Extremely aggressive cat, help

fracture

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OK about 2 and a half years ago I was given a stray cat that generally was pretty even tempered with people, or at least she was even tempered with the person that gave her to me, and me. At the time I lived alone and she had no problems getting along with me. I also own a rabbit and she has no problems getting along with him either. However when company comes over she is generally unpleasant torwards them completely. Very few people that I know will be ok in her view. The people she is ok torwards doesn't really make a lot of sense either.

One frond of mine has a cat and 2 dogs and she is ok with him, andother has 3 cats and she hates her, and another has no cats and she hates them. Also if cats come near the house she sits in the window hissing at them. Generally this has been behavior that up until now has been tolerable, except that the palce I am living currently a new person is moving in and she is brought another cat, male.

For the first couple days the new housemate kept her cat in her room, and my cat would generally leave the housemate alone. However whenever they were both in the same room togeather my cat would hiss and growl at her. Today i tried to introduce my cat to the new cat and she was pretty ticked. My cat proceeded to growl and his at the new cat. Thankfully the new cat is pretty even tempered and likes just about everyone. My cat however is the exact opposite and would foloow him around or stand her ground and constantly hiss or growl at him.

Is there any way to get my cat to stop doign this? She doesn't hiss ro growl at me unless there is an element in the air that she doesn't like (IE the new cat or housemate) then she hisses and growls at everyone including me. I can't jsut keep the cats seperated. The new housemate can't just keep her cat locked up in her room, it's nto fair to her cat. Also I want my cat to get along with people more and stop being a total meanie. It's getting to the point where if she is going to be this unsocial to pretty much everyone I know including the new people that live here she might have to go away, and I do not want that.
 

coaster

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OK, I know you didn't join the forum to be told to go and read a book (though I still want you to do that
), and I have a couple minutes now to type, so:

You said you didn't think it was fair to the new cat to be locked in a room. Well, think of it from the cat's point of view: is it fair to be attacked by another cat? What you do really need to do is separate these cats and keep them separated until they can be properly introduced. Keep them out of sight of each other. They can take turns play in the rest of the house as long as one is kept out of sight of the other is a separate room with closed door.

Furthermore, your cat needs to be separated and isolated from strange people smelling of strange cats and dogs who come over to visit. Because what's happening now is that your cat is getting very stressed out and reacting as a cat will do when it feels threatened. By separating and isolating your cat you reduce the threat and the resulting stress which is prompting the aggressive behavior. Now, that's a start and I hope you'll do your research to take it from there. You can do it!!
 
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fracture

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Well the problem is that the cat's behaviour isn't very predictable. Like I meantioned a friend of mine that comes over and has cats and dogs actually doesn't mind him. She let's him pet her and doesn't do anything. Othe rpeople however she jsut goes after as soon as they come in. Unline most cats I have seen, where if they don't like people they will stay off to the side and hiss at them she will physically go after them, and follow them around growling and hissing and ocassionally trying to attack them.

Now if she jsut attacked everyone that would make sense. However she only attacks some people and others she does not. Will try the introduction thign stated on that page. however I still have no Idea how to get her to stop being so mean to people. Also as another problem, she tends to (when angry) attack me just like I'm a stranger. That only happens when I am near her when she is enraged. She's never sought me out to get ticked at.
 
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