Does Nala hate us?

I love my sweet Nala, but she is SHY!

When Nala arrived, Prince instantly fell in love with her and sniffed, and purred at her. He even laid on his back and wanted to bat at her for play. Prince is the biggest baby I have ever seen.

But my sweet Nala is different. She won't come near us or Prince.

My poor Prince follows every hiding spot she goes and he'll "call out to her". I guess he is trying to tell her "These are nice people and I want to be your friend!"

Both cats are fixed + shots. Both cats I adopted. I got Prince first (about a week and a half ago), then Nala the other day.

We can pick up Nala and she won't scratch or bite, to move her away from dangerous hiding spots, but then she tries to jump out of our arms.

We are hoping she isn't this way forever!

Noooo... she doesn't hate you!!!
Don't force her - let her be for a little while... Stay on the room with the computer, eat in the room, just hang out with her... Do you have a wand toy? Its great to pet Nala's cheek with the wand toy... Talk to her in a soft voice as much as you can throughout the day... Give her treats to get out of her hiding space... If she is not eating, you can make a trail from where she is hiding to the food dish...
Be patient!!! She will come around, but it will take time and patience...
Did the rescuer or shelter tell you she is shy?
I have one shy kitty, Lucky, who with a LOT of work and patience has almost completely turned around... Nala is doing better than Lucky - Lucky didn't eat, drink, or used the box for a full 48 hours!
A new home is a very stressful event for a kitty.... you put another cat on the top of it.... plain scary stuff for them!
Just make sure to allow her to come to you on her own time - don't ever scare her, try to pull her out of her hiding places, etc - this is completely counteractive. You need to be inviting, and not scary.
Good Luck!!
PS: Don't take her behavior as personal - it really isn't ... I know it's hard, but hang in there, It's all worth it!

The owner that had Nala before was her owner.
Prince was the rescued cat.

Nala's owner said she was very friendly. I put her in our spare bedroom with her own food and water and cat litter box.

I hope she turns around. She is a beautiful cat.

Originally Posted by The_Real_Anna

The owner that had Nala before was her owner.
Prince was the rescued cat.

Nala's owner said she was very friendly. I put her in our spare bedroom with her own food and water and cat litter box.

I hope she turns around. She is a beautiful cat.

Click to expand...

Oh good - so she is just scared of the new house.... She will come around... Just make sure to give her attention and love... a pet gate would be good, so she could interact with prince without feeling threatened by him...
Good Luck!

I may have already suggested this, but put her in a smallish room (a bathroom is good, but a small bedroom is OK, too. Preferably, someplace she can't get too far away from you, but where she can feel safe.

Sit in the room. Don't look directly at her. Read aloud, so she can get used to your voice. Sit cross-legged on the floor, so you have a lap she can crawl into.

I do much of this with the cats at the shelter. You would be amazed at how supposedly "wild" cats will crawl into your lap.

I've been sitting in the room with Nala, and she comes up to me to be petted. So I pet her and after awhile she is hissing at me.

Why?

I had pretty much the same problem with 2 boy cats I brought in. Especially one of them, he was always spitting at me. He wouldn't even let me touch him. His brother Wheezer would let me pet him and as soon as Patch saw me petting Wheezer he would go over to Wheezer and kind of bite him on the neck almost like telling him "what are you doing letting them touch you". But what I use to do that really helped was I'd get down on the floor with a little stick attached to a string and a rubber spider on the end of it. I'd easily swing it towards one cat and then the other. They'd get curious and come over and took turns swatting at it. It doesn't sound like Nala is quite as bad as Patch was. It will turn around with time and patience. Good luck.

Nala doesn't hiss anymore. I think it was because I smelled like Prince!

She was in the spare bedroom (her room) for a week and i visited her (so did Prince) every day in the room. I then moved her out of the room (I can't keep her in there anymore because of the kids' toys and such). I moved the food dishes close to the room door and the litter box too. She has to get used to the apartment some time!

Today I went into the kitchen and she come right out of her hiding spot and mewed and rubbed right up against me! Of course I gave her a good petting! She absolutely has gotten used to me. But she is not used to Franco.

Franco is frustrated that Nala doesn't come to him, and won't let him pet her much.

I tried to tell Franco that Nala has to get used to him, and I told him not to make loud noises to her. He bangs the fridge to get her out from behind it so he can pet her. I told him he can't do that or she will never let him near her!

Prince on the other hand STILL won't leave poor Nala alone! She regularly hisses and "punches" (bat him with her paw, no claws) in his face. Poor Prince! He is still our baby! Even though he is HUGE. We call him our "son". Nala is our "daughter".

I have two children (from my ex husband, right now they are in respite care). Franco is more their father than their actual one. But because me and Franco cannot have biological children together, we decided our precious cats were the next best thing! Both cats were adopted this month. It helps me because I am very lonely during the day with no one in the house. I am also disabled and I find my two furry kids very therapeutic.

It can easily take 3 months or more for two adult cats to get used to each other. But loud noises will set that back; the cat doesn't know where the threat is coming from, so she will avoid everything strange.