# Bad tempered cat!



## MrsMWS (Dec 19, 2010)

We have recently had a visitor to our house who seems rather interested in our neutered female cat and in our house and us.

He's not a stray but he is quite thin, he is always ravenous, and he's been out all hours in the snow and in the cold and we've felt sorry for him so we haven't minded him coming in. Our cat has hissed and growled at him but has tolerated him being around.
There's been no out and out aggression to each other and he's subservient to her.
Anyway, he's been all lovey to us but now he's showing signs of aggression. The other weekend, my hubby's gran touched his tail and he turned round and nipped her. Fair enough, he doesn't like his tail touching. The other night, I was in the lounge with him and he was sat next to me. I pointed out our cat to him and he made a silly mewing noise and attacked my legs! 

Today, he was sitting on the bedroom window and hubby came up to see where he was. He was talking to him and stroking him which this cat was enjoying when suddenly said cat tried to swipe hubby's face.
Hubby immediately red carded him and he was dispatched through the cat flap.

We'd like to understand the rather sudden change in him. Most of the time, he's been a very rubby cat and good natured and now he's all snippy.

Our cat is extremely good natured and we don't mind him visiting but we won;t tolerate him being snippy.


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## Lulu's owner (May 1, 2009)

MrsMWS said:


> We have recently had a visitor to our house who seems rather interested in our neutered female cat and in our house and us.
> 
> He's not a stray but he is quite thin, he is always ravenous, and he's been out all hours in the snow and in the cold and we've felt sorry for him so we haven't minded him coming in. Our cat has hissed and growled at him but has tolerated him being around.
> There's been no out and out aggression to each other and he's subservient to her.
> ...


Hello, welcome to the forum. It's strange that this puss has only just started to be aggressive, but I can only think that he was minding his p's and q's until he thought he was getting his feet under the table, so to speak. My husband has a very aggressive cat who arrived under similar circumstances years ago and he can still turn nasty very easily. I don't know whether it's dominance or fear when a cat behaves this way, it can be either and our cat had been very mistreated so I'm sure it's fear. You just have to be very careful, don't take the cat by surprise, and look out for warning signs like ears changing position and so on. It doesn't sound like this cat wants to be cuddly but it would be a shame to reject him for not being cutesy poo as he seems to have a hard life. If he's not neutered he's particularly likely to be aggressive of course.

In our case, we just learned to accept that Toto was a horror and we live with his behaviour, just never try and turn him upside down and tickle his tum!


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## Taylorbaby (Jan 10, 2009)

you dont know this cat and i would 100% not let him in your house esp if your girl dsoesnt like him, its her home and you could end up with any sort of problems etc

esp if he bites/swipes, sorry to be blunt or mean, cant you put a advert up or have him scanned for a owner?


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## MrsMWS (Dec 19, 2010)

Taylorbaby - We've known this cat for the last few months. He was around in the summer and came visiting a few times but it's become a lot more frequent with the cold weather. It's like he is kicked out all day or night and just mooches about.

Sometimes he just settles down and is fine and like I say our girl is fine with him apart from the odd growl if he comes too close but she's got used to him. She is pretty docile but she would stand her ground! 
I know the fact that he has a collar doesn't mean anything as he could be a stray or homeless. 

Lulu's owner - thanks for your welcome! I think we will have to sadly accept that's how he is and I don't think we will be inviting him in anymore until he learns to be nice. I said to hubby that he did the right thing in telling him to go when he did. There are no warnings signs though, he just lashes out!


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## MuchosAnimales (Jan 7, 2010)

My first concern would be whether he is suffering from some kind of medical problem that needs treating, one my cats gets very grumpy when he is off colour. This would also explain the sudden change in behaviour. 

I would put a collar on him with your details attached to see if anyone claims him as their own. If you have no luck from that I would personally take him to the vets for a health check.


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## Taylorbaby (Jan 10, 2009)

us above, you dont know his health, he has a owner aswell, my cat sometimes looks like his dying due to illness, if anyoner else fed him he could die to to allergies, so i wouldnt feed him either, if he is someone elses cat id look for the owner.
I just dont think its fair on your girl, she shouldnt have to growl or stand her ground to some older cat whose wandered in


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