# Traumatised cat



## nari1807 (May 4, 2012)

hi , 

Here is the story of my traumatisd kitten. Can anyone help? 

nari1807 :


Kissie's Story:


Kismet (known as Kissie) is an approximately eight month old majestic Sorrell coloured Abyssinian. 
She arrived at my home approximately 3 months ago. I bought her from an official breeder who belongs to the Abyssinian cat club. She came from a house of approximately 16 cats of different ages. She seemed ok with the breeder and generally with myself and my husband when we collected her from the breeder. We were told however that she was bullied by a dominant Abyssinian queen in the home she came from when the breeder was not at home. She has not settled in well to her new home. 

She comes to life, racing around the house, playing with toys, jumping here there and everywhere when I am in bed at night or out of the room. However , if I am in the same room with her she immediately becomes startled and hides behind or under pieces of furniture and if I look at her directly or even try to approach her she starts meowing uncontrollably and runs away. We have not been able to hold, touch or pet her because of her nervous behaviour. We had to corner her in a closed room to get her into the kennel for her first vet visit because she does not approach us or allow us to approach her.

We have tried lots of different things to win Kissie over and nothing seems to work: laser pointer toys, feather toys, catnip, zyklene on food, Bach's rescue remedy etc. ...she does not respond to anything. We even tried sitting in the room ignoring her and not looking her in the eye for an extended period of time and this does not seem to stimulate her curiosity either. She is simply too scared to interact with us. 

We have not done anything to intimidate her. She has access to a large house with lots of interesting things to explore, lots of toys, food, water etc. We are very gentle in speaking to her or trying to play with her. We treat her almost like a baby. She has never purred in the one month I have had her. Because of the way she runs off, we keep her in the house for fear of her running away from us. 

I took her to the vet and explained the problem and he recommended a behaviourist seeing that the normal drugs such as zyklene does not work. He observed her for himself and thinks she is suffering from anxiety as a result of a change in environment. We are deeply saddened as we love Kissie so much but it has been impossible to have a relationship with her as she does not trust us. I think she feels that we want to attack her when we really don't mean any harm. 
:confused1:


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## rose (Apr 29, 2009)

My daughter has a half abyssinian cat, and she can be odd, Affectionate but does strange things. Dont know why your cat should act this way, perhaps after being with so many cats she feels lonely?


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## koekemakranka (Aug 2, 2010)

Perhaps you need to start from scratch. By allowing her freedom of the house from the start means that she always had the opportunity to run away and hide and you are unable to get close to her. We always recommend that the new cat be confined to one room for the first few weeks ( 2 - 3 weeks at least). This will allow her to settle in and have a place of her own where she is secure and has ready access to food, water and toilet facilities. You will then have the opportunity to interact with her in a closed space where she feels comfortable and where she can look forward to your visits (which are always positive because you bring her food, treats and play with her).


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## nari1807 (May 4, 2012)

Sounds sensible.may consider doing this because its very difficult to catch her as you normally have to chase her around the house.


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## Lel (Mar 21, 2012)

Perhaps instead of catching and manhandling you could just leave her food in 'her' room and then when she goes in there gently close the door. Probably will lead to a better perception about the room from her part!


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## chillminx (Nov 22, 2010)

Hi nari,

Kissie is a very beautiful amazing looking cat 
And I love her name -- I was going to call one of my rescued cats "Kismet"

I do love Abyssininians, but I believe they are known for being very sensitive rather unpredictable cats. My sister had one, and did have quite a few behavioural problems with her....

I am assuming Kissie has not been spayed? Are you planning to breed from her? My sister bred from her Abby, but her experience was that whatever difficult characteristics the cat had before being a mother, they were multiplied 100 fold afterwards. Even months after all the kittens had been rehomed, her cat remained *different* much less approachable or friendly. So perhaps give some serious thought to having Kissie spayed maybe...

It sounds as tho your little mite has not been very well socialised. This would hardly be surprising in a household of 16 cats!!  Were they all living in the house, or were they in cages/pens outside? It's possible Kissie has not been handled much by the breeders, or played with, or cuddled, or ever sat on a lap.:sad: So she has no idea what is expected of her in a close loving relationship with human companions. It is all very puzzling and strange to her, so she is scared stiff and anxious.

I have had rescued cats who have taken a long time to come out of their 
*shells* and feel safe and secure enough to relate self confidently to me.
And these were kitties who were not as fearful as Kissie sounds, so it may be it will take quite a while to socialise her. On the plus side she is still very young, so will learn more easily.

I am not clear exactly how long you have had Kissie, as you mention 
*3 months*, but later refer to *a month*. But whether 3 mths or 1 month the fact is it's hardly any time at all for a kitten to settle in to a strange place, with new people, especially as she has been used to many cat companions in her old home, and in her new home has none. I would suggest being prepared for it to take up to a year before Kissie is fully responsive and at ease with you. But of course she will make a little progress all the time.

Patience is going to be of the absolute essence here. It is going to be a matter of slowly building her trust and confidence. Rather similar perhaps in some ways to taming a feral cat. Be prepared to go very, very slowly and at a pace dictated by Kissie. Let her come to you, rather than go after her.

The idea from a previous poster of confining her to one room for the time being is a good one, as it will help her feel safer to be in an enclosed space.

Continue with the wavy wand toys, and e.g. rolling little balls towards her, just a little while each day. Stop any time if she looks frightened. Experiment with various toys. Give her empty cardboard boxes to hide in, so she doesn't feel exposed all the time. Give her an enclosed litter tray so she can toilet in privacy.

Talk gently to her often, sing quietly to her.

It is a very good sign that Kissie comes to life when you are out of the room, in bed etc. It would be far more worrying if she was quiet all the time, and one might suspect there was a health problem. But as she is so lively out of your sight this just reaffirms for me that it is a question of her lacking confidence with you and needing to learn how to interact with you.

It might help her if she had a little playmate, perhaps another kitten, younger than her. Preferably one with lots of self confidence with people, and used to being handled. Cats are the most enormous *copycats* (hence the name really) and learn a lot from each other. As Kissie has apparently already had a bad experience of being bullied by another female, I would get a male kitten (if you were to decide to get another one I mean).

Minx



nari1807 said:


> hi ,
> 
> Here is the story of my traumatisd kitten. Can anyone help?
> 
> ...


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## nari1807 (May 4, 2012)

Fantastic news. Tried the one room confinement thing and it worked.I will paste the result below which is an extract from an email I sent to the breeeder.KisThank you all for your help!Will continue posting updates. Still a long way to go.


"I have started keeping her in our spare room as of yesterday. I cornered her in the room yesterday and picked her up wrapping her in a towel to restrain her so she wouldn't run off , leaving just her head poking out. I kept petting her until she calmed down. (i.e. stopped hissing and meowing uncontrollably)

Then I unwrapped the towel and she just sat there on my lap in a normal manner. 
She kept rubbing her cheeks on my fingers and pecking me , and throwing herself at me playfully and even fell asleep on my lap. 
She was being extremely soppy and would not leave my lap. This went on for more than two hours. She actually behaved like a normal kitten. 
:wink5:So I was able to give loads of hugs and cuddles and she loved it. She also played with my husband. 
I repeated the same thing in the room again today and again she was very loving and playfull. 
She is purring like a machine now! My husband and I are so excited and taken aback by her transition.It is truly entertaining when she becomes playful. 
"


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## RabbitMonster (Mar 20, 2012)

That's brilliant news! If you continue to take it slowly, keeping it a her speed, you'll have a happy little furbaby who'll love to spend time cuddling with you


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