- Joined
- Jan 13, 2016
- Messages
- 6
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Alrighty, first of all I must say THANK YOU to this incredible community for all the helps and guides for us kitty owners.
Here's my conundrum:
In October, we discovered a stray roaming our neighborhood and decided to take him in. He was about 5 months at the time and was littered with all kinds of sicknesses when we finally rescued and treated him at the vet and got him neutered. His name is Oliver and he can be the sweetest most lovable kitten but has sudden Jekyll and Hyde moments and I'm at my wits end and need advice.
We have a 3 year old cat who is extremely docile and calm, the sweetest and most tolerant gal you can meet. I realize that when introducing them to each other, we moved to fast for Oliver. They took to each other quickly and were very curious about each other and started to play under the door, eat together on either side and we let them sniff and get to know each other before finally letting them run and play around the house. Around a week after everything was joyful, Oliver decided that his new mission in life was to absolutely terrorize the living day lights out of Rory. Upon entering the room he immediately runs at her and goes for her neck, claws and teeth bared and doesn't do it in a playful manner. Tufts of hair and many kitty cries have been heard during this. I noticed this aggressiveness right away and have since separated the two from each other.
At this point, Oliver and Rory are completely separate, the get to roam the whole apartment at different intervals because he cannot handle himself in the same room with her.
I noticed something very interesting happen and this is my dilemma and concern.
Last week, my brother was out of town and took Rory with him. Oliver and I had the entire apartment to ourselves and he was very happy. He snuggles with me every night, we played for a few hours before bed as well. Never once was he aggressive in any way other than a few play bites and jumping on my toes at night.
Since Rory has returned, I no longer have my lovable sweet baby boy. He won't come cuddle at night anymore, and we are talking "glued at my hip" the previous week. Now he is completely indifferent to me even when I try to get him to play. He wants out of the room to see her, but when he manages to slip by it is immediately to seek her out and attack. It's getting to the point where when I come in the room, I'm immediately lunged at and k have teeth grabbing my feet and calves. Giving a firm "No!" Is returned with him meowing back at me for a long period of time before he lunged up and tries to grab me again. It's like he is frustrated he can't beat the snot out of Rory so he is taking it out on me.
He is extremely stubborn, when he misbehaves like biting me hard, I have tried squealing, saying OUCH!, firm No!, tapping him on the nose, blowing, and at night sometimes (even though I hate to) I will spritz water at him when he attacks me in my sleep. The water bottle is NOT something j want to use but at this point is the only thing that is effective at getting him to stop. I'm afraid that is causing him more aggression possibly though and I don't want him to be afraid to come around me at night time.
I know kittens get their mood swings and have their wild moments, but my Oliver is normally very sweet and calm win a few outbursts of crazy a day. That I can handle. But for the past three days, it's like I'm living with a different cat because all he does is yell, grab, bite, swag, and I'm simply standing in the room without hurting or scaring him at all. It makes me want to cry that he isn't himself because of something I've done but I don't know how to fix this.
Any ideas or thoughts?
Here's my conundrum:
In October, we discovered a stray roaming our neighborhood and decided to take him in. He was about 5 months at the time and was littered with all kinds of sicknesses when we finally rescued and treated him at the vet and got him neutered. His name is Oliver and he can be the sweetest most lovable kitten but has sudden Jekyll and Hyde moments and I'm at my wits end and need advice.
We have a 3 year old cat who is extremely docile and calm, the sweetest and most tolerant gal you can meet. I realize that when introducing them to each other, we moved to fast for Oliver. They took to each other quickly and were very curious about each other and started to play under the door, eat together on either side and we let them sniff and get to know each other before finally letting them run and play around the house. Around a week after everything was joyful, Oliver decided that his new mission in life was to absolutely terrorize the living day lights out of Rory. Upon entering the room he immediately runs at her and goes for her neck, claws and teeth bared and doesn't do it in a playful manner. Tufts of hair and many kitty cries have been heard during this. I noticed this aggressiveness right away and have since separated the two from each other.
At this point, Oliver and Rory are completely separate, the get to roam the whole apartment at different intervals because he cannot handle himself in the same room with her.
I noticed something very interesting happen and this is my dilemma and concern.
Last week, my brother was out of town and took Rory with him. Oliver and I had the entire apartment to ourselves and he was very happy. He snuggles with me every night, we played for a few hours before bed as well. Never once was he aggressive in any way other than a few play bites and jumping on my toes at night.
Since Rory has returned, I no longer have my lovable sweet baby boy. He won't come cuddle at night anymore, and we are talking "glued at my hip" the previous week. Now he is completely indifferent to me even when I try to get him to play. He wants out of the room to see her, but when he manages to slip by it is immediately to seek her out and attack. It's getting to the point where when I come in the room, I'm immediately lunged at and k have teeth grabbing my feet and calves. Giving a firm "No!" Is returned with him meowing back at me for a long period of time before he lunged up and tries to grab me again. It's like he is frustrated he can't beat the snot out of Rory so he is taking it out on me.
He is extremely stubborn, when he misbehaves like biting me hard, I have tried squealing, saying OUCH!, firm No!, tapping him on the nose, blowing, and at night sometimes (even though I hate to) I will spritz water at him when he attacks me in my sleep. The water bottle is NOT something j want to use but at this point is the only thing that is effective at getting him to stop. I'm afraid that is causing him more aggression possibly though and I don't want him to be afraid to come around me at night time.
I know kittens get their mood swings and have their wild moments, but my Oliver is normally very sweet and calm win a few outbursts of crazy a day. That I can handle. But for the past three days, it's like I'm living with a different cat because all he does is yell, grab, bite, swag, and I'm simply standing in the room without hurting or scaring him at all. It makes me want to cry that he isn't himself because of something I've done but I don't know how to fix this.
Any ideas or thoughts?
