My usually very friendly cat hates my new housemate. Why?

[tanya daly]

Hi! I have this gorgeous beige tabby who LOVES people and usually go to anyone but he reeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaally hates my new housemate. We always joke that he is a bit of a ***** the way he will just be all over people :-) But with this guy, it is the complete opposite, and I have never seen him react like this to anyone. When he first came around to view the house, my cat was there and seemed indifferent to him but since he has moved in, if I am holding him and this guy comes even within a couple of meters, my cat freaks out and scratches me to get away. When this guy comes into the same room, the cat runs out of the house. Funnily, it is causing my other male cat to react the same way to him so when the beige cat runs out, my other tabby is not far behind. Weirdly, my little girl cat seems to like him.

I also suddenly have a horrible suspicion that something might be off with this guy, alcohol or drug problems and I know dogs can pick up on this but I wonder if there is any evidence that cats might be able to do the same.

Any ideas on why my cat might be behaving like this and any ideas on how to modify this behaviour are welcome. I am worried that it is going to stress my cat out if I don't do anything to fix the situation. If push comes to shove and its six months down the road and my cat has not adjusted, then I will ask him to move out, but seems right to first see if there is an issue.

 

[di and bob]

Since your cat is friendly to everyone else, I would definitely keep a closer eye on the guy. It may be that he is a little loud, or makes more sudden movements than most people? Could he possibly have dog or other cat smells on him?  But if not, most animals can sense when something isn't right with a person. Our little Yorkie used to be friends with everyone too, but would bark and growl at some and even hide. EVERY ONE of these people turned out to be not the kind of people you would want living with you. You might want to be super alert around this guy for a while, he may even be an abuser like a person we know that animals are definitely afraid of and then he got fired from his job for torturing the pigs in his care. If any of your animals gets hurt I would ask him to leave, but until then it might be something innocent like smells, so give him a chance. It may be just because they are not used to a stranger being a permanent part of their home. Keep us posted!  

 

[jcat]

It might be as simple as an aversion to the aftershave or cologne the guy uses. Some cats are hypersensitive to certain scents. That happened to one of the male shelter volunteers last year. All of a sudden several cats (in different rooms) started hissing at and/or whacking him. After a couple days of that he realized the behavior started when he'd begun using a new aftershave (some type of Axe).