I recently adopted a 6 year old cat from an animal shelter. Nobody knows anything about her background, but there was some amount of abuse as her jaw was broken when she arrived at the shelter, yet she is very loving and affectionate. But some aspects of her behavior puzzles me.
For example: She will not drink water out of her stainless steel water bowl, but prefers the water out of the fish bowl instead. I clean the bowl daily and replace the water many times during the day, yet she completely ignores it. I have come to wonder if she can perhaps not see the water in the bowl, because she will circle and yowl around the bowl whenever I pass it and she will drink out of it if I add a little milk to the water. She also exhibits very strange tail behavior. She will lie on my lap, purring and kneading while I pet her, yet her tail will be swiping back and forth very violently the whole time. To my knowledge this usually means a cat is angry or irritated with you, so why the purring and kneading? She can also become very aggressive with no provocation on occassion. She will just sit in one spot staring at me and if I reach out to touch her, she will attack my arms, hands and even my face. She will then bite and kick very aggressively, not playfully. And she will also not stop, but repeatedly continue to attack unless I grab her and hold her firmly while calming her and stroking her. She will then get up and behave as normal. Please help, I donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t understand what she wants.
For example: She will not drink water out of her stainless steel water bowl, but prefers the water out of the fish bowl instead. I clean the bowl daily and replace the water many times during the day, yet she completely ignores it. I have come to wonder if she can perhaps not see the water in the bowl, because she will circle and yowl around the bowl whenever I pass it and she will drink out of it if I add a little milk to the water. She also exhibits very strange tail behavior. She will lie on my lap, purring and kneading while I pet her, yet her tail will be swiping back and forth very violently the whole time. To my knowledge this usually means a cat is angry or irritated with you, so why the purring and kneading? She can also become very aggressive with no provocation on occassion. She will just sit in one spot staring at me and if I reach out to touch her, she will attack my arms, hands and even my face. She will then bite and kick very aggressively, not playfully. And she will also not stop, but repeatedly continue to attack unless I grab her and hold her firmly while calming her and stroking her. She will then get up and behave as normal. Please help, I donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t understand what she wants.