I have a 3 year old son. My girlfriend and I spend a lot of time together. We don't live with one another, but I am always over her house to visit and most times I bring my son with me. She has two cats, Princess and Salem. The first couple of times that I had gone to her house it was when we first started dating and I would be by myself. The two cats would come up to me sniff me, rub on me, and all of that stuff. Salem made a decision after the first few times to stay away from me and Princess made up her mind to stick around me. Salem is the more "by myself" type cat and Princess is the more friendly, attention loving cat.
My son and I spent the night at my girlfriend's house a few weeks ago. My son loves the cats and plays with princess all the time. Well when we spent the night I had awoke in the middle of the night to here banging and scuffling in the other room. I went out to see what was going on and I found that my son was throwing pillows and squirting a squirt bottle at the two cats. He's only a 3 year old so what he was doing was his idea of playing. Obviously that cats didn't like it to much and all i could here was hissing and growling coming from under the bed. I tried to calm both of them down...I took my son out of the room and tried to give both of them treats and talk to them with a soothing voice but they both hissed and growled at me too. They were scared and they had just been through a lot so I just let them be.
The very next time I went over her house I was by myself and it was a couple of days later. When my girlfriend opened the door the cats were right behind her in the kitchen. As soon as they saw me, they hissed and growled, then they ran into the room and under the bed. The next time I went over I brought my son and he went to go and play with them and they hissed and growled at him as soon as they saw him. They did the same with me too. The two cats hide from me even when I'm by myself and they hide from my son all the time now too. Ever since that night they won't come near either of us. It makes my son sad cause he's only 3 and he didnt know what he was doing was hurting them. It makes me sad too because he does love the cats and I love them too and now they don't like either one of us. My guess is that I am guilty by assosciation. Is there any way that I can fix this. I know there are a lot of you out there who know a lot about cats. Can somebody please help me???
My son and I spent the night at my girlfriend's house a few weeks ago. My son loves the cats and plays with princess all the time. Well when we spent the night I had awoke in the middle of the night to here banging and scuffling in the other room. I went out to see what was going on and I found that my son was throwing pillows and squirting a squirt bottle at the two cats. He's only a 3 year old so what he was doing was his idea of playing. Obviously that cats didn't like it to much and all i could here was hissing and growling coming from under the bed. I tried to calm both of them down...I took my son out of the room and tried to give both of them treats and talk to them with a soothing voice but they both hissed and growled at me too. They were scared and they had just been through a lot so I just let them be.
The very next time I went over her house I was by myself and it was a couple of days later. When my girlfriend opened the door the cats were right behind her in the kitchen. As soon as they saw me, they hissed and growled, then they ran into the room and under the bed. The next time I went over I brought my son and he went to go and play with them and they hissed and growled at him as soon as they saw him. They did the same with me too. The two cats hide from me even when I'm by myself and they hide from my son all the time now too. Ever since that night they won't come near either of us. It makes my son sad cause he's only 3 and he didnt know what he was doing was hurting them. It makes me sad too because he does love the cats and I love them too and now they don't like either one of us. My guess is that I am guilty by assosciation. Is there any way that I can fix this. I know there are a lot of you out there who know a lot about cats. Can somebody please help me???