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My cat has attacked me unprovoked. She is 8 years old and have only had her for a very short time. She seemingly loves me - the signs: she comes and cuddles with me on the couch, she lets me pet her belly (although recently she hasn't been asking for it as much) but besides that there are no signs of me being a bad friend. I try to play with her, I have played with cat's in my day's and she is unresponsive to the play. I feel like she is very bored. So I went and got her 200$ of toys and blew my paycheck on her. I got her tunnels, noise blankets, feathers on a strings, mouse fishing pole, scratch towers, and a two layer place to jump around on. The first attack was today and the second attack was tonight. This is out of the blue and I would of never expected this to happen with the friendship I have with her. I was three feet away from her during the first attack, she yawned and then flashed her teeth at me, then her eyes went predator and she chased me claws out, ran around my bed and closed the door to her in my room. Let her out ten minutes later and she came and instantly cuddled with me and vibrated purring. I have done one fifteen minute play session with her today in which she was actually responsive to her new toys somewhat and a five minute one that was not nearly as responsive. This was followed through with her rubbing against my legs which has in the past meant pet me. I pet her for fifteen minutes and then she jumped off and ran to her food bowl, I will not feed her more than two soft meals a day and I keep dry food in her bowl but she kept on giving me the look I need soft food now. I did not do it. Three minutes later she hissed and flashed her teeth, I put two treats on the ground and kept my distance, no attack but if I would not of gotten far away from her it would have happened.
Optional Information: Pet's Gender: Female Pet's Age: 8 Name of Cat: Gigi Already Tried: Buying toys and play sessions, this only started today but I am actually scared of her. Her claws come out huge and I feel she will start drawing blood. Should I call an in-house vet>
Thanks for the question.This is a not uncommon problem ...Cats are hunters and to survive in the wild they need to be aggressive both with their prey and other cats in the neighborhood. What you are seeing is more than likely just normal cat behaviour on Gigi's behalf. I recently had just the same problem with my house cat Peter, normally he is very affectionate but sometimes, about twice a week he used to get this mad expression on his face, and then behaved like your Gigi except much worse. I found that being kind and stroking him and trying to calm him down in this situation just reinforced this behaviour. The way I sorted it out was to buy one of those powerful pump up water pistols from a toy shop, kept it handy and gave my cat Peter a good squirt every time he tried to be aggressive with anyone in the house but then made a fuss of him when he is good, this worked in about a week. He now hates and fears the water pistol so much that all I need do now is to just point it at him without squirting and he will back down if he starts getting " over the top ". The trick here is to frighten the Gigi at the precise time of the unwanted behaviour without of course causing her any physical damage. Really what this boils down to is that she has to learn her place and the consequences of her actions. Trying to calm her or giving her treats will just reinforce her bad behaviour ...If I have not covered your question fully enough or you would like to ask more I will be online for the next hour or so and I will be at your disposal.Scott Nimmo BVMS MRCVS
Experience: BVMS, MRCVS.