Friendly Cat Now Hissing!

My most personable and loving cat has suddenly turned into a scary, hissing monster! Literally overnight he no longer wants to be picked up and will hiss whenever one of us does. He is also behaving quite predatorially (is that a word? LOL). He walks around the house with his tail down (it used to always be up) and he has a very odd look in his eyes. Occasionally he'll allow you to pet him, but not for very long.

He's only a year old and is an indoor/outdoor cat. As mentioned earlier, he was my most sociable cat. When outdoors, all he seems to do is patrol the house and constantly fight with the other cats in the neighborhood. I have a female that he is constantly trying to mate with which is no problem, but I'm wondering if this has anything to do with his behavior. He's been trying to mate for over a month, but this behavior just literally popped up overnight. Friday he was perfectly normal and on saturday he seems to have gone crazy. Any suggestions? (Sorry for the long post)

-La La

LaLa - I would say that your babe needs a trip to the Vet ASAP to determine this sudden change in behavior. Also, if he is not newtered, he could very well be territorial. The female, is she spayed? If not, you will have tons of kittens in a very short time!
Let us know......

I think you're right, I'm just shocked that it happened overnight. He's been fighting with neighboring cats for awhile, but he was still friendly and affectionate with us. Now he's done a Sybil and is hyper-vigilant even when indoors. No, neither one are spayed or neutered. My mother, my sister and two friends want kittens, so I figured I'd let them have one litter before doing the procedure on them both. With Rocky acting this way now though, he may have his done asap. We'll see. Thanks for the reply.

Unfortunately, by waiting so long, males may retain territorial behaviour and aggression. I'd recommend getting both kitties fixed right away. Your friends want kittens? Tell them to check out a shelter. There are plenty of adorable kittens already born in need of homes. If your friends wanted babies, would you want to carry them for them?

I would agree 100%. The older he gets, the worse it's going to get. Shelters are the best place to find kittens. If they take kittens that your cat has, it just means that 4 or more kittens or cats will die in the shelter. It also increases the chance that your female will develope cancer. Not to mention that now your male is out there fighting, if he does get wounded, your vet bill is going to be outrageous, not to mention hard on him.

I have to second that motion. If you know four people who'd like to have kittens, the local SPCA or shelter would be a great place to send them. Those kitties need homes badly, it would be shame to bring more kittens into the world when there are already so many needy ones. Be aware also, that as with anything, cat pregnancy can have its risks and it wouldn't be worth it to lose your Kitty over this. I rescued a female stray that was hanging around a restaurant a few years ago and she was pregnant when I brought her home. She ended up losing the kittens and it was heartbreaking, not only for me, but for her. She searched for them for days . Cats live much healthier and happier, not to mention longer, lives when they are spayed and/or neutered.

Please have your kitties spayed or neutered. There is NO reason they should have a litter of kittens when there are so many that are unwanted right now in shelters. My local shelter here in my town has about 50-70 cats all waiting to be adopted, and I live in a very small town!!

I hope you are able to solve this problem as soon as possible.

I am interested in the responses to your problem because my 5 yr. old female exhibits the same hissing behavior. She will swat anybody that walks by, and has a generally disagreeable disposition much of the time. She is spayed, goes inside and out, and used to be cuddly and loveable. She doesn't have a voice, I suspect from injury since she had a voice when she was a kitten. Maybe there are additional injuries that I don't know about, but I can not afford a vet bill to find out. She started this behavior several years ago, but it just doesn't seem to improve with time.