Since I’ve started working later in the mornings, Train has had more ‘sun time’ up on our enclosed top step. I’ve also come to realise that our neighbours kitties regularly (i.e. all morning!) do laps of our place. And from where Train sits, this is where she gets to see them:
Red lines indicate general kitty path
She watches and listens for their every movement – even tries to ‘stalk’ them through the barriers on the top step. She’s not formally ‘met’ another cat before, but we’ve never encouraged her anxiety or aggression towards any of our neighbourhood cats – we just let them do their thing.
Even if we keep her indoors, she still has prime view of the action from our bedroom window and will spend hours watching them. So, my question is – what should we do? Just let her watch and figure things out for herself? Is there any way we can show her that other cats aren’t a terrible thing?
savvycat x
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s good to see you back:)
One thing we try to do with Suey when she gets frazzled is to not respond to what is upsetting her. For example, she used to freak out during thunderstorms, and by trying to comfort her, I discovered we were reinforcing the idea that they were scary and dangerous. Since we started trying to be calm and basically ignore that they are occuring, she seems calmer during them. Perhaps you could try ignoring the kitties, and acting as if it’s a completely normal for them to be out there? We also use a certain treat -Suey’s favourite-when there are intruder kitties outside. It both distracts her and is a good association.
Fui and Suey´s last blog post: Quiet Words on Wednesday
my boys hear the neighbourhood kittehs here at home all day, every day. and can seen them from multiple windows. and rarely do they give a stuff! occasionally they’ll stare at stranger kitteh, but that’s it.
i reckon if train’s happily watching, then you don’t have to worry. at least she isn’t bored!