Question:
I previously shared a house with one other female and my cat. Everything was going fine and my cat was behaving normally, until my flatmate moved out and I had a male move in.
Now my cat follows him around, always wanting to sit on his lap (he never does this with me) and when I go to pat my cat or show him affection, he hisses at me and has even backed up on his hind legs and swiped his paw at me. I don’t know what to do. It’s horrible … please help!
Beth Dunham.
Answer:
Funnily enough (and typical of cats), cats seem to like people that don’t pay them much attention and ignore the real cat-lovers! This is because they like to control the levels of interaction and sometimes we want cuddles and intimate interactions more than they do. Unless you’ve changed your behaviour, this is the explanation that springs to mind in this case — or your new flatmate is giving the cat lots of treats that you don’t know about.
If you want to win him back (the cat that is) try playing a bit hard to get. Ignore him and then when you want to interact, call him and when he sits on your lap or behaves nicely you can give him pats and food treats. Let him come to you — don’t force yourself upon him as he might see this as a threatening or controlling gesture. Also, when you feed him, talk to him and stroke him for as long as he will comfortably tolerate. Ignore him when he is playing up — avoid provoking any worse responses.
If this doesn’t help, see your vet or behaviourist so a thorough history and physical examination can be done to exclude other causes of anxiety or aggression. In the meantime, try not to take it personally — sometimes cats react strangely to change and things may settle down back to normal soon.
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