Hi folks,
first of all, I'm new to this site so I apologize if I ask a question that has been asked a million times before.
I'll tell you the cat set-up in the house. It started with my old cat Pinky (female), who's now about 14 and is quite gentle. Then we have a 3 yr old boy cat named Charlie, who's a bit of a bully.
Around Xmas 2008, a tortoise shell cat started hanging around in the back yard and as she looked so miserable, we started feeding her although it was impossible to pet her and she was hissing at all humans (but not at the cats).
She ended up coming round every day to be fed and we soon realized she was pregnant. She seemed to live in a house near us but her owners just threw her out when they went on vacation and even when they were about, she was treated as an outdoor cat and they were throwing bits of chicken on the floor for her to eat from time to time.
She had kittens in their yard and we assume they were given away as we saw them for about 6 weeks and then nothing.
Then last year in the fall, she started coming round to our house every day again, pregnant again, and the next door neighbor said he was gonna adopt her and when she had her kittens, 1 was given away, the neighbor kept 2 and we kept 2 girls (also tortoise shells).
However, although the neighbor did a good job with the kittens, he threw the mom out after a while, claiming she was agressive towards him and the kittens he kept. She ended up getting pregnant again and had her kittens in my bathroom (6!). My husband and I looked after her and her 6 babies until we found good homes for all the kittens and then we had her fixed (as are all our other cats).
At first she seemed grateful and although she's a tortie, she was quite sweet, sleeping alongside me on the couch etc... grooming her 2 older daughters that we kept and she seemed to get on well with the other cats, except for Charlie but they were just ignoring each other.
Then little by little she became more agressive and she just gets worse every day. She now cannot stand any of our cats, she will hiss at them as soon as she sees them and just gets startled at any noise or any sudden move. She doesn't quite attack them but she'll give them a wide berth and will sometimes raise her paw at them.
She strated being agressive towards us as well. Sometimes she'll quite happily let us pet her a little and then will bite and scratch very bad without warning. Once I leaned towards her and she jumped at my head and scratched my scalp, there was a lot of blood running everywhere. My teenage stepkids are quite weary of her as she just turns from one extreme to the next.
Just a few weeks ago she was grooming old Pinky, now she'll just hiss at her!
I saw Charlie jump on her and attack her a couple of times, could that have made her scared of ALL cats and humans? She has known us for almost 2 years now and always asks to be let in and to be fed. Surely if she was really scared of us all she wouldn't come in?
Dunno if it's a bad case of 'tortitude' and dunno what to do to make her feel more relaxed, at least the way she was 6 months ago.
Has anyone ever encountered that kind of problems?
Any help will be appreciated. Many thanx.
first of all, I'm new to this site so I apologize if I ask a question that has been asked a million times before.
I'll tell you the cat set-up in the house. It started with my old cat Pinky (female), who's now about 14 and is quite gentle. Then we have a 3 yr old boy cat named Charlie, who's a bit of a bully.
Around Xmas 2008, a tortoise shell cat started hanging around in the back yard and as she looked so miserable, we started feeding her although it was impossible to pet her and she was hissing at all humans (but not at the cats).
She ended up coming round every day to be fed and we soon realized she was pregnant. She seemed to live in a house near us but her owners just threw her out when they went on vacation and even when they were about, she was treated as an outdoor cat and they were throwing bits of chicken on the floor for her to eat from time to time.
She had kittens in their yard and we assume they were given away as we saw them for about 6 weeks and then nothing.
Then last year in the fall, she started coming round to our house every day again, pregnant again, and the next door neighbor said he was gonna adopt her and when she had her kittens, 1 was given away, the neighbor kept 2 and we kept 2 girls (also tortoise shells).
However, although the neighbor did a good job with the kittens, he threw the mom out after a while, claiming she was agressive towards him and the kittens he kept. She ended up getting pregnant again and had her kittens in my bathroom (6!). My husband and I looked after her and her 6 babies until we found good homes for all the kittens and then we had her fixed (as are all our other cats).
At first she seemed grateful and although she's a tortie, she was quite sweet, sleeping alongside me on the couch etc... grooming her 2 older daughters that we kept and she seemed to get on well with the other cats, except for Charlie but they were just ignoring each other.
Then little by little she became more agressive and she just gets worse every day. She now cannot stand any of our cats, she will hiss at them as soon as she sees them and just gets startled at any noise or any sudden move. She doesn't quite attack them but she'll give them a wide berth and will sometimes raise her paw at them.
She strated being agressive towards us as well. Sometimes she'll quite happily let us pet her a little and then will bite and scratch very bad without warning. Once I leaned towards her and she jumped at my head and scratched my scalp, there was a lot of blood running everywhere. My teenage stepkids are quite weary of her as she just turns from one extreme to the next.
Just a few weeks ago she was grooming old Pinky, now she'll just hiss at her!
I saw Charlie jump on her and attack her a couple of times, could that have made her scared of ALL cats and humans? She has known us for almost 2 years now and always asks to be let in and to be fed. Surely if she was really scared of us all she wouldn't come in?
Dunno if it's a bad case of 'tortitude' and dunno what to do to make her feel more relaxed, at least the way she was 6 months ago.
Has anyone ever encountered that kind of problems?
Any help will be appreciated. Many thanx.
