Evening everyone,
For the last three weeks, my cat's behaviour has suddenly changed: he's absolutely terrified in our flat. It all started with some frightened meowing one night when I was away. My partner got up and found him terrified of a small chair cover (one he knows well, he used to sleep on it) that he'd managed to move in front of the TV stand himself. It just seemed funny at the time, but we soon realised there was a real problem.
Since that day, he's been completely different; he's scared of everything in the house as if he's seeing it for the first time (he 'paws' at the throws and slippers, and is really frightened of my scarf left on a chair...). At first, he couldn't even move around; I had to pick him up and put him down in front of his food bowl or whatever, as if he was petrified of walking on the floor. Sometimes he won't go past a certain point (like the hallway) and stays in the same room for hours. He only seems 'okay' when he's up high on the arm of the chaise longue or out on the balcony.
He's constantly scanning the room, moving very tentatively. He's scared of our slightest movement, backing away if I walk past him. It's always worse in the evenings and at night. Sometimes he gets 'stuck' in the living room: he starts meowing and we find him right in the middle, unable to move. So we take him back to the bedroom onto our bed where he sleeps. And then it's the same story all over again; we're woken up by meowing in the night because he wants to get off the bed but he 'can't bring himself to do it'... More to follow in my next post! :-)
