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I LOVE ANIMALS, MORE SO CATS. I SEE INSPIRATION IN EVERYTHING. SO I DO WHAT I CAN, WITH WHAT I HAVE, WHERE I AM.

Monday, January 31, 2011

Dealing with aggressive behaviour

Since I allowed Ezzabella in my room I have been observing a great deal of hyper aggression from her, but fortunately it's all friendly aggressiveness.The first time I got her inside by way of the back door once, I lured her in and then shut the door and eventually got her into my bedroom. After spending a rather restless night with her closed in my bedroom, I decided to give her options to see if it would calm her down. The next day I shut Zelda in the back bedroom, left my front door opened, opened my bedroom door, and called her out. She cautiously came out, walked out the front door and meandered towards the garage. About 30 minutes later I noticed she was sitting on my back deck, so I opened the back door, and called her to see if she would come back in. She just sat there looking at me, as if to say "I'll not walk through that door again" Then I got the bright idea of setting up a little walk way to the long window in my bedroom. I found a piece of ply wood and laid it slant ways in the snow up to the window. then I took the screen out, cranked open the window, stuck my head out and called for her. She ran right to the window, walked up the plywood, and jumped back into my bedroom. So I could see she had no fear of coming back in my bedroom. I hoped that given this option of knowing she was not trapped in the house might calm her down a bit.

All online research tells me that spaying your female cat will calm her down. I have called to see when the next low priced clinic will be in my area, and so far the next close available clinic will not be available until early March. So I made an appointment. Now my next process will be to get her used to going into a carrier to eat her food. If I keep the door fastened opened, I hope she will go into this large dog carrier to eat, When the time comes I plan to quickly shut her in there the night before surgery. So the only food I'll give her from now on will be in the carrier, lets hope it works?

The night before last, when I went into bed, I opened the window, and off she went. The next morning I mixed up a capsule of Valerian root in some canned cat food, put it in the carrier and called for her. Around 10:30 am. She quickly reappeared and jumped through the window, back into the bedroom. I closed the door and left her alone until later in the day. When I returned to spend some quality time with her, she seemed less aggressive and much calmer. When I went back in the evening she seemed to be in her hyper aggressive mode again. When she's like this she is constantly by my feet, to the point of tripping me. I fear I could step on her, and if she takes it as an act of aggression from me, she's going to get defensive and bite. If she had a clean bill of health and I knew she was free of diseases, i would not fear the bite so much. I can only take about 2 careful steps, then I have to stop. As soon as I made it to the window and opened it, she quickly jumped out. I feel sort of guilty allowing her out at night, but under the circumstances I don't know how else to cope with her unpredictable behavior. I just hope she will calm down after she has been spayed.

This morning i went through the same ritual. Mix up some Valerian root with her cat food, put her food in the carrier, call for her around 10:30 and shut her in for the day.

3 comments:

momsbusy said...

hi! we followed the link from the CB. it takes a lot of patience to win over a feral kitty. you must have hit the jackpot in patience since you are winning her over. purraying for everything to work out.

momsbusy, yuki, kintaro & tt

KrafteKat said...

It's hard to tell if Ezzabella actually is a feral cat. Some claim that if she were really feral, even after 5 months the cat would not allow me to pet it.

My granddaughter has 5 cats (none were feral). For one of her college subjects she wrote about the habits, behavior, and psychology of cats. And she got 98 on the paper. Thanks for sharing I appreciate all opinions and comments.

meowmeowmans said...

Hi there!

Thank you for visiting, commenting and following our blog. We are following yours now, too! :)

We're looking forward to seeing how things work out with you and Ezzabella! Thank you for your love and care for her.

You new friends at Animal Shelter Volunteer Life