KFarrel
09-21-2011, 12:35 PM
Hello! I am a newly wed and trying to blend a fur family and having major problems! My husband has two very sweet, non-aggressive indoor/outdoor cats, ages 5 & 3, both spayed females. We moved into his house after the wedding. Mine is an 11-year old spayed female who has been an only child for about 4 years since her littermate passed away.
Some historical information on my cat: She has always been fairly aggressive towards other people. She has never been very friendly in general (except to me, of course). Over the past several months leading up to the wedding & move my hubby has spent hours trying to cultivate a relationship with her with limited success. She began letting him pet her occasionally and stopped hissing and growling every time he came around.
For the first week, my girl was seperated from the other two via some fortunate features the house has that closes off the back hall & guestrooms so that she had 3 rooms and a hall to herself. This space joins the rest of the house via the master bedroom, so we have traded the MB every other day between mine & his girls.
Things were going ok. Everyone was getting used to the smells and the first face to face meeting was some growling and posturing but that's it. We praised all the girls for being so good and felt very positive. In the time since, my cat has become more and more agressive to the point of attacking the other cats without provocation. We had been deterring this with a water bottle and loud distraction noises, but now that does not even stop her from the fight and my hubby is scratched up and scabbed from breaking up fights and one of 'his' girls has an eye injury. Still, niether of his girls are agressive towards mine. As soon as mine enters a room, sees the other cat (they usually don't even realize she's there) she attacks.
This is turning into a nightmare and I am at a loss of what to do. She has gotten to the point where when she is in her sperate area she sits by the door and growls and scratches every time one of the other cats is nearby, and tries to bolt out after them as soon as the door is cracked open.
We have tried everything, even the pheremone collars and plug-ins with no success. I LOVE my cat, but she is making our house so stressful. Since she has never been friendly I get zero support from family & friends. My hubby knows how much I care for her and has agreed to do whatever we can to ease the situation but I am at my wit's end! Please help!
Some historical information on my cat: She has always been fairly aggressive towards other people. She has never been very friendly in general (except to me, of course). Over the past several months leading up to the wedding & move my hubby has spent hours trying to cultivate a relationship with her with limited success. She began letting him pet her occasionally and stopped hissing and growling every time he came around.
For the first week, my girl was seperated from the other two via some fortunate features the house has that closes off the back hall & guestrooms so that she had 3 rooms and a hall to herself. This space joins the rest of the house via the master bedroom, so we have traded the MB every other day between mine & his girls.
Things were going ok. Everyone was getting used to the smells and the first face to face meeting was some growling and posturing but that's it. We praised all the girls for being so good and felt very positive. In the time since, my cat has become more and more agressive to the point of attacking the other cats without provocation. We had been deterring this with a water bottle and loud distraction noises, but now that does not even stop her from the fight and my hubby is scratched up and scabbed from breaking up fights and one of 'his' girls has an eye injury. Still, niether of his girls are agressive towards mine. As soon as mine enters a room, sees the other cat (they usually don't even realize she's there) she attacks.
This is turning into a nightmare and I am at a loss of what to do. She has gotten to the point where when she is in her sperate area she sits by the door and growls and scratches every time one of the other cats is nearby, and tries to bolt out after them as soon as the door is cracked open.
We have tried everything, even the pheremone collars and plug-ins with no success. I LOVE my cat, but she is making our house so stressful. Since she has never been friendly I get zero support from family & friends. My hubby knows how much I care for her and has agreed to do whatever we can to ease the situation but I am at my wit's end! Please help!