by Sheri (Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada)
Cat in a Baby Crib
My cat is freaking out and it is scaring us. I have a 2-year-old tabby that has been fixed since he was six months old. He sometimes acts like he’s scared of life. He always wants to be on my bed and sleep with me, which is fine. When he comes up on the bed it is like he is scared. He crouches down and his eyes open really wide and he acts very sketchy. He has always been welcome on my bed. Sometimes he sits on my bed looking up into an empty corner of the room, his tail is going back and forth like crazy and he has his ears pinned back. He sits doing this for up to 30 minutes and a few times even longer. He only acts like this in my bedroom. He has always been a very loving little guy; he loves affection and has a need to be loved often. Last night my daughter found him in her baby’s crib, when she tried to pick him up he completely freaked out and kept batting at her with his paws, nails out, he was also making a weird sound we never heard before. My daughter’s room is down in the basement; this cat hates the basement and never goes down there. This behavior is scaring us. We are thinking there is something wrong with his brain or our house. We have other cats and he plays and has a great time with them. I hope someone can help. Thank you to all the cat people out there.Voted as the top answer: Why cats and changes don’t go together.Something in your household has changed? Maybe you got some new furniture or moved the old stuff around? Maybe you started using different kinds of ingredients to cook with? Cats are very much creatures of habit and can get really stressed out when any little thing is different.On the other hand, you might just have a kooky cat. My cat is really weird. Sometimes she’s completely wired and will jump up on the couch (I sleep on the couch) and get really close to my face with her eyes wide and pupils dilated. Sometimes she stares at the wall for a long time. After several times of doing that, I finally saw what she was looking at; I had a tiny imperfection in my paint and she wanted to get that tiny imperfection more than anything, but she couldn’t so she’d get agitated.To the ghost person that commented. I would have moved out too!
Comments for Cat freaking out
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Oh dear by: Anonymous Get the cat checked out. Cats have hyper fits where they have amped up energy and need to expel it. Twitching, meowing, bursts of energy etc. Can be normal and common. Another concern is an underlying illness – many could cause some of the symptoms you suggest and are common and treatable such as hyperthyroidism. Also – cat finding a bed in a new fresh soft area off the ground? Priceless. Sounds like lots of environmental things going on here for kitty that could trigger this behavior but very important to book a checkup with your vet and run some tests to be sure. Your vet can help talk through behavior quirks after illness is ruled out. Good luck.
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Ghost idea? by: Anonymous Cats and other animals, do indeed have more sensitive senses than humans, and children, do indeed have more sensitive senses than adults. That said it’s not NECESSARILY wacky to speculate as to whether there could be paranormal activity. Some people dismiss the idea out of hand, thinking they are somehow more “logical”. However some people are more open minded to the possibility of “things beyond”. I think it makes sense to consider physical differences first, and consider speculating on the supernatural if you have some other manifest reason for doing so. In the meantime if you can figure out a physical reason you are more likely to be able to do something about it. One of my cats likes to go down in the basement but goes all crazy when she does. Is it the scent of former cats that resided down there? Something else? We do not know.
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Cat autism by: Marble King We hardly understand human autism as a condition. Cat brains are ‘wired’ very differently from those of primates (yes, that includes us), complicating our attempts to make useful diagnoses, especially with respect to social behavior. Though this may be a very interesting field of potential research, I’ll place a bet that it won’t reveal much anytime soon.
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Ghost by: Anonymous I don’t care what that one person says about someone being wacky who is saying that it could be a ghost. Why can’t it be a ghost? Animals and children do, in fact, happen to be more sensitive to paranormal activity. someone adults are too, just not all, obviously. I wouldn’t disregard the fact that it could definitely be a ghost.
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Ghosts and cats by: Anonymous It is NOT a ghost. Animals are NOT more sensitive to paranormal anything and people who offer that kind of advice are wackier than any cat. What cats (and a whole bunch of other animals) DO have is a stronger sense of smell and hearing. This alerts them to many things we never hear or smell. Many smells have strange effects on cats. Catnip is a great example.The adverse behavior in the crib is very likely due to the arrival of a new household member. Some cats get really freaked out when another higher-ranking member appears. Not much you can do but hope the behavior goes away. In rare but well documented cases, cats may try to cause harm to babies. If that happens, you must unfortunately get rid of the cat.
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RE: Cat freaking out by: Marie & Baby Girl You may have a ghost in your house. Animals are extra sensitive to spirits. I once moved into a house that had a very strange affect on my Baby Girl, I seriously thought she was losing her mind, she showed the same behavior as you’ve stated. She was scared only in one certain room. About 6 months later, I was talking with a neighbor of mine and she and her husband both told me that a 15 year old boy hung himself in my house about 2 years prior. Needless to say, I gave notice and moved. Baby Girl was fine after that. Don’t buy your cat a straight jacket just yet 😉
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No Cat Abuse by: Tiffany I completely agree with you about the abuse situation. Sometimes cats are justifiably distrusting.However, Lil’ Bit was not abused. In fact, she was and still is spoiled rotten.I’m not sure why she is so different, but she’s been like that since Day 1.
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Cat Needs Love by: Anonymous A cat needs love. I don’t know your cat’s past but I have cat named Ling Ling that a friend gave to me after one my cats disappeared. That cat later reappeared, thank God! Ling Ling had been abused. Actually the man who had owned her had tried to drown her because she wasn’t moving fast enough to suit him. She was only 4 weeks old at the time.When I got Ling Ling, she was 6 weeks old anddidn’t have a name. I named her Ling Ling but she still has nightmares and doesn’t trust men.maybe something traumatic happened in your cat’s life – and something recently happened to remind him of that time.
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Cat Autism? by: Tiffany I’m not really able to offer any solutions, just similar experiences.I have a 4 year old female, and she has been “different” her entire life. Some days she’s just fine. Other days, everything scares her. Then, there are times that she’ll be fine about something one day and completely freaked out by it the next.My husband & I have often wondered what the feline equivalent of cat autism would be. I don’t even know if there is such a thing, but, at the very least, our Lil’ Bit is definitely a “special needs child.”