Expert: Ali - 5/18/2009

Question
We have 2 cats that we got from cat welfare as kittens. I am not sure if they were feral or not but they were both very shy and nervous. We were told they are sisters.
They are both now 18 months, have been spayed and are house cats. Sabrina is now very friendly, loves cuddles and attention but shows nerves when there are loud noises and has never tried to leave the flat. Merlin is still extremely shy, even scared of all people. She will interact with us to play and will take food from our hands but we can't touch her.
She is always sitting by the window and unfortunately a friend staying in our house accidently let her out 3 weeks ago. We went through a great deal of stress as she was coming back to the garden for food every day but would not come inside (we are in a large first floor flat).
We have finally managed to coax her in and she is looking around (seems a bit relieved). However Sabrina is not happy, she is hissing, growling and scratching her if she comes close enough. She is very tense and not her usual loving self at all.
Do you have any advice on our cats and how we can help them?

Answer
Theresa,

I'd suggest trying a homeopathic remedy called Bach's Rescue Remedy which is a blend of flower essences designed to calm and reassure. You'll want to keep the girls separate for the moment with your newly returned kitty being placed in a spare room with all of the usual creature comforts and necessities - that will be a good idea for a week or so just to reintroduce your newly found runaway to your home body. To administer the Rescue Remedy you'll want to add 7-9 drops to a clean bowl of fresh water for each of your girls each morning. You should see a significant difference in how the girls are acting and their reactions to each other fairly quickly. It's probably best to continue with the Rescue Remedy until the girls have been successfully introduced and freely interacted with each other without displaying aggression for at least a week after the girls have been allowed face to face contact. You can usually find Rescue Remedy in health food stores, naturopathic pharmacies, some mainstream pharmacies have begun to stock it in the aisle with nutritional supplements or vitamins and as far as I know you can also purchase this remedy online. This remedy is something that I've used in a variety of situations for cats and kittens for 10 years or more, it's perfectly safe and there's no need to worry about overdosing or adverse reactions. It's perfectly safe to give your cats several times the dosage I've recommended, although I recommend that you start out at the lower end of the dosage I suggested and slowly increase it if necessary.