A “burning question” was sent to me about a 7-month-old cat who won’t stop hissing, growling, and scratching one of his two new cat-mates and his kitty mom. What’s going on? He was just flown in so why so “aggressive”? What can she do? The first thing the kitty mom can do is investigate the cat’s background and recent experiences as best she can. Make it like an FBI Behavioral Profile. Where necessary she will have to use her fact-based imagination about what likely may have happened.

Cats, like humans, have a psychology of their own. They respond to their environment and form attitudes, beliefs, feelings, and behaviors based upon their experience. So that means that somethings precipitated all the hissing, growling, and scratching. But what? And what things should kitty mom look at in her research? Starting off, she should look at the cat’s most recent environment and experience.

1. Did the cat formerly have lots of siblings or mates, only one, or none?
2. How did he get along with any existing cats in his former household?
3. If he did get along, with how many and what were their ages and sex?
4. Was he introduced to his carrier before his trip?
5. Had he lived in his carrier before the trip?
6. If so, did he live there for comfort, security, or out of fear, anger, or pain?
7. What could have happened during loading the cat onto the flight to upset him?
8. Was the cat in the passenger section with a human companion or in storage with the luggage and cargo?
9. What were the climatic conditions in the hold? (Too often they are very cold)
10. To what degree was the cat able to move around to get comfortable in his carrier?
11. Did the cat have food, water, and a place to easily eliminate?
12. Was the cat drugged throughout the flight? If so, how might this sedative affect the cat?
13. How did the cat respond to the drug during the flight and afterward?
14. Were the luggage and cargo stable so they didn’t shift during flight, bump or fall on the cat’s carrier?
15. Was the cargo compartment insulated to reduce the jet-engine noise? (Probably not)
16. How was the cat’s carrier likely handled by airport people before his kitty mom actually picked up her new cat?

Why investigate the flight experience first? Because air travel for cats can be extremely stressful, especially if they are not in the passenger section with a person known to them to comfort them. This tends to be even more distressing for exotics and highly-intelligent felines.

But, can she really find out many of these things? No, she can only know the possibilities and have an inkling of what may have happened to her cat when out of her sight. That should clue her into the many harmful things that could negatively impact her cat’s delicate sensibilities and leave him with kitty post-traumatic-stress-disorder.

On top of all that is the stress of moving into a new home with a new family. That’s tough on cats and humans alike. Once at his destination he was expected to explore to get the lay of the land, determine what territory might be available to call his own, see who else is there, estimate who may become a buddy, and figure out the human-kitty requirements. 

However, this new kitty didn’t want to leave the security of his carrier. When his new kitty mom came close, he hissed and growled. She had to start to create trust and a rapport if he would ever exit his hidey-hole. Wha she could do is begin to gradually move the cat’s food away from the door of the carrier. The cat has to want to change his behavior.  While he may choose to sleep in his carrier, she does not want him to stay there all the time. Not moving from there is avoidance which will only reinforce his insecurity, fear, anger, or pain.

When cats socialize, they often like to pair off at least temporarily. When a third cat is present, ther is a triangle, making the interaction unequal and awkward. It’s the same with humans. New cats tend to be attracted to similar cats—similar in sex, age, energy level, size, health, responsiveness, and degree of disability. Similarity of breed may make a difference too. For kittens who have less experience and more brain plasticity, the above-referenced factors, except for energy level and responsiveness, may be less important.

When the cat wants to stay in the bathroom, it will try to escape when his kitty mom enters. One way to work on trust is to carefully close the door before the cat can escape and present it with a treat. She could drop the treat on the floor in front of the cat and back away. When the cat takes the treat, she could praise him, dropping a few more treats at that location, and repeat her actions. After doing this three times, she could move to the door, invite the cat to leave, open the door, step out of the way so the cat can comfortably exit, then tell him what a “good boy” he is for leaving. The objective is to create positive associations and trust between kitty mom and the treats and her allowing hime to leave:  She is demonstrating that the cat doesn’t have to be afraid of her or what she is likely to do.

In my next post I’ll discuss other possible causes and ways to address the hissing, growling, and scratching of this new cat.