Skittish Kittish

Pippin runs away whenever anyone walks in her general direction or makes a sudden move. Stranger, or family, she's still afraid.

She can be cuddly, but she's often very wild and skittish.

What can I do to help her be more calm?

(She's a year and a half old....)

Please tell a lot more about her - where you got her, who's in the family and how each one treats her, who feeds her, plays with her, etc. and if there are other animals there. What breed is she? Some are more skittish than others, and need to be spared sudden moves, unexpected noises as much as possible. More info please.

Can you give us some more background on her? For example...

How long have you had her?

What do you know about her life before you got her?

Is she spayed?

Do you have any other animals?

Do you have children? How many and how old?

Do you ever (heaven forbid) let her go outside?

Is she (heaven forbid) declawed?

There are lots of smart people here who can help, I'm sure... just need to know the whole situation.

How long have you had her? Since the August before last.

What do you know about her life before you got her? She was a shelter cat, a runt.

Is she spayed? Yup.

Do you have any other animals? 1 older cat. They fight occasionally, but I think they're secretly pretty good friends.

Do you have children? How many and how old?
...I'm 13 years old. And I have a 16 year old sister.

Do you ever (heaven forbid) let her go outside? Yes. A lot. Whenever she wished (We let our other cat outside, and she's not skittish.)

Is she (heaven forbid) declawed? No! Definitely not.

OK, skittishness can be breed related as I mentioned, though certainly not always, but if she's a smoky blue-gray color, with greenish eyes, she's likely got Russian Blue blood, and they're definitely nervous. It's not 'curable', but you can learn to not make sudden moves towards or around her when you can help it, or loud noises (yelling, dropping things), etc. and she should grow out of a lot of it anyhow, as kittens are spooky like that anyhow.

aww its real upsetting when you have a skittish kitty - you always think any action is gonna just scare them all the time
As she is a resuce kitty, theres probably a lot of things you will never know about her, and maybe the reason(s) why she is skittish.
My Dino is a tad skittish - he had a fight with a plastic carrier bag once - and he is totally freaked out if you rustle a plastic bag near him. I also dont think you can cure it, you just have to reduce or try to eliminate the things that make them nervous....which in your case might be difficult if its strangers, but to be honest, that can be a good thing, you dont want strangers taking her or being nasty to her.

aww give her some chin scritches from us

Well, we got her when she was really little (like less than a month)...

Our kitties are all rescue kitties. You drop something around here and they scatter! A good cough can result in cats fleeing off the bed.... But they all love to play and they love pets.

Sometimes it's just their nature.



Laurie

The runnign from noise is acceptable, but if someone walks into the rooms they're in, they'll flee!

My personal experience is that these are common traits of runt kittens, varying in intensity yet common to be fearful, shy, startled by noises or strangers, more so then not. I have an instant love for the little ones, my past 4 cats in 22 years have been shelter runts, they have so much love but also need a little extra confidence .

2 of my cats simply head to the bedroom and hide under the bed when a car pulls in the driveway. Others greet visitors at the front door. They were all basically raised the same.

Some cats are simply more skittish than others. To explain why would be like trying to explain why I like the color green and you like blue. It's just who we are.