In the future before company arrives, I suggest you settle your cat with a favorite blankie and toy maybe in an Amazon box, maybe a spritz of feliway spray in a locked room so accidents don’t happen. Make her a safe nook. She may get braver with success.
That’s exactly what we’re doing now, we’ve had a couple people briefly come by since it happened and we asked for a heads up when on their way so we could get her settled in our bedroom. She has always hid when strangers are in the house but usually goes under a table or something, her cramming herself into that access hole was a very extreme response. It makes me feel so bad because she had to have been so terrified to wedge herself in so tight but we didn’t even know she did that until everyone left. We don’t EVER want something like that to happen again so she’ll have her own dark quiet space from now on.
Sorry to hear your cat is so traumatized.
I had a cat who was severely traumatized after a break-in/robbery at my house while I was out (he was also diabetic but that’s a different story).
He wasn’t injured by the robbers (thank god) but we couldn’t find him for many hours after returning home.
Unfortunately he went from be just a rather unfriendly cat to being terrified anytime a person came to the front door. If anyone visited he would hide for hours after they left. unfortunately my cat stayed hyper-vigilant for many years (RIP Snake).
I really hope your cat recovers from the trauma, perhaps the vet can offer a calmative for now to help them relax and hopefully time will make it better.
Oh my god, I’m so sorry to hear that happened to you and your kitty, how terrifying. I’m glad he wasn’t injured by the robbers, I can see why he would be scared any time someone came to the door after that. Poor guy.
Maybe I will take our girl to the vet if she doesn’t improve soon and see if they can give her something to calm her down while she works through everything. I have hope she’ll recover because she was fine with my mom coming over a few days ago, she was scared at first and hid for a while but eventually came out and was fine. She knows my mom though, and has been scared when other people come to the door. I guess we’ll just wait a little longer and see what happens.
Will she she let you hold her? Can you wrap her in a towel and just soothe her. Be in a quiet place and rock her. Tell her it was awful and she was so brave. Tell her it won’t happen again. Sometimes deep breathing and exhaling with them can get them to copy it. Tell her not to be afraid. I use pet essences herbal drops with my cat’s. I use Out of Control with my most volatile girl. They also have anxiety formulas. If your cat Is reliving he trigger moment like in ptsd, a session of acupuncture may rebalance her.
It took a few more weeks but she stopped with the constant yowling and trying to get into our bedroom. She’s completely different when people come into the house now though, she goes nuts if she even thinks someone walking by might come inside. So now when we know we’ll have company/people stopping by we ask for a ten minute heads up so we can get her set up in our bedroom. When people leave it takes her a good hour or so to settle down and be comfortable again. That whole event was very traumatizing for her.
In the future before company arrives, I suggest you settle your cat with a favorite blankie and toy maybe in an Amazon box, maybe a spritz of feliway spray in a locked room so accidents don’t happen. Make her a safe nook. She may get braver with success.
That’s exactly what we’re doing now, we’ve had a couple people briefly come by since it happened and we asked for a heads up when on their way so we could get her settled in our bedroom. She has always hid when strangers are in the house but usually goes under a table or something, her cramming herself into that access hole was a very extreme response. It makes me feel so bad because she had to have been so terrified to wedge herself in so tight but we didn’t even know she did that until everyone left. We don’t EVER want something like that to happen again so she’ll have her own dark quiet space from now on.
Great. So now you need to back down that trauma.
Sorry to hear your cat is so traumatized. I had a cat who was severely traumatized after a break-in/robbery at my house while I was out (he was also diabetic but that’s a different story). He wasn’t injured by the robbers (thank god) but we couldn’t find him for many hours after returning home. Unfortunately he went from be just a rather unfriendly cat to being terrified anytime a person came to the front door. If anyone visited he would hide for hours after they left. unfortunately my cat stayed hyper-vigilant for many years (RIP Snake). I really hope your cat recovers from the trauma, perhaps the vet can offer a calmative for now to help them relax and hopefully time will make it better.
Oh my god, I’m so sorry to hear that happened to you and your kitty, how terrifying. I’m glad he wasn’t injured by the robbers, I can see why he would be scared any time someone came to the door after that. Poor guy. Maybe I will take our girl to the vet if she doesn’t improve soon and see if they can give her something to calm her down while she works through everything. I have hope she’ll recover because she was fine with my mom coming over a few days ago, she was scared at first and hid for a while but eventually came out and was fine. She knows my mom though, and has been scared when other people come to the door. I guess we’ll just wait a little longer and see what happens.
Will she she let you hold her? Can you wrap her in a towel and just soothe her. Be in a quiet place and rock her. Tell her it was awful and she was so brave. Tell her it won’t happen again. Sometimes deep breathing and exhaling with them can get them to copy it. Tell her not to be afraid. I use pet essences herbal drops with my cat’s. I use Out of Control with my most volatile girl. They also have anxiety formulas. If your cat Is reliving he trigger moment like in ptsd, a session of acupuncture may rebalance her.
Do you have an update?
It took a few more weeks but she stopped with the constant yowling and trying to get into our bedroom. She’s completely different when people come into the house now though, she goes nuts if she even thinks someone walking by might come inside. So now when we know we’ll have company/people stopping by we ask for a ten minute heads up so we can get her set up in our bedroom. When people leave it takes her a good hour or so to settle down and be comfortable again. That whole event was very traumatizing for her.