This website is an awesome resource for any pet owner, I'm very grateful that I found it! I have a pretty sticky situation and I need any help or advice that I can get.
I started dating my boyfriend Walt a few months ago and because my roommate situation sucks, I'm over his apartment a lot. Walt has a 2 year old female cat named Halo who was pushed away by her mother at birth and left for dead because of a terrible eye infection that she was born with. Walt took her in at two weeks of age and nursed her completely back to heath and socialized her as best as he could. Halo is understandably very territorial; she hisses, spits, growls, and scratches at anyone who comes over and is particularly aggressive towards me when I show affection to her "dad", and she even growls and lunges at him sometimes. She growls at the most random and innocent things! She will be very nice to me when I feed her... she rubs against my legs and even lets me pet her just a little. Sometimes she will sit with me while I nap. However, if I even try to pet her very gently while she sits with me, she scraches the heck out of me and runs off. We have tried everything from gentle speech to "key" bad behavior words to no avail. The situation came to a head today when, for no apparent reason, Halo snapped. I was standing about 4 feet from her when she crouched, let out a horrendous cry, and flew at me with her claws just tearing at my knees and thighs. I know not to make any sudden movements so I waited for her to be distracted before I slowly retreated into the bedroom for my own safety. To my surprise, she ran in after me, flew onto the bed, and proceeded to whack at me with her claws as I cowered, limp and quietly under a blanket. I have NEVER seen a cat behave this way before. We can't figure out why she's this way, considering we stay in a quiet and peaceful apartment with no loud noises or yelling and no one ever abused her.
We don't know if Halo has been spayed or not because we doubt the honesty of the individual who claimed they had it done while he was out of town. She does try to escape every time the front door is open and we were thinking maybe she was never spayed and is in a heat cycle. But isn't this a little extreme? We are moving in together soon and I fear that MY American Tuxedo cat Cameron (who would never hurt a fly) will be the new target of her horrible aggression. I don't want Walt to have to give her away or put her to sleep, but I'm at a total loss.... PLEASE help, any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
I started dating my boyfriend Walt a few months ago and because my roommate situation sucks, I'm over his apartment a lot. Walt has a 2 year old female cat named Halo who was pushed away by her mother at birth and left for dead because of a terrible eye infection that she was born with. Walt took her in at two weeks of age and nursed her completely back to heath and socialized her as best as he could. Halo is understandably very territorial; she hisses, spits, growls, and scratches at anyone who comes over and is particularly aggressive towards me when I show affection to her "dad", and she even growls and lunges at him sometimes. She growls at the most random and innocent things! She will be very nice to me when I feed her... she rubs against my legs and even lets me pet her just a little. Sometimes she will sit with me while I nap. However, if I even try to pet her very gently while she sits with me, she scraches the heck out of me and runs off. We have tried everything from gentle speech to "key" bad behavior words to no avail. The situation came to a head today when, for no apparent reason, Halo snapped. I was standing about 4 feet from her when she crouched, let out a horrendous cry, and flew at me with her claws just tearing at my knees and thighs. I know not to make any sudden movements so I waited for her to be distracted before I slowly retreated into the bedroom for my own safety. To my surprise, she ran in after me, flew onto the bed, and proceeded to whack at me with her claws as I cowered, limp and quietly under a blanket. I have NEVER seen a cat behave this way before. We can't figure out why she's this way, considering we stay in a quiet and peaceful apartment with no loud noises or yelling and no one ever abused her.
We don't know if Halo has been spayed or not because we doubt the honesty of the individual who claimed they had it done while he was out of town. She does try to escape every time the front door is open and we were thinking maybe she was never spayed and is in a heat cycle. But isn't this a little extreme? We are moving in together soon and I fear that MY American Tuxedo cat Cameron (who would never hurt a fly) will be the new target of her horrible aggression. I don't want Walt to have to give her away or put her to sleep, but I'm at a total loss.... PLEASE help, any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.