Psycho Kitty...

[MsTryska]

q'est ce qu c'est?

pahpahpahpah pahpahpahpahpah!

run run run run run run awayyyy...oh oh oh....


ok - had to get that off my chest.

seriously - i do apparently have a psycho kitty. I have no idea what's up with him.

it all started over a year ago. he had gone out on the porch, and ventured beyond our borders and ran into the neighbor cat. they were on guard with each other crouched and tails puffy with lots of grownling. I broke it up, and tried to bring my cat in. Well that's when he lunged at me, howling like a banshee and growling and hissing. I thought it was temporary.


this would happen, every so often when he'd go out on the porch, and i'd ask him to come back in. He'd start with the growling and hissing.


Well he was fine most of the summer, but now the weathers gone cold again, and psycho kitty has coem back. Now he'll be fine for a few days, but then soemthing will twerk him - like i'll look at him the wrong way, or i'll try to cross his path or soemthing, and he wigs out and tries to kill me.

My other cat usually plays protector and will jump in the middle and try to kick his ass.


here's the kicker. he'll be liek that one minute, and the next minute he's curled up in my lap letting me stroke him, and he's got no problem when it's bedtime and we all snuggle together. I get my morning kisses, and headbutts.


Anybody have any idea what's going on here? is my cat manic depressive? Schizoaffective? a borderline personality? a multiple personality? does he need kitty xanax?

he's freakin 9 years old, and this has only been going on for the last year. I don't think he's in any sort of pain, cuz i investigate when he's on my lap - and other than the little fugues, he's perfectly normal, alert and attentive and whatnot. I can't detect any pattern other than when we are out on the porch together, and i try to coax him in, and he doesn't want to come in , or after i've been outside by myself and then try to cross his path inside the house later on. very puzzling.

[erinlough]

1. I have one cat like that.

He will sit on your lap for hours if he can, but the next min. scratch you bad. We have learned to recognize the ears back sign and keep our hands out of the way.

I know this cat had a very rough mother. When he was a baby we had to pull the mom off of him so she wouldn't hurt him, he'd just be screaming. The next min. she would nurse him.

I think he is somewhat mentally ill, but we are the kind of pet owners who just accept what the animal brings to the family, so he stays and we adjust. The good part is he is not mean to other animals.

[MsTryska]

2. that sounds like a borderline personality kitty.

what's bugging me is that mine's been the needy attention-hog love bug all his life. Never had a mean moment for anybody.

until he ran across his first "stranger" cat. you think he's traumatized?


that's my current theory - that he was traumatized by the strange cat (other than his brother he's never run across a strange cat before) - and i think maybe he smells the other cat better in the cold weather, and maybe that's why he wigs out? i have no idea. it's just so random.

[Kashka-Kat]

3. post traumatic stress disorder?

Same as human version--

something triggers it, and he flashes back

I've observed something similar with my cat, she's had a comfy life EXCEPT for a few days at the vet when she was spayed. Now, whenever I'm gone for a while she gets separation anxiety and LICKS the hair off her stomach where she was shaved-- the same exact V shape.

[MsTryska]

4. such strange creatures....

you might be right - it could be PTSD.


my roommate thinks he might be trying to top me and that it's soem sort of power struggle. So i took a different tack last night.

he was an absolute snugglebunny when i got home last night and everything was cool. until i went outside and came back in.

and then he started with the hissing and snarling and stuff.

so i crouched down and took an offensive posture and made eye contact, hissed at him, and snarled back.

he was knocked for a loop and wasn't sure quite what do. so then he tried it again, and i hissed again, and finally he ran off. Turns out my hissing back at him is enough to put him in check so far. We'll see how it goes.

[Warpy]

5. I had a kitty like that, vet told me it was most likely a slow growing

brain tumor. I put up with her mood swings until she attacked a houseguest. That's when I had to have her put down. I felt like a murderess.

If your kitty is only growling and hissing, it may be because of the unfamiliar surroundings. Cats are attached to places much more than people, although they're gregarious enough with people. Your cat may not recognize you in such an unfamiliar place. Context is everything to a cat.

[SW FL Dem]

6. Wish I had an answer

I've only shared my life with one cat, she's 17 and a half.