But my skinny one is scared of any sort of loud noise. They'll be eating while I'm putting dishes away and the slightest sound of dishes banging together causes him to run out of the room.
Does anyone else have this? And what can I do about it
One of my cats is like this, but not quite so extreme. But she is really flighty. If someone other than me or my partner comes in the house, even if its our friends or relatives who come over often, Sushi (the cat) bolts down the hallway and hides under our bed for about 3 hours.
If there is a sudden loud noise, either inside or outside, she literally flips out (you know how cats jump and do that flippy thing
) and again, runs down the hallway and hides under our bed.
I've had her since she was 5
days old (I was a vet nurse and hand-raised her) so I know that she has never been abused or anything like that. She's just naturally nervous.
I think some cats are just like that man. It's like humans, some of us are just naturally really anxious and hate surprises and loud noises etc. Some animals are the same. If he hasn't even been abused or anything, then it just sounds like he's naturally a nervous cat. Have you owned them since they were kittens?
If it's not causing him, your other cat or you any significant problems, then it's probably not worth worrying about.
However if he is
really distressed when a loud noise occurs, e.g. if he hypersalivates and/or pants (heavy-breathing with his tongue out), or if he goes off his food for a couple of days at a time etc, this indicates he is
seriously anxious and you need to do something about it. In which case, see your vet
Saw an advert on telly for a plug in thingy thats supposed to chillem out cant remember what its called.
It's called Feliway (unless they have a different product in the US?)
It's extremely effective, but very expensive. Therefore you should only bother with it if your cat's anxiety is causing MAJOR problems in the household, or if its quality of life is significantly compromised by its anxiety....or if you just have the spare money lying around to pay for the diffuser and refills
*edit* Oh I just saw that you found the answer already :D
Carry on...
Cats are naturally jumpy and because they're basically still super-killer hunters they're usually either asleep or in a state of hyperalertness, which would explain why your cat is running away at loud noises. Think super predator bird/mouse/bug/everything else that moves killing machine. They're either sleeping (conserving energy) or wide awake, taking in a huge amount of sensory information at once. I think cats (and most animals) are basically tripping really hard their whole lives because of how much more fine-tuned their senses are, and they have to be, in order to survive.
Cats also have a much better sense of hearing (because they're super-killer hunters and are basically mini tigers) and do a better job of picking up the vibrations in the floor and inflection in peoples' voices, etc, so your cat is probably just reacting to this the way nature intended.
My girlfriend's house used to have four cats living in it, and the two skinny ones were the, well, active ones, and the fat ones just sat around and didn't care. I'm not saying your fat cat is lazy, but that was the situation I experienced.
Oh, also, cats are fucking awesome.
NT, your whole post is completely awesome and spot-on
It's a good point you make about the skinny cats being the flighty ones and the fatties being more laid-back.
Again, think of humans. A lot of the anxious/nervous people we know tend to be skinny, and those of us who are on the larger side are often more happy-go-lucky/relaxed.
Animals are the same.
Hell, we ARE animals so that makes sense right! :D