Hi!
My girlfriend and I adopted a 10 weeks old kitten from a shelter last weekend. We chose her because she seemed incredibly affectionate: when we entered the room with the cages, she immediately went towards the bars instead of not reacting of stepping away from them, as other cats did. When we got closer to the cage and introduced a finger through the bars, she let us pet her. When we opened the cage she did not hide, she came to us and let us pick her up. We immediately fell in love. She had a rough time in the car on the way home: she vomited. However, once we got home we released her in the bathroom (we had read that it was better to let them out in a small room first). She seemed a little scared, but within a couple of minutes she was playing with us so we decided to let her roam through the entire apartment (which is quite small). At no point did she hide in a corner or beneath furniture like we read many kittens do. The next day she got scared from us and ran away a couple of times when she saw us walking, but soon afterwards she came out of hiding and did not seem to be afraid anymore. She ended up cuddling with me and sleeping on my lap for a long while. However, after that second day she has acted somewhat differently. During some periods she is as affectionate as before, but at times she goes into "scared mode" and arches her back every time she sees us, growls and runs away in an aggressive-looking way. She then then runs back towards us and does the same thing again. She can stay like this for a long while and then goes back to being cuddly. We find it very strange and would like to understand why a kitten might have these two very different behaviors at the same time. We really don't think that she is just playing around as she does some other times. We play often with her and when we do so, we don't have the impression that she is scared or aggressive.
If it's any help, my girlfriend has a theory. We have heard the kitten growl when near her litter box and she thinks that her strange behavior is somehow linked to the litter box. She touched the new litter when pouring it into the box and thinks that her smell might make the kitten feel like her territory is being invaded.
Thanks a lot!
My girlfriend and I adopted a 10 weeks old kitten from a shelter last weekend. We chose her because she seemed incredibly affectionate: when we entered the room with the cages, she immediately went towards the bars instead of not reacting of stepping away from them, as other cats did. When we got closer to the cage and introduced a finger through the bars, she let us pet her. When we opened the cage she did not hide, she came to us and let us pick her up. We immediately fell in love. She had a rough time in the car on the way home: she vomited. However, once we got home we released her in the bathroom (we had read that it was better to let them out in a small room first). She seemed a little scared, but within a couple of minutes she was playing with us so we decided to let her roam through the entire apartment (which is quite small). At no point did she hide in a corner or beneath furniture like we read many kittens do. The next day she got scared from us and ran away a couple of times when she saw us walking, but soon afterwards she came out of hiding and did not seem to be afraid anymore. She ended up cuddling with me and sleeping on my lap for a long while. However, after that second day she has acted somewhat differently. During some periods she is as affectionate as before, but at times she goes into "scared mode" and arches her back every time she sees us, growls and runs away in an aggressive-looking way. She then then runs back towards us and does the same thing again. She can stay like this for a long while and then goes back to being cuddly. We find it very strange and would like to understand why a kitten might have these two very different behaviors at the same time. We really don't think that she is just playing around as she does some other times. We play often with her and when we do so, we don't have the impression that she is scared or aggressive.
If it's any help, my girlfriend has a theory. We have heard the kitten growl when near her litter box and she thinks that her strange behavior is somehow linked to the litter box. She touched the new litter when pouring it into the box and thinks that her smell might make the kitten feel like her territory is being invaded.
Thanks a lot!
