My husband Jim and I adopted a stray, white cat 1 1/2 years after making our back deck his home. It took a few months, but I was finally sucessful in getting him lured into a carrier and off to the vet for neutering, shots, etc. He now lives the life of luxury indoors, but we have discovered he's deaf and at times very skittish, although affectionate to me. We have suspected he was abused in his past life by the way he would cower when you would lift you hand to pet him and other observations. "Elliott" adjusted very well to our 12 year old cat, has never given us any trouble with using the litter box, eating, clawing furtniture, etc.
My concern after a year now is that he is still very skittish, especially with my husband. Sometimes he will run out of the room when Jim walks in. The worst was over the Holidays, Jim was putting on his black leather coat in front of him and you never saw a cat move so fast in your life! He fled to the guest bathroom where we later discovered he clawed off the heating vent under the vanity and crawled inside to escape. He stayed there for 2 days.
The vet gave me anti-anxiety meds for his food that finally calmed him down. He is now off of them and doing much better, but still wary of Jim.
We can only imagine a man in his past had hurt him. Jim has fed Elliott every morning, played with him, made an extra effort to pet him [holding him is out of the question!]
Also to note: when friends visit, Elliott takes off for the bedroom not to be seen for 1-2 days. We had company for a week and I had to board him at the kennel as I was afraid it woudl be to tramatic for him to have strangers in the house. Strangely, he loves the kennel!
Has anyone gone through this or something similar? Do you think it's from past abuse and time will heal his wounds or could it be his deafness exaggerating some insecurities with his environment? Any suggestions appreciated!!!
My concern after a year now is that he is still very skittish, especially with my husband. Sometimes he will run out of the room when Jim walks in. The worst was over the Holidays, Jim was putting on his black leather coat in front of him and you never saw a cat move so fast in your life! He fled to the guest bathroom where we later discovered he clawed off the heating vent under the vanity and crawled inside to escape. He stayed there for 2 days.
The vet gave me anti-anxiety meds for his food that finally calmed him down. He is now off of them and doing much better, but still wary of Jim.
We can only imagine a man in his past had hurt him. Jim has fed Elliott every morning, played with him, made an extra effort to pet him [holding him is out of the question!]
Also to note: when friends visit, Elliott takes off for the bedroom not to be seen for 1-2 days. We had company for a week and I had to board him at the kennel as I was afraid it woudl be to tramatic for him to have strangers in the house. Strangely, he loves the kennel!
Has anyone gone through this or something similar? Do you think it's from past abuse and time will heal his wounds or could it be his deafness exaggerating some insecurities with his environment? Any suggestions appreciated!!!
She was with us for 4 years and she was always very afraid of all types of noises. She gave most males a wide berth and was quite wary of getting close to them. I was her protector and we were very close, but she missed out on so much because of her fears and how abusive her past had been. She had some health issues - missing her left eye (I can only imagine how that happened
); a bad heart and seizures. Eventually, sadly, I had to make the tough decision to euthanize her because of her health issues. They were getting progressively worse and medications were not helping.
heaped upon a defenseless animal. But we can give them the love and attention they deserve. They know we are trying to help them. Be patient; changes will come in tiny increments.
