him and he was fine again. I don't know what to do now. We love our cat very much and we've had him for 6 years. But we are planning on having a baby soon and this situation really scares me. Not only am I scared for the baby but we will have visitors and babysitters. What will he do to them??? I do have an appointment with our vet soon. I've heard of prosac or even declawing him, which I know is mean, but we have no choice do we? Anyone have any suggestions??? Thanks Sandra

I don't think you mentioned how old he was or whether he was neutered or not.

If he is not neutered, doing that may help. If he is still a young cat, he may have been spooked by all the people and noise.

It would be good for you to discuss this with you vet, hopefully you will not have to declaw him.

This can be scary, but please remember, he is a cat and he was reacting from instinct, something spooked him....do any of you co-workers have cats or dogs? Perhaps he may have smelled their scent.

I am very glad that you were not seriously hurt. I am sure that your baby never meant to deliberately hurt you like that.

Junior is 6 years old and has been neutered.

Personally, with a baby coming into the household, I would have a serious talk with my vet.

I am sure that some accommodation can be reached so that Junior and the baby are safe and sound.

Had he ever done that before and has he spazed out since?

He has freaked out on other people but never actually hurt someone let alone one of his parents. And he snorted at me once since the episode which he never does. I'm not sure what his problem is. We made an appt to see our vet on Dec 22. We'll see what happens then but if anyone has any suggestions it would be greatly appreciated. Thx

I wouldn't declaw him - if he is aggressive and scratches, if he can no longer scratch he will most likely bite instead, and being bitten is far worse than being scratched.

It sounds as if your cat is very nervous and feels the need to 'defend' himself when there are others around, and is aggressive to you in the process. While I am not in favour of medicating animals for behavioural problems in every situation, I would certainly consider it in a case like this, especially with a baby on the way.

I have four year old neutered cat named Walter that acts exactly like yours. When others are around he gets angry, hides, hisses/growls when approached. Do you have a basement that is cozy and spacious where he can hang out and you can still play with him?

It sounds like he's just timid and shy of strangers. My Jaffa is like that - he hides under the bed when anyone visits. When you went into the bedroom with people he didn't know he would have felt vulnerable and threatened. His natural instincts would have been fight or flight. Because you were holding him he was unable to get away from the situation so fighting by lashing out at you was the only option open to him. Many cats feel particularly vulnerable when they are picked up and restrained so add strangers to the mix and the poor thing would have felt very frightened. I'd guess he only wanted to get away from you.

Messybeast has a useful article about nervous and aggressive behaviour in cats that might help.

http://www.messybeast.com/nervous.htm

Other than slowly encouraging him to be more outgoing and social, I think you might have to just accept that he feels scared and threatened when around strangers and allow him to go somewhere where he can feel safe. Putting him in the bedroom when you had visitors was a good idea but going in there with your visitors was perhaps not such a good idea! Has he ever lashed out on other occasions? If the actual aggression (other than growling at people) was a one off I'd say it was definitely because you picked him up when he was already feeling scared.

Yes, you made his 'safe' place unsafe by bringing in the strangers (to him) cats won't discriminate about who's who when they're scared, they just go nuts. Don't punish him for what he didn't do (sorry about your face though!) as far as he's aware, just don't put him in threatening situations.