New cat hates me..worried about intros

Hi everyone

I've browsed through many of these posts looking for some hope. My sister in law is immigrating, and we have agreed to take her female cat. This cat was littermate to my two boys and is nine years old. I have known her all her life and she was always very loving and sweet towards me. We took her to the vet on Monday to get all her tests and she is fine, then Tuesday I fetched her from her mom and brought her to her new home. I have two male boys aged nine and a female(Pix) aged about 5 that was a feral cat,Pix is mommy's baby. Well, we have put Snowey, the new girl, in a seperate room. Since I have brought her home she has hissed and growled at me. Last night she attacked me. She is completley different with my husband, and seems to be far more comfortable with him?? and....she hasn't even met the other cats yet. I've never had an animal that I have felt uncomfortable with, and this behaviour makes me very uneasy.I'm terrified if she is like this with me, how is she going to react to my female cat.

We don't have Feliway here. I wish I could understand why she hates me so much, if it's the scent of Pix on me(but hubby also should have the same scent) or if she associates me with taking her away from her family?and if there is anything I can do with this behaviour. Should I walk away and leave her when she hisses or should I just hold my ground and stay in the room? Any suggestions would be welcome...

First of all try ignoring her completely. If she is feeling threatened by you this should help.
Second, make sure she sees that you are the only person who feeds her. She'll see you as Alpha pretty quickly.
When she hisses Id probably stare her down (from a safe distance of course!). I might even hiss back. This is a bold step though and it might irritate her more. You'll have to do what you feel is comfortable.
She might just come around in a few days. I'll bet she does.

X

It doesn't sound as if she hates you to me, but she does sound scared! Cats become very attached to their territory and routines and her life has just been disrupted horribly, she needs time to adjust to her new situation.

I actually disagree with the previous poster, staring her down is just going to increase her fear - I'd actually be very careful NOT to make any eye contact with her at all, as in cats it is a threat or a challenge (usually to do with territory, and at the moment she is a stranger in new territory) to do so and the last thing this little one needs is to feel threatened. I do agree that you should ignore her but be the one who feeds her though.

Just have some patience, it can take older cats especially weeks if not months to settle down after a change in circumstances. Make sure she has some safe places where she can hide.

Things should resolve in time, though it may be pretty hectic til then, but one thing (that also will get better when Snowy realizes you're the one feeding her) to remember is that she doesn't 'know' you're a person, but can tell you're female, and will relate better to your husband (mine are like that too, and the males opposite to some extent). That doesn't mean (as you can tell from your other female I'm sure) that she will continue to 'hate' you, but does see you as another girl to some extent.

Originally Posted by Epona

I actually disagree with the previous poster, staring her down is just going to increase her fear - I'd actually be very careful NOT to make any eye contact with her at all, as in cats it is a threat or a challenge (usually to do with territory, and at the moment she is a stranger in new territory) to do so and the last thing this little one needs is to feel threatened.

Click to expand...

Sure enough.

X

Thanks for the replies. I have started to ignore her somewhat. Thing is this cat does know me, she has known me for years, so she will come to me meowing and act quite sweet rubbing up against me, but suddenly she starts to hiss and then attacks. To be honest if she is like this with me, I'm really worried what she will be like with my female kitty. We moved her to our room last night and moved all the others out. We are trying to rotate their smells so to speak. Neither myself or my husband got any sleep just from guilt that the boys and my little girl had been put out of THEIR room for the night. Snowey just got straight under the bed and hasn't really moved from there since. When I introduced Pix to the boys at least she had some interest in what was on the other side of the door, Snowey shows no interest in any of the other cats, she has been alone all her life, so this is proving really stressful.

Just to add...I have been the one feeding her, but she won't come at feeding time, even if I sit there and call at her and show her the bowl. She waits until there is no one around and then goes and eats. Thankfully she is eating and using her litterbox...should I do something differently here?