Expert: Dear Tabbi - 5/26/2008

Question
I have a two year old tortie that we adopted at 8 weeks. She is sweet and loving with my husband and I but exhibits sever fear aggression with new people, sounds or smells. She has a very strong sense of smell (like no other cat I have encountered). She "screams" and hisses. When she is like this neither my husband or I can get near her.
We introduced another cat into the house as a friend for her and luckily after a couple of weeks she accepted him and they are now great friends.
Unfortunately she still exhibts the fear aggression with new people. Our vet recommended prozac and she has been on this for about two months. We have definitely seen some improvement (she is calmer with new people).
This past weekend we took her and our other cat to the cottage. She hissed and screamed when we put her in her carrier but we thought once we got there and got settled she would be fine and we didn't want to just leave her at home when we would be alone at the cottage. She reacted very badly and spent over 10 hrs frozen in one spot screaming when anyone (myself, my husband or other cat) entered the room. We finally gave up and took her home. She did calm down when home but has been more quick to hiss and cry since we returned.
Do you have any recommendations on how we might modify this behaviour? Is there something we could do to make her less fearful? We are at our wits end.  We have tried anxiety drops (homeopet) and resucue remedy as well as phermone spray. nothing really seems to help.

Answer
Layla,

Some cats like people have emotional problems. If she was a feral cat or had a feral parent then the distrust of humans is inbred and inherited. Also you don't know what kind of mental trauma or abuse she suffered for her first 8 weeks.

Her personality most likely will not change. She will probably never be a loveable cat to others. If she has any feral history in her then they usually only bond to one person (she considers your husband an extension of you).

Be patient and understanding with her and accept that that is how she is. If you try forcing her to sociable or to suddenly adapt to something new it will only upset her and stress her. And you can end up undoing all the progress you have made with her and lose her trust which would be hard to get back again.

The kitty Prozac is good. It's a very common treatment for cats that are stressed or who have emotional problems. Let her have a 'safe' area where she can go hide is she feels spooked or put her in there if you are expecting company. Calicos are sensitive and intelligent and normally have attitudes. It is just magnified in your cat.

I wouldn't try to take her to your cottage again. The cat would be happier being left at home where she feels she is safe and things are familiar. No telling what flashbacks she gets when you take her somewhere new.

I have 4 kittens from a vicious true feral mom. They are over a year old and I have had them since birth. They all have some degree of spookyness in them, but one is really bad. If someone even comes near the door to visit she is off under the bed for hours. And she has never had any trauma in her life (except going to the vet to get spayed), it is just inherited.

Tabbi