Aggression

Aggression in a cat can frighten the people who live with it. It ranges from a playful ambush from behind the sofa to an attack delivered at full strength. Fortunately, once you know something about feline aggression, a great deal of it can be prevented.

Unwelcome as aggression is in a human household, it serves many important purposes in the life of a wild animal. Aggression is a necessary condition of hunting. Cats use it to defend their territory, their young and their prey, and to defend themselves. It is a part of most feline games and an inseparable part of feline sexuality. Taking all that into account, “being aggressive” is a part of “being a cat”. In most cases aggression falls into one of the following main categories.

Defensive aggression

A frightened cat is a cat to be left alone. There is no room for discussion here. Unless your cat is in a situation that threatens its life, do not try to soothe your four-legged friend, to touch it or to pick it up. A cat that loves you is quite another creature when it is frightened. You are face to face with an animal whose only interest is self-preservation, and every attempt to calm it will be taken as a further threat. Give it somewhere to hide. Give it room to run. Give it time to calm down.

If the cat is somehow close to putting itself in danger, you can hold it by dropping a stout cardboard box or a wastepaper basket over it. But remember that this may frighten it too, and send it running as it sees the box bearing down on it. Speak soothingly, move slowly and, if you can, hold the box where the cat cannot see it — though it is far better simply to leave the cat alone.

How can you tell that a cat is frightened? A frightened cat crouches, its ears flattened to its head, its pupils dilated, and it may growl or hiss. It may even roll onto its back, and the posture will look like one of submission. Do not be deceived: it is nothing of the kind.

The best medicine for a frightened cat is time. At the moment of fright, that is the time it needs to settle. Depending on what event, object or animal caused the fear, it may need very different amounts of time to get used to it. Give it as much time as it needs. You will know it is itself again when it begins to wash, allows itself a little something to eat, or comes over to you looking for attention.

If the fear is very strong and you cannot remove its cause, and the cat cannot get used to it at all, discuss it with your vet. There are drugs available that will help the cat overcome the fear. Drugs must never be used casually or treated as an easy answer, and of course they must never be used without a vet’s instructions; but they can do good. Better to treat a cat for a few weeks or months, until it learns to cope with the new situation, than to make it live in fear for that time or longer.

Aggression caused by irritation

Aggression caused by irritation means this: your cat gets annoyed, and then bites or scratches you. The good news, if it can be called that, is that this is usually inhibited aggression. The claws stay in, or come out only a little, and the bites, if there are any, do not break the skin.

The best way of dealing with it is to stay absolutely passive and absolutely silent while the cat has hold of your hand. Complete passivity is a signal of submission, and most cats respect that signal almost at once and let go. Struggle, and the cat concludes that you have not taken in its message — “Submit to me this instant!” — and the aggression may become fiercer. Now the skin may well be broken.

A loud, sudden noise can distract the cat and make it back off. Slap the wall, a table or any hard surface to hand with your palm; that frightens most cats into leaving you alone. A quick jet from a can of compressed air will make most of them retreat as well.

Some cats show this behaviour rarely or never. Others show it every time you are a little more insistent than usual — and being a little more insistent is very easily done. The classic case of aggression caused by irritation comes while you are stroking your cat. You stroke her, everything is going well, and suddenly she turns and bites you. It happens fast and quite without warning. What has happened? The fact is that your cat, like all of us, enjoys being touched — but only up to a point. After that it becomes disagreeable to her. We simply tend not to notice her signals. The main signal to watch for is the tail. Once the cat starts lashing her tail, you had better stop stroking.

Aggression of this kind has nothing whatever to do with your animal’s love for you. Picture this: a very close friend is sitting beside you patting your arm in the friendliest way, and going on doing it for five minutes, perhaps ten. Some days you take it kindly. On other days you may say “All right, that’s enough!” Your cat is doing exactly the same thing. Nothing personal; she is still your friend — but all the same… stop it!

Your cat’s belly is something like a large red button marked “I am about to bite you!” Some cats even roll onto their backs and display it. The owner takes this for an invitation to stroke that lovely soft place. It wants approaching with care. In a great many cats, stroking the belly makes them grab your hand with their front paws, bite your wrist and rake your forearm rapidly with their hind legs. All of it is fairly disagreeable. And again: if you stay quiet and still, the cat is likelier to let go than if you struggle.

Cats vary enormously in how much petting they will tolerate. Some revel in it; some demand it for long stretches at a time. There are cats that simply want to be near you, or to lie on your lap, without being stroked at all. If that is how matters stand, accept it. Your job is to watch and to learn, and then to do what gives your cat pleasure. The more you take account of her wishes and respect them, the better the chance that she will grow more tolerant.

Play aggression

A cat playing hockey with its paws, kicking your hand with its hind legs or springing on you in ambush from somewhere above all belongs in this category. There is usually an element of surprise about these games. You are carrying clean linen into the bedroom, say, and your cat shoots out from behind the door. She may come at you sideways, back slightly arched, and then turn and tear off again. She may also seize the nearest moving part of you — usually a leg — and give it a bite or two. How hard the bites are varies with the cat and with how excited she is. Aggression of this sort gets fiercer if you struggle or squeal. So, again: be passive. A victim that does not move is much less fun. A loud, sudden noise, as described above, will also rescue you.

Simply correcting the cat in a situation like this is not enough. The aggression is a symptom, not the real problem. The real problem behind all these outbursts is an unsatisfied need to hunt. To solve it properly you have to spend time working with your four-legged friend. Aerobic games, general exercise, toys that whirl about — all of these let you entertain the cat without getting hurt in the process. The best toys for a cat of this kind are ones it can pounce on and chase, and ones it can bite and tear. For the first sort, any kind of toy on a string, or a fishing-rod toy, will do. Toys of the second sort must be big enough for the cat to get its front paws round them and “finish them off”. A soft toy animal on a string often serves very well for working off energy of that kind.

One of the best ways of dealing with play aggression is to get your bored cat a companion — another cat. Let the two of them entertain each other, and keep your ankles well out of it.

Aggression towards a new cat

When a new cat arrives in the house you can expect some show of aggression. While the territories are being divided up and the process of mutual acceptance gets under way, expect hissing, arched backs, bristling fur, flattened ears and so on. There is generally more hissing than actual harm in this, and the animals rarely make real contact. The worst of it is usually a short scuffle followed by a rapid retreat. No blood is shed; only feelings are hurt.

On the other hand, cats do occasionally do a new arrival serious harm. In that case you will have to take steps to help them come to terms with each other.

Territorial aggression

Cats fight over territory. For an uncastrated tom it is a way of life, his chief occupation and his favourite hobby. That is why every cat living with people should be neutered. For toms it matters both for their own safety and so that you are not troubled by the smell.

If your tom is an inveterate fighter and you let him outdoors, you have several options. You can keep him in permanently. That solves the problem with a hundred per cent success: if he never gets the chance to meet Ole One-Eye behind the bushes, he cannot fight him for the nine hundred and twentieth time in his life.

If keeping him in all the time will not do, let him out only during the day. Territorial disputes mostly flare up at night, and if you feed him only in the evening you can guarantee that he will come home on time.

Think about building him a fenced enclosure in the yard, one he cannot escape from and other cats cannot get into. That lets him spend time outdoors with no risk of anybody doing him harm.

Sexual aggression

Toms are rough lovers. During mating the tom bites the female’s neck, and the same behaviour can be provoked by stroking his belly. Stroking can provoke several kinds of aggression, but the remedy against all of them is the same: do not stroke a cat’s belly. You do not have to take my word for it, though. Do as you like — your cat will teach you the rest herself.

Fights between cats who live together

Most cats who live together come to get along, given time. Some become close friends, sleeping pressed against each other and washing each other tenderly. Others keep a polite distance and, on the whole, maintain a truce.

In most houses with several cats there are squabbles from time to time, as in any company of friends, but usually not very often. They mostly end quickly and without bloodshed. Every so often, though, a real battle breaks out. It generally happens after a fright, for which one cat blames the other. Here is an example. A book falls off a shelf and very nearly hits one of the cats. She springs aside with a shriek and bolts. As she goes she catches the other cat, who reckons she is being attacked and pays it back in kind. The frightened cat, driven on by her fear, defends herself with everything she has. There is your problem.

Trouble like this can also follow a sick cat’s return from the veterinary hospital, or a longhaired cat’s return from the groomer with her coat clipped. In both cases the returning cat may look and smell quite different from before, and the cat who stayed at home may quite genuinely fail to recognise her.

Where the trouble comes of fear, sometimes all that is needed is a few hours for the animals to cool off. Now and then both cats will take up a defensive position and watch each other closely, ready to attack without warning. In that case give each of them a room to herself, with everything needed for a comfortable stay: litter tray, food, water, bed, toys. Every day the cats should change rooms. After two or three days of that, start feeding them in one room, at opposite ends of it, and then move the bowls a few inches closer with every meal. If at any point one of the cats looks tense or nervous, move the bowls back to about 30–40 cm apart and leave them there for another three or four meals. After that, carry on closing the distance again.

“Displaced” aggression

“Displaced” aggression happens when somebody or something works the cat up into a fury and the cat then takes it out on the nearest living creature — which, unluckily, may be you. Here is an example. Your tom is looking out of the sitting-room window into the back yard. He sees the neighbour’s cat, whom he detests, crossing your yard. Your tom begins to growl. He is not joking. In you come to find out what is going on. You lean forward to rest your elbows on the windowsill beside him. He turns and bites you hard. You shriek and shake your hand. He bites you again and runs off.

You are shaken and your hand is bleeding. Why has your beloved friend done this to you? Take heart: although you were the injured party, the aggression was not aimed at you personally. Some cats, once they reach a certain level of excitement, take their rage out on whoever is nearest. Most cats never do it. If the animal is neutered, it is unlikely to. My Shvaika has never done it to me. But I know people to whom it has happened, so if you run into the problem you ought to know about it.

To deal with it, have the animal castrated without fail. If the aggression is bound up with a window, as it often is, put the window out of the cat’s reach. Shut him in a room away from it. Set traps on the windowsill with sticky-backed contact paper or upturned mousetraps. Cover the glass with something so that he cannot see what is going on outside. Be inventive, but be effective with it: behaviour of this kind is too alarming for half-measures. Keep other people’s cats out of your yard. Use an outdoor repellent for the purpose. Build a fence — though some cats contrive to get through almost any fence. Turn a hose on the intruder; throw a metal can of coins down near him from your window. Do him no harm, but harass him in every way you can the moment he sets foot in your yard.

If your cat is worked up, better to leave him alone. Go round another way when you see him growling with his eyes fixed on something.

Keep a small air horn to hand. It is a powerful correction, both for your own cat and for any other one nearby, but it is a serious instrument. Keep it within reach at all times and use it without hesitation if your cat looks as though he means to come at you. Stop using it the very moment he turns away from you: he has to understand that you will stop your attack as soon as he stops his.

If the trouble goes on, get professional help at once. Ask your vet whether he can recommend an animal behaviour consultant in your area.

Aggression caused by pain

Cats often attack because they have been attacked themselves. That is not hard to grasp, and yet people manage to overlook it. They complain that their cat scratched or bit them, and then admit, under pressure, that they were angry when they reached for the cat. If you hit a cat, you have hurt it; and if you have hurt it, it will very likely return the favour. If you, or anybody else, have hurt it in the past and it sees you coming towards it in a temper, it may very well try to defend itself before it is hurt again. From the cat’s point of view that is a thoroughly sensible plan.

Aggression of this kind is controlled by controlling yourself. Do not frighten the cat and do not hurt it, and the whole thing can be dealt with completely, and at once.

Sudden and unexpected aggression

If your cat suddenly turns aggressive for reasons you cannot begin to guess at, go to your vet. The cause may be pain arising from some hidden illness. Unpredictable behaviour can come of a chemical or physiological disorder. If you can see no sense at all in your cat’s behaviour, that possibility is certainly worth checking. If the vet concludes that the cat is in good health, look for a qualified specialist in cat behaviour. Something here is plainly wrong.

Predatory aggression

A cat is a hunter. If it troubles you that your cat kills small animals, keep her indoors permanently. There is nothing you can do to stop her hunting — try, and she will simply start avoiding you. It is only fair, of course, to warn the small creatures that death is stalking them, and a safety cat collar with a bell on it does that very effectively.

Treating aggression with medicine

There are excellent new drugs on the market that can be used against aggression in cats. They were developed for this problem in particular, they have fewer side effects and greater efficacy than the drugs used formerly, and they even last longer. If I had an animal that did not respond to a behavioural approach, I would use drugs without a moment’s hesitation.

I shall not describe them. Given how many new drugs keep appearing, that would be unproductive. You simply need to know that such drugs exist, that they work well, that they will cause your cat practically no trouble and may even save her life. If you imagine that these drugs will leave your cat addicted and disoriented, you are mistaken.

Putting an aggressive cat down

It is rare to have to put a cat down for aggression, but from time to time the choice does have to be made. Please give your animal every chance there is. Go to your vet: find out what drugs you might try. Find a qualified behaviourist or an animal behaviour consultant to help you teach your cat good manners. But if you have tried everything and serious incidents involving your cat still keep happening in your house, then a decision has to be taken.

Such a decision never comes easily. However many approaches you have tried, there is almost always a small voice somewhere inside whispering “what if…?” What if you had gone to another vet? What if the cat had lived in another house? It is quite natural to look for a positive solution to your cat’s problem. It is quite natural not to want to put her down. But there are times when that is the best and the most merciful decision there is.

You may find it tempting to pass the cat on to somebody else. It looks like an easy way of “dealing” with the problem without having to take a decision that appals you. Do not do it. You are the most loving and patient owner your cat can hope to find; if you have taken the time to read this far, you are doing more to help her than a great many people would. Giving her away is a bad idea for a whole string of reasons. First, there is no guarantee that the new owners will be as patient and as loving as you are, and it is entirely unacceptable to abandon your cat to her fate, to angry people who may beat her or do worse. Second, what if she does somebody real harm, a child in particular? You will not only feel dreadful afterwards; you may also be held responsible. And finally, if those new owners pass the cat to a shelter or on to the next owners again, she may well end her days in a cage somewhere, cut off from everybody, bewildered, and be put down by strangers.

Hard as it is, helping your animal out of this life as gently and as mercifully as possible may be the last kindness you can offer your four-legged companion. She will go in the arms of somebody who loves her, with a gentle voice in her ears.

Expect to feel dreadful for some time afterwards. How long you grieve depends on the sort of person you are: some spend a few days in despair, others are low for weeks. Try not to judge yourself. Whatever you did, it was your decision, and that makes it the right one.