Hi everyone. I just signed up to ask about this since I'm really not sure what the problem could be...
My indoor-cat, Chloe, is going to be 7-years-old in July. She's very playful, loves to be picked up (by me, anyway), is friendly to most people, and not scared by much. We just moved to a new townhouse almost 10 days ago. She seemed to adjust very quickly, and within the first day seemed really content, explored the house, went up and down the stairs (she's never had a staircase before), etc. She actually seemed to really love the place, and she was fine all week. The only thing that bothered her were the fireworks we can hear from the Magic Kingdom (we're very close to Disney, but it's not TOO loud), but she just hides under the bed, and we figured she would get used to it.
Two days ago, she was in the living room with my mother, who was watching TV. Chloe was sitting near the TV, where there's an air vent (which sometimes makes a strange hissing noise when the AC turns on), a few boxes we haven't unpacked, and her toys. My mom says that all of a sudden she got really spooked - she started walking low to the ground, kind of in slow motion, staring behind the TV, or maybe at the air vent (which is near the floor), just in that general area.
Since then, she's been afraid of that side of the room. For the first day she wouldn't come down the stairs (which leads into the living room) unless we picked her up (earlier she had run down the stairs ahead of me), and she walks by the TV very slowly, stares at it for a while, that kind of thing. Once I picked her up and brought her close, but she got very tense and tried to jump down.
But otherwise, she seems perfectly fine. She went outside (with us, it's a fenced courtyard) and chased a bug, she's eating and seems to be using the litter box, she plays with her toy mice, she curled up on my mom's lap today (which was in the living room, so that was a step forward I think). It's hard to tell if she's completely avoiding the downstairs, though, because my mom and I are upstairs most of the day, and she likes to be with us.
I'm sure it's probably something that will pass/that she'll forget about, but I'm just concerned because her food and litter box are downstairs, and whatever it was that spooked her is preventing her from moving around the house like normal. Has anyone seen behavior like this before or have any idea what I could do? She seems a little better today, since we've been coaxing her with treats, but she still acts like there's something terrible around the TV that we just can't see, and in general has been a little more anxious since that moment.
My indoor-cat, Chloe, is going to be 7-years-old in July. She's very playful, loves to be picked up (by me, anyway), is friendly to most people, and not scared by much. We just moved to a new townhouse almost 10 days ago. She seemed to adjust very quickly, and within the first day seemed really content, explored the house, went up and down the stairs (she's never had a staircase before), etc. She actually seemed to really love the place, and she was fine all week. The only thing that bothered her were the fireworks we can hear from the Magic Kingdom (we're very close to Disney, but it's not TOO loud), but she just hides under the bed, and we figured she would get used to it.
Two days ago, she was in the living room with my mother, who was watching TV. Chloe was sitting near the TV, where there's an air vent (which sometimes makes a strange hissing noise when the AC turns on), a few boxes we haven't unpacked, and her toys. My mom says that all of a sudden she got really spooked - she started walking low to the ground, kind of in slow motion, staring behind the TV, or maybe at the air vent (which is near the floor), just in that general area.
Since then, she's been afraid of that side of the room. For the first day she wouldn't come down the stairs (which leads into the living room) unless we picked her up (earlier she had run down the stairs ahead of me), and she walks by the TV very slowly, stares at it for a while, that kind of thing. Once I picked her up and brought her close, but she got very tense and tried to jump down.
But otherwise, she seems perfectly fine. She went outside (with us, it's a fenced courtyard) and chased a bug, she's eating and seems to be using the litter box, she plays with her toy mice, she curled up on my mom's lap today (which was in the living room, so that was a step forward I think). It's hard to tell if she's completely avoiding the downstairs, though, because my mom and I are upstairs most of the day, and she likes to be with us.
I'm sure it's probably something that will pass/that she'll forget about, but I'm just concerned because her food and litter box are downstairs, and whatever it was that spooked her is preventing her from moving around the house like normal. Has anyone seen behavior like this before or have any idea what I could do? She seems a little better today, since we've been coaxing her with treats, but she still acts like there's something terrible around the TV that we just can't see, and in general has been a little more anxious since that moment.
