New here, but have had cats my whole life.

And I need advice. First let me say, I have had cats my entire life and I have never had this issue I am having now.

First some background info. I have 4 indoor cats, 3 outdoor cats, a ferret, a dog who is a pug and 3 human children, youngest is 9.

Up until about a month and a half ago I had 2 indoor cats. Then, a stray showed up who was covered in sticky bush things and had a huge leg injury so I took him in and have been nursing him back to health, trying to comb his long hair out and just basically loving him to death. He is super calm and laid back and I call him Grandpa, cause he just overseas all the little cats and you barely even know he is here. All 3 of these cats, 1 stray male, 1 indoor always young male who is too young to mate yet, and 1 young female who is too young to mate yet. They all get along great, even the dog and the ferret.

Then, about 3 weeks ago, my neighbor moved and left w/o taking her female evil cat. Anyway that is what I call her. So, I cannot let her starve to death so of course, I took her in, and mainly because I saw her mating with outside cats, not mine, and I do not want her to have outside kitties who will be wild, so I brought her in.

Any-who, she is where the trouble comes in. She gets along fine with the 2 young cats, but the stray male she hates, and my dog she hates. She hates them so bad that if they even move and she sees them move, she will eat my face off.

She is just nasty. The thing is, I know the neighbor who moved also had a dog. So, I am not clear where this nastiness is coming from. If i feed her, which she loves to eat, and then pet her, she will bite and/or swat my hands. I have been trying and trying to teach her she will not be hurt by me or anybody or the animals but this nastiness continues.

If she is laying resting, and other cats/dog is out of room, i can pet her, she will lick me, purr, etc., but the minute anybody moves, she is back to her old nasty self. I love her but I gotta be honest, not sure how long I will deal with her ripping my hands to shreds. I have scratches everywhere. This is okay for me, but my children do not need scratches all over.

She hates to be picked up, and I swear if she could manage to somehow attach to my head and eat it off, she would do it.

I used to call her little girl, but she has quickly became just Evil. That is what I call her now. I don't want to call her that, but she is.

She will let my hubby touch, pet, etc, with animals around, and not bite him. I don't get it.

So, what I need is suggestions to stop this aggressiveness and biting/scratching me and my kids, soon, like in now, or yesterday.

Any suggestions. I really don't want to bring her anywhere like the pound, cause they would likely euthanize her, and she is a beautiful cat, and so young, and if she has kitties, that would be horrible to do. I cannot do that. I do not want to put her outside, cause she does not seem like an outside cat, she is gorgeous, clean and no cuts, bites, etc., that would indicate a street cat.

So, any-who, thanks for reading, and for letting me be a member here, and I really do love cats and dogs, animals all of them, even have a lizard, and 2 pet mice, and want them all happy, healthy.

The young cats are just kittens, I know I need to fix them. The male dog is spayed. The stray cat, no idea his medical history. I have tried to rehome him or have somebody cause I cannot afford it, take him and rehome him and they tell me they will just put him to sleep, and I won't do that, so I have been self-treating him. I have no idea if he has FelV, or not, and honestly I don't care. He is staying and I do the best I can with him. He will be fixed soon, before summer is out, then the vet can test him then. The female that was abandoned, no idea her medical history either. I know you will say I need to quarantine her, but in my home there is no way to do this, and I do not even know if she is fixed or not, she is not mine, but I assume, since I saw her outside mating, that she is not spayed. I have a soft spot for strays and honestly do not care if they are sick, they are coming in and I will feed them and take care of them the best I can. I don't know how else to say that w/o sounding stupid, but nothing they could have, no illness would allow me to turn away a needy animal. I know they could make my other animals sick, and I do worry about that, so I do try to keep them away from my animals until I can see if there are any obvious things I need to take care of.

Please don't get on me about vetting, I do, when I can, and I love my animals almost as much as my kids.

In the space of a day, I went from 3 to 4 cats, and since I got this female after business hours, there was no other option but to bring her in and feed her.

Anyway, just really want advice on aggressiveness, things I can try, spray-bottle, which I hate doing, loud sounds, something. I watch the show with the dog trainer, its the dog or me, think its called, but somehow I think training a cat is different.

Oh, and my plan of action is to keep them all and work on getting them all vetted, fixed, spayed, and getting along together as soon as possible.

Well not that my heart is bigger than my funds, but I do have 3 children to feed, clothe, rent to pay, electricity, etc., before I can think of taking an animal that is not mine to a vet. The thing is, I really didn't want this cat. I thought maybe she would come back and get her, but the lady is gone gone gone to another state, so other than allow the cat to become an outside kitten factory, which I do not plan to allow to happen, I have no choice. Where I live, they do not come get animals abandoned, specially cats, and I have been told i can bring it in to the pound, but they will likely euthanize it. They are not very helpful here. When i had called about the male stray, I called and emailed everybody within the state, and nobody would help me. So, now that I am bascially stuck with this cat, I am trying to make them all get along the best I can.

I also want to say that none of the animals are sick. I realize there are things I cannot see that would be only known by blood testing.

As far as the kids, they are not allowed to pick the stray up or the new one yet, as I do not know what they may have. I myself, don't care if I get sick and have already been very sick and been on antibiotics myself for 2 months with cat scratch disease, not from these cats. My prob is I cannot let an animal starve and have a lot of contact with strays and cats people just drop off. I think i will Google the feliway stuff, is it a plug in?

I swear sometimes, the sounds she is making, the growling, sounds more like she is talking to me. She is VERY VERY VERY VERBALLY outspoken. I talk to her when she is doing it, and sometimes, she will swat/bite me, but never really hard, i am scratched all over my arms and hands, but she does not bite like I know a cat can bite, cause i have been bitten one time in my life by a wild cat and it was a deep puncture bite. These bites are more like she little pecks.

Not knowing what her vet/immunization history will be tough for the vet when I do bring her in, won't it? Will he just reissue shots for everything she should have by now?

The really sad part is if she gets out, which she has only done once or twice since I have her, she goes back to her house and hides under the porch like she is waiting for her owner to come back. It breaks my heart, and even though I have food outside, she won't come to my porch to eat it, so she would basically starve out there.


Thanks for all your help. I don't know how these little things work on here where you get all those pretty little things attached to your user name, but if I did I would give you one.