Pets
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
New scared cat.
We had put to our cat Coconut of just under 3 years old down just under a month ago after she went into heart failure twice. We had just found out after the first heart failure, that she had severe hpertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy with massive concentric hypertrophy of the left ventricle and congestive hearth failure. Then we had a week of pills and barely eating, to not eating, to force feeding, then a week where everything seemed great, and then a sudden 2nd heart failure. We decided to adopt another cat because of how empty our home feels without her. We named her Kiwi. She's 9 months old 7 lbs, and very timid. At the shelter, if you put your hand in her cage, she rubbed up on you like crazy, if you stopped petting her for a second, she would head butt you. When they took her into the "play area" to let us spend some time with her, she took off running back to her cage. I felt so awful for her that she was so scared, and the shelter was so loud, that we adopted her on the spot. I really wanted to literally "rescue" her. It doesn't help that she looks a bit like Coconut. They aren't identical, and she has a lot more white. I would have preferred a cat that looked completely different, but she was the most affectionate cat we'd seen from 4 different shelters. Get her home, and she was very scared at first, but was warming up to us, and coming out from hiding to be pet, and curl up in my lap. When she started to dart out of the bathroom the moment we opened the door, we let her explore our main room as well. She would quickly run and hide if she heard a car outside, or the air in our house go on, or myself or my husband move too quickly. She'd hide for an hour or so, but then come out again. We put her back in the bathroom at night , two nights ago, without a problem. But last night, she was hiding under the couch, and when I tried to get her out to put her back in "her space" so we could go to bed, she attacked me. I had just seen a short clip front the show "my cat from hell" so I made sure not to come at her with two hands, or attempt to grab her. I just petted her gently and then tried to nudge her out, when she attacked me. She did not break the skin, she bit and swatted, but it did not seem overly aggressive, just an "I'm warning you to leave me the hell alone!" So I tried to coax her out with food and toys to no avail, and then we got tired, and moved the coach and she went running back to the bathroom. Well now she's more scared then ever and won't come out from behind the toilet for anything. I know we need to be patient. I just do not have a lot of experience with cats. Coconut was my first, and she never bit or swatted at me ever. I know I should not make comparisons, but it's extremely hard not to, and it's the only real experience with cats I have. She always came out of hiding for toys, and if I moved her or touched her when she didn't want me to, she ran. I do not know if I should leave Kiwi in the bathroom longer before letting her into the main room? If I should just let her stay in the main room overnight unsupervised? If I should buy some feliway and see if that helps her? I have an appointment for her at the vet on Thursday, and I'm scared of how I will ever get her in the carrier. The carrier is the only time my cat Coconut put up a fight at all, but I would wrap her in a towel and it would be fine. But I don't know how I would even get a hold of Kiwi to wrap her in a towel.
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Re: New scared cat.
Sorry for your loss of Coconut
If you have only had her a couple days she just needs more time to adjust. Everything needs to happen on her time- including attention from you. Pet her if she comes to you, but don't try to pet her or get at her in her hiding places. If you can't get her back into the bathroom she should be fine in the main room. She'll be more comfortable exploring when you're out of sight anyway.
Feliway can't hurt- use the spray for now since it works faster than the diffuser.
As for the vet, leave the carrier out now, open, with some treats inside for her to find so she'll be more used to it. I don't have other advice about the carrier since my cats are pretty easy with that.
If you have some extra cash, I recommend investing in a cat tree. It will give her vertical space to hide in.
Other than that, treats and love when she approaches you and give her time.
So sorry for the loss of Coconut.