Good time of the day, everyone on here! I am so glad to be a part if this community, where I found su much good advice and comfort in the past.
This time I am reaching out again to you due to a cat behaviour issue. ( Once again, apologies for any mistakes-English is bot my mother tongue).
Situation: A 2-3 y.o.Abyssinian female cat (neutered) was brought from abroad to be re-homed.
She comes with a history of problems with her initial owners due to aggression: she attacked them when they were passing by in the hallway.( No detailed information is available as any contact with the was lost long ago. All I know that in addition to this very young Abyssinian cat they had a baby and a dog ( Yorkshire terrier)). They eventually brought the little kitty for euthanasia to a vet, who took her under her own care and eventually her contacts found a way to re-home her abroad through animal protection.
The kitty ( lithle Lisa) stayed by the vet for 9 months. According to the vet, she was affectionate and friendly apart from a couple of situation at the beginning: once she attacked the vet’s face ( the vet leaned close to the kitty to hoover around her). The second time she grabbed on the vet‘s husbands leg during a play time.
In Germany ( where we all live) she was initially fostered by a very nice experienced lady, who is my friend. The kitty was allowed to use the entire apartment from the first and seemed to be very confident and happy, although a bit too much to-your-face cat to the liking of the foster mum
. On the fifth day of the fostering Lisa suddenly changed her behaviour: when the foster mum was in the kitchen, Lisa hissed and growled at her, her expression changed to a very angry one. The foster mum tried to calm her down by gently talking to her, but this seemed to agitate Lisa more and she screamed loudly and jumped and grabbed her leg. Once pushed away, Lisa jumped and grabbed her leg again. She cornered the foster mum in the kitchen and reacted very angrily to every her move. The lady, who lives alone, got scratches and bruises and was very scared
. The situation lasted some time before Lisa allowed to pass her.
Lisa eventually calmed down and came to sleep with the foster mum, as usual, also was purring less.
On the next couple of days she however again seemed hostile towards the foster mum: loads of hissing and growling almost every time the mum moved to a different room or would leave the sofa, where both of them were sitting. Lisa would still come to sit on the foster mums shoulders and always tried to climb her head as well and came to sleep with her. Lisa did bot attack the lady‘s boyfriend, who came to stay for a couple of days. The boyfriend ignored Lisa‘s hissing and that seemed to work better.
Unfortunately the foster mum developed a fear of Lisa and asked for her to be re-fostered. This is how Lisa landed in my home till mid-January ( by then she will go to a cats retreat owned by a vet and, fingers crossed, eventually re-homed).
As I have almost 3 weeks with her, I would like to use this time to understand Lisa’s personality and the trigger for the bad behaviour as much as possible to pass the information on the new owners to avoid any bad experience.
I took Lisa to a vet, and she now receives treatment for ear mites, appeared otherwise healthy. No bllod checks were done or bo X-Ray was seen as nneded. To my surprise, Lisa was completely fine with the vet and allowed all examinations and cutting her nails without any signs of aggression.
Lisa has been with us for 4 days now. I confined her in one room and only allow her 3-4 a day to the kitchen and bathroom through the hallway for 30 minutes-1 hour each time.
She seems to be friendly, very active, intelligent and a person -oriented most of the time. It looks like as she is interest in humans more than any toy
. We have regular play sessions in her room 3 -4 times a day.
She hissed on me once a day every day ( each time in the hallway- she seems to get uncomfortable being followed/passed by sometimes) but I avoided direct eye contact and tried to distract her with a toy or pretended to ignore her, then lured her to her room and closed the door again.
I of course try to avoid situations of Lisa attacking me or my husband as much as possible. At the same time the goal is to create a comfortable an environment to build positive associations in contacts with people as much as possible.
Any advice on dealing with hissing episodes and the entire situation would be gratefully appreciated
Sincere apologies for the incredibly long post!
This time I am reaching out again to you due to a cat behaviour issue. ( Once again, apologies for any mistakes-English is bot my mother tongue).
Situation: A 2-3 y.o.Abyssinian female cat (neutered) was brought from abroad to be re-homed.
She comes with a history of problems with her initial owners due to aggression: she attacked them when they were passing by in the hallway.( No detailed information is available as any contact with the was lost long ago. All I know that in addition to this very young Abyssinian cat they had a baby and a dog ( Yorkshire terrier)). They eventually brought the little kitty for euthanasia to a vet, who took her under her own care and eventually her contacts found a way to re-home her abroad through animal protection.
The kitty ( lithle Lisa) stayed by the vet for 9 months. According to the vet, she was affectionate and friendly apart from a couple of situation at the beginning: once she attacked the vet’s face ( the vet leaned close to the kitty to hoover around her). The second time she grabbed on the vet‘s husbands leg during a play time.
In Germany ( where we all live) she was initially fostered by a very nice experienced lady, who is my friend. The kitty was allowed to use the entire apartment from the first and seemed to be very confident and happy, although a bit too much to-your-face cat to the liking of the foster mum
. On the fifth day of the fostering Lisa suddenly changed her behaviour: when the foster mum was in the kitchen, Lisa hissed and growled at her, her expression changed to a very angry one. The foster mum tried to calm her down by gently talking to her, but this seemed to agitate Lisa more and she screamed loudly and jumped and grabbed her leg. Once pushed away, Lisa jumped and grabbed her leg again. She cornered the foster mum in the kitchen and reacted very angrily to every her move. The lady, who lives alone, got scratches and bruises and was very scared. The situation lasted some time before Lisa allowed to pass her. Lisa eventually calmed down and came to sleep with the foster mum, as usual, also was purring less.
On the next couple of days she however again seemed hostile towards the foster mum: loads of hissing and growling almost every time the mum moved to a different room or would leave the sofa, where both of them were sitting. Lisa would still come to sit on the foster mums shoulders and always tried to climb her head as well and came to sleep with her. Lisa did bot attack the lady‘s boyfriend, who came to stay for a couple of days. The boyfriend ignored Lisa‘s hissing and that seemed to work better.
Unfortunately the foster mum developed a fear of Lisa and asked for her to be re-fostered. This is how Lisa landed in my home till mid-January ( by then she will go to a cats retreat owned by a vet and, fingers crossed, eventually re-homed).
As I have almost 3 weeks with her, I would like to use this time to understand Lisa’s personality and the trigger for the bad behaviour as much as possible to pass the information on the new owners to avoid any bad experience.
I took Lisa to a vet, and she now receives treatment for ear mites, appeared otherwise healthy. No bllod checks were done or bo X-Ray was seen as nneded. To my surprise, Lisa was completely fine with the vet and allowed all examinations and cutting her nails without any signs of aggression.
Lisa has been with us for 4 days now. I confined her in one room and only allow her 3-4 a day to the kitchen and bathroom through the hallway for 30 minutes-1 hour each time.
She seems to be friendly, very active, intelligent and a person -oriented most of the time. It looks like as she is interest in humans more than any toy
. We have regular play sessions in her room 3 -4 times a day. She hissed on me once a day every day ( each time in the hallway- she seems to get uncomfortable being followed/passed by sometimes) but I avoided direct eye contact and tried to distract her with a toy or pretended to ignore her, then lured her to her room and closed the door again.
I of course try to avoid situations of Lisa attacking me or my husband as much as possible. At the same time the goal is to create a comfortable an environment to build positive associations in contacts with people as much as possible.
Any advice on dealing with hissing episodes and the entire situation would be gratefully appreciated
Sincere apologies for the incredibly long post!
and you are welcome. 
