Spring may bring out extra aggression in your cat
By Michelle Posge, DVM
Friday, May 22, 2009
Published in the "Your Pet" column of The Nashua Telegraph.
The column runs on the second and fourth Fridays of each month.
I treat more dogs than cats in my pet behavior practice, but every spring brings a jump in the number of cat-related phone calls having to do with behavior problems. The warm weather can sometimes awaken the wild nature of the domestic feline in same the way it brings spring flowers to bloom.
After a long, cold winter, an indoor cat is thrilled to have the chance to sit in an open window, take in the fresh air and watch the outdoor world come alive. Sometimes, however, stimulating scents and active wildlife can provoke instinctual and problematic behavior.
One such problem is called redirected aggression. This type of aggression can be caused by seeing another cat in the yard. This is incredibly frustrating for some indoor cats with a strong sense of territory and no way to get on the other side of the screened window to chase off the offending cat. This quickly leads to overwrought behavior and undeserved aggression toward any other living thing that happens to pass by at the wrong moment inside the house. The household member, human or feline, becomes the victim.
This type of aggression is so unhinged, if it were a person with road rage, he would be threatening to kill the other driver by driving him off the road at 90 mph. In other words, the level of aggression is hugely disproportionate to the context and, sadly, misdirected.
The difficulty with feline redirected aggression is that is the recovery time is very slow. It may take days or weeks for a cat to resume normal behavior, and he may attack the pet owner or another household cat repeatedly during this period.
To compound the problem, concerned cat owners often do all the wrong things in their attempt to hasten the recovery time. Excessive attentiveness or punishment will make the problem worse. Just like a scab, cats will heal more quickly from emotional trauma if you leave them alone.
When giving advice to cat owners in these situations, I often think of my mother on my wedding day. During a hectic morning at the hair salon a few hours before I was to be married, my mother's emotions went into overdrive as she got caught up in the momentous feeling of the day. Just as she was about to break out into tears, a wise and wonderful stylist pulled her into a dimly lit room and gave my mother, who doesn't drink, a toddy. Her makeup was saved, our tight schedule intact and my mother was more relaxed than I had ever seen her for the duration of the afternoon.
Although I would not recommend an alcoholic beverage for your cat, a dark, quiet room is just what an overwhelmed cat needs. Anything else runs the danger of insulting your cat's frazzled nerves even further.
Find a place where you cat recover. Provide a litter box, resting place, food and water. Check in periodically, but don't do more than sit and talk quietly for a short time. Petting can be too much for some cats. Keep the visit very brief. It can take days before you cat returns to normal, so patience is key.
Thankfully, spring fever is mild and temporary for most cats. An open window and the sound of songbirds is a welcome event for cat stuck in the house with little to stimulate the brain. So go ahead and put a small cat bed next to the window and enjoy all that the warm weather brings to you and your cat, but do watch out for road rage and wedding mania.
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