Hello, all. Thank you for visiting my thread.
I'm new here, so I hope I don't mess this up!
My fiance and I have been the owners of an incredibly goofy 2 1/2-year old stray, Bean, since he was about 6 months old. He was an extremely affectionate kitten -- would literally run across a room to roll around in someone's lap. Within the past year, however, he's become very distant; he no longer likes to be touched. At all. Any sort of human touching irritates him -- not to the point of fear or aggression, but to the point where he'll shake himself awake and leave a room when approached. He doesn't avoid humans, per se... but he'll constantly dodge attempted pets, and grumpily tolerates being picked up.
I'm confident he hasn't undergone any sort of trauma or abuse in his time with us (he's an indoor-only cat), and I know that kittens often do become less affectionate as they grow into their adulthood, but this seems pretty extreme. He's still fairly playful, but I'm getting concerned he might be experiencing some form of depression. He'll sit in a window literally all day and stare out. He yowls whenever anyone walks near a door and begs to get out. I'm beginning to worry if he feels cooped up; we found Bean wandering the countryside as a baby, but since we live in high-traffic inner-city Chicago, he's never allowed outside.
His "aloof persona" doesn't extend to fellow cats -- he'll occasionally snuggle with his 14-year-old "uncle," Louie. At a vet's advice, we've adopted another stray kitten from our alley in hopes that a youngster he can roughhouse with might cheer him up, and while Bean's been a wonderful big brother to little Inigo, he's still behaving strangely.
Am I just anthropomorphizing? Should I be concerned? If anyone has advice, I'd really appreciate it!
My fiance and I have been the owners of an incredibly goofy 2 1/2-year old stray, Bean, since he was about 6 months old. He was an extremely affectionate kitten -- would literally run across a room to roll around in someone's lap. Within the past year, however, he's become very distant; he no longer likes to be touched. At all. Any sort of human touching irritates him -- not to the point of fear or aggression, but to the point where he'll shake himself awake and leave a room when approached. He doesn't avoid humans, per se... but he'll constantly dodge attempted pets, and grumpily tolerates being picked up.
I'm confident he hasn't undergone any sort of trauma or abuse in his time with us (he's an indoor-only cat), and I know that kittens often do become less affectionate as they grow into their adulthood, but this seems pretty extreme. He's still fairly playful, but I'm getting concerned he might be experiencing some form of depression. He'll sit in a window literally all day and stare out. He yowls whenever anyone walks near a door and begs to get out. I'm beginning to worry if he feels cooped up; we found Bean wandering the countryside as a baby, but since we live in high-traffic inner-city Chicago, he's never allowed outside.
His "aloof persona" doesn't extend to fellow cats -- he'll occasionally snuggle with his 14-year-old "uncle," Louie. At a vet's advice, we've adopted another stray kitten from our alley in hopes that a youngster he can roughhouse with might cheer him up, and while Bean's been a wonderful big brother to little Inigo, he's still behaving strangely.
Am I just anthropomorphizing? Should I be concerned? If anyone has advice, I'd really appreciate it!
