# Is your cat afraid of you sometimes?



## Straysmommy (Dec 23, 2010)

Prince was totally trusting of me from day one, but to this day, after 3 months, he still is afraid of me and bolts away and hides if I laugh heartily or run or raise my voice or jump or clap my hands. I once tried to chase him for fun and he seemed to be on the brink of a heart attack, LOL I'm a very quiet and gentle person, but sometimes I miss noise and energetic movement...

What's your experience? Should I start getting him used gradually to me being more abrupt?


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## faithless (Dec 4, 2009)

yeah, loud noises and sudden movements will worry my gal as well. I also agree with you that I think its because Ive always been so quiet around her. Im sure if she'd grown up in a loud family with kids running around, she'd be more immune. Ive also considered desensitizing her and moving around loudly and more abruptly, but I cant be bothered and none of us suffer from it anyway...When we're playing however, I can chase her and rush at her and she wont get worried at all; she'll run and hide behind all my shoes in the hall with me after her, then Ill turn around and she'll run after me. I can also see that her tail doesnt fluff up at all, so clearly the context is important.


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## konstargirl (Feb 4, 2011)

Misa is not afraid of me much as she use to. When I get a water bottle out to do my hair.. she thinks I'm going to spray her..


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## Digikid (Feb 27, 2011)

When Mena was alive whenever I had a cold and had to "clear: my throat she would run and dive under anything. Guess I sounded a bit like a tiger growling at her or something.


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## MowMow (Nov 6, 2010)

Oh man, MowMOw gets all excited when I run at him. He arches his back until I get close and then tears off to hide behind something so he can pounce me.

He's so UNafraid that if he's bad and I clap my hands or yell at him he just stares at me. I even tried the pennies in the can trick and he ran to me to see what was inside the can........

As someone else said, I think he must have be raised in a very loud boisterous house because not much phases him. With kids, because every time he sees a kid outside he gets all trilly and excited.


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## Vivid Dawn (May 31, 2010)

I rescued Paizly as a feral kitten 10 years ago... she's still very skittish. I have to move slow and quiet, especially when near her, or she scuttles off to hide in her sleeping box.
She also hisses and swats when Nebbie tries to play... though I think it's both that Paizly is a cranky old woman, AND she realizes she's crippled and probably couldn't do well in a "fight" (dunno if she realizes Nebbie is just playing, or what)


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## Susan (Mar 29, 2010)

Both of my girls (especially Muffs) are startled if I make a loud noise...for example, if I sneeze. I don't think they're afraid of me. They just don't like loud noises. My house is very quiet most of the time, so they're just not used to noise.


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## faithless (Dec 4, 2009)

Im actually kinda pleased about that, because if she ever did escape, I really dont want her to be friendly with strangers. I mean, I do, but I just dont trust the human race with cats, Ive heard too many nasty stories. So even though, in a perfect world, Id prefer her to be sociable with anyone, she's safer if she's not.


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## Straysmommy (Dec 23, 2010)

Prince used to get scared if I sniffed, confusing it with hissing. The strays still run if I sniff. I try not to, but sometimes it's inevitable. 

Just now Prince ran because I touched the kibble bag for the strays (it's 35 lbs) and it made a crinkling sound.


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## MeowMiaow (Feb 20, 2011)

Ivan knows when I'm angry with him and runs off so he doesn't have to face my wrath. Lol  Marilyn's deaf now, so she doesn't get scared of loud noises like she used to.


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## marie73 (Jul 12, 2006)

The twins run out of guilt. Pure guilt.

My house is very quiet, so they do get spooked easily. If someone in our parking lot is talking loud, they run under the bed. 

If you looked up *scaredy cats* in Wikipedia, you'll see their pictures. Well, you'll see a blur because they're running.....


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## catsoul (Apr 11, 2011)

Depends. My new cat seems to be totally relaxed no matter what. My former one had "her moments" in which loud noises would scare the **** out of her - and if I caused the noise, it was me she was looking at with those big scared eyes, ready to jump and hide. I just said something like "It's me, you stupid little kitty" and she'd calm down a bit. Also sometimes when she got back inside from the garden, she would jump at anything, and I am pretty sure it was because something gave her the thrills outside. Nothing to do about that I suppose. Just make the noise you need to and you cat will get used to or not. You can always hush her down afterwards.


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## Abbie (Jan 13, 2011)

Nothing phases Tammy, you can sit there making hissing noises, shouting, clapping... and she'll remain fast asleep. She's used to a noisy household.

Evie and Mitzi are actually quite laidback too- if I make any kind of 'new' noise, or clap (which I tried as a discipline technique) they just run at me with 'kitten faces' to investigate.

Although Evie had to wear a 'lampshade' the other day and was knocking over just about everything, and Mitzi got so scared. She hid under the sofa bed for over an hour, such a silly girl.


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## Goldtanker (Jan 9, 2011)

Midnight, the wild cat, is not phased by noise or commotion. When he is in the garage, he is not bothered by the garage door openings, the coming and going of the vehicles (not even the noisy diesel truck), nor the mowers or the snow-blower. He is usually OK with strangers and kids too. Except for the neighbor lady. He will leave or hide when she comes. And she is a cat person, having rescued strays too. Only thing I can think of is she reminds him of someone who mistreated him in his earlier life.


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## catnapped (Nov 11, 2010)

It may be an urban stray reflex - I think they must learn to be extremely wary. Genie is also very skittish in that way and she was picked up from the street. She's probably even worse than Prince, as she is terrified of people (poor thing hid under the clothes horse in the next room for over an hour when I had a visitor recently ). I suppose it takes them a while to get used to the idea that they're safe - if they ever do.


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## MowMow (Nov 6, 2010)

Goldtanker said:


> Only thing I can think of is she reminds him of someone who mistreated him in his earlier life.


OR he knows something you don't! When the police show up to arrest a pyscho the neighbors are usually like "she was so quiet" or "She *SEEMED* so nice"


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## tigressbythetail (Dec 1, 2010)

I have a problem with Zoey being scared of me when I am walking toward her or standing over her. She's getting better about it now, at least with me but there's still times when she runs away. She loves contact, but she likes to be the one to initiate it I guess. I think she learned early that if I was coming toward her and standing over her it meant I was going to pick her up and give her medicine. 

Nothing much phases Layla. That cat in the youtube video playing with the dolphin? That would be Layla. She's so fearless that it scares me.


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## Dave_ph (Jul 7, 2009)

I had to give Mia 2 sets of Meds twice a day. She was running from me and terrified. 

Now we're buds again, till tomorrow mornings pill. We're down to 1 per day now.


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