Expert: Brandy - 12/27/2006

Question
Yes, Bailey has seen a vet and the vet told me the cat is demonic (no joke!).  He asked me if Bailey was orphaned as some cats become strange and aggressive if neglected or taken away from their mother.  I have no idea of this is the case with our cat.  The vet did had a few ideas to help correct/control the cat's behavior.  He told me that I should try to put the cat in another room when he becomes aggressive for a few minutes to let him calm down. I have not done this since I am a little scared myself of getting bitten in the process!  I was also told to just say "no" in a firm voice and then ignore him, but usually this just makes it worse as he becomes more agitated when I or my fiance become firm with him. Sometimes I can get the cat to calm down if I pet and kind of talk to him in a soft voice, but I feel this maybe condoning his behavior, so I try not to do it despite the fact it does seem to mellow him out.

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The text above is a follow-up to ...

-----Question-----
I have a 5 year old neudered male domestic shorthair.  With me, he is very affectionate and loving.  However, he becomes aggressive towards my live-in fiance.  The weird thing is, he has always been that way towards my fiance.  We adopted Bailey from a friend 4 years ago, and although my fiance did not live with me at the time, he was at my apartment a lot.  My fiance loves cats and has done nothing to Bailey.  However, Bailey will lunge and attack my fiance when we are just sitting on the couch, or at night when we are sleeping.  He will actaully draw blood.

Bailey will somtimes also attack people who enter the house.  He has cornered a maintenance man and would not let him get to the door.  Bailey was declawed at some point before we adopted him, so he can't scratch, but he will bite fingers and legs.  I love my cat, but I am thinking about starting a family and I am afraid he might try going after the children.

I don't know why Bailey is so aggressive and I don't know what to do to stop his behaviour.
-----Answer-----
Aggressive cats, especially those that bite, are hard for even experts to deal with. A cat bite can be more dangerous than a cat scratch, since the canines act as sort of needles, and in spite of cats' clean image, that mouth is ddiirrtttyyy. Many people believe that declawing a cat almost forces a cat to bite, since removing the claws removes a way for the cat to defend itself, though others will disagree.

Even though you've had him 4 years, some cats tend to be one-personish, which seems to be the case with Bailey. He looks at your fiance not as a rival, but as someone who is only 'allowed' a certain amount of time with you. The cornering of the maintenance man is something to be worrisome, though. Have you had a vet check him out (I know, I know, I'm always suggesting checking out a vet). As odd as it seems, sometimes medication may be needed to calm him, or he might even have a physical problem that is not noticeable, but he might take it out on people.

I wish you good luck with Bailey.

Answer
My first cat, Merlin, terrorized one vet (who also called him demonic), yet the vet tech had no problem handling him. Merlin also had ongoing (and unknown to me until it was too late) issues with his kidneys. He was always sweet to me, but when he reached a point (or I made the mistake of petting his lower back, where the kidneys are located), he would grumble and walk away, and I would give him his space. As for my boyfriend(later my husband), he learned to give Merlin a wide berth whenever Merl went into one of his moods. I think that a large part of my extended family's adversion to Merl was that he disliked being petted because it hurt, and to this day I regret not having a simple blood chemistry workup done to rule out any and all medical issues. It might not be the case with Bailey, though, but I'm only imparting my past experience with a tempermental cat.

I literally shopped around for vets until I found one (and I always ask for her specifically) in a busy practice of 7 vets who would take the time to listen to my concerns. Maybe even a vet who specializes in feline medicine can help, especially if this cat is calm, then mutates into something quite dangerous.

I've never heard of young orphaned cats having social issues later on, but this may also be something new in the animal behaviour field. In my opinion, cats deal with 'orphaning' a bit differently than dogs, since the dog is the more social-oriented of the two species. I also had no idea of Merlin's past before I got him from the shelter, already as an adult, but I think if there were issues with his past, I would have noted them right at the beginning.

As an aside, do you notice if Bailey goes after (as in the maintenance man and your fiance) only men? If so, then your vet might be onto something if Bailey had been spooked in the past by men.

And lastly, I agree with you that cornering Bailey and putting him in a separate room as a timeout might end up with you havign a few scratches and/or bites. If he's a box-lover (again, my late beloved Merlin comandeered every shoebox in the house and was buried in one), perhaps setting a few nooks and corners for him to curl into when he was needing some timeout could help.
I hope these ideas might help.