Most cats are always finding something new that they don't know about. When new to them, they are often scared of that item until they feel the most comfortable with it because time. Unfortunately, some items or interactions may not be the case. Years later, that item or interaction would still scare them today.
I think my cat may have a phobia of moths, but I am not sure yet. He behaves very ...oddly when one gets into the house and will hide under the chairs in the living room until I take it back outside.
Our cats are very scared of the sound of the washing machine and vacuum cleaner. Each time they hear it turned on, they would just automatically run into their cage. There were even moments where they were so scared that they would end up pissing on the carpet. They never got over that and until now, they are so scared. They never really got hurt by any of those two things so we really wonder why they have such a phobia.
I got my cat from the Humane Society~ he was 7 years old at the time I adopted him. Beings I was bringing him into a home that has a little minpin/chiauha mix that thinks she is the Mayor of our neighborhood~ I wasn't sure of how the cat would react. I was afraid if he got outside he would run off. So I proceeded to spoil him. He wanted to drink out of the faucet, not a dish. So I would let him waltz across the counter to get to the sink to get a drink. His food was already on the lower shelf of the one counter/divider to keep the dog from eating it.
It got to where he would get up on the counter and go toward the sink, but not take a drink. When I would yell at him, he would hurry to the faucet I leave turned on to a tricle and act like he was thirsty. He had it figured out- if he got a drink it was okay for him to be up there. I have had him for over a year now and know he isn't going to run off if I get after him. So about a month ago, when I was out in my shed looking for something, I ran across the 2 squirt guns I had bought years back for the kids. I brought them in and filled one. Now if Kitty Joe gets too obnoxious I will squirt him. All it takes is one squirt and he is out of here. I have a cat window I leave open durning the nice weather so he can come and go as he pleases. Now I don't even have to squirt him, just pick it up. If He sees
that he knows it is time to get down. I would say he is afraid of the squirt gun.
Both of my cats are terrified of the sound of blow dryers (for hair). It's weird because when I vacuum they actually chase the vacuum around, they like the sound of the paper shredder and will happily sit on the windowsill when the landscapers are over. Something about the blow dryer terrifies them and they will run under a bed or chair and stay there for at least an hour.
Two of my cats are afraid of my sewing machine. I don't use it as often as I'd like, but when I do they run out of the room and peek around the corner to see what on earth the silly human might be doing. It's really funny. I have to admit that sometimes I stop and start more than I need to just to see their little black-and-white faces with the terribly confused expressions.
All of my cats are terrified of the vacuum cleaner. I just have to put my hand on the handle and tails become brushes. Rapidly disappearing brushes, for that matter. They don't peek around the corner for this one. In fact, the 18-pounder, Moon, usually tries to hide behind the toilet. River and Kaylee retreat under beds and bookshelves.
My cats aren't afraid of the squirt bottle. They are resigned to it. When I put a hand on it, they usually stop whatever they're doing - but they do it with an "oh, no, not again" face. No puffed tails, ears stay upright.
My tuxedo is afraid of the vacuum, as most cats are. He also does not like the noise that tin foil makes, and water (standing water in a tub mostly). I am trying to get him to be a water kitty so baths can be done more easily. Recently I found that if I only put a few inches of water in the sink and toss a few toys in, he will sit at the edge of the sink and bat at the toys. Baby steps, lol.
The only other one I can think of at the moment, is when I use hand lotion. Doesn't seem to matter which one. He backs away when I go to pet him.
With my cats, it is more like what aren't they afraid of!
Two of them are scared of practically everything that makes noise. The vacuum, the washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, running water, etc. They're also afraid of the broom, and the outdoors. These two are also very afraid of strange/new people, and will hide for hours if someone they don't know comes over. Though I think the younger cat learned this behavior from the older. She's definitely the "boss" cat around here, and thinks she is a great big beast in a tiny little body, but it is kind of funny how many things she's scared of.
Our third cat is a bit calmer. She is afraid of some things, like the vacuum, but is also intensely curious about them. She'll follow me around the apartment while I vacuum, but she'll always watch from one room away. And she loves people, it doesn't matter who they are or how many times she's met them. In the whole time we've had her, she has never hesitated to greet a person at the door or sit on someone's lap. She's just a love.
This question made me smile. Cats can be quite silly and seemingly random when it comes to things that scare them. My cat is afraid of the vacuum cleaner and toilet when it flushes. It's pretty funny with the latter because he always wants to come into the bathroom and whenever I relent and let him in, he sits there purring and sometimes headbutting for pets. However, if I flush the toilet, he dashes out of there like a madman. I guess it's the sound.
He also acts very timid when there are thunderstorms. Like my old dog, he goes all quiet then slowly slinks to under a table or some cluttered corner to hide. All the petting and reassurance doesn't seem to comfort him, and he just wants to be alone. Once the storm is over, he's back to his normal, bossy self as if he wasn't a total coward five minutes ago.
Also, interestingly, one of my cats is terrified of the noise plastic bags make, but the other LOVES plastic bags and will lay on them, play with them, carry them around in her mouth, and lick the plastic. We try to keep bags away from her, because we're afraid she will someday ingest the plastic. For now she just licks, licks, licks it. It is hard to keep them away from her, though. She seems to find them wherever we keep them stashed.
For my cat curiosity trumps any kind of fear. He is scared of many things, anything with a loud noise will set him off, but he just gets a bit of distance between himself and the "danger" and then starts to investigate. At the beginning he was much more jumpy, now even the vacuum cleaner can only push him to move a bit.
Strangely his biggest scare was with a remote controlled car. It wasn't loud or anything, it just moved slowly, and I thought it would be nice to make him play with that. But instead as soon as that little car moved he jumped and assumed the arched back position. Perhaps it's because he had first seen it as a static object, and had already let his defenses down when the car moved.
One of my sister's cats, instead, is really easy to scare, everything sets him off! Once he made a glass vase fall and he ran away. She couldn't find it for hours and she called me on the verge of tears. He was all squeezed up in an interstice between the fridge and the wall behind it, and the way he looked up with big wide eyes when we found him was really priceless!
My three cats have different fears, so to say. My first cat Sookie freaks out whenever my dad would start the car. I don't know if it is because of the noise the car makes or the fact that she sees boarding the car. Maybe, she's afraid that she will be left alone? On the other hand, Chi is afraid of my stuffed animals. He especially hates my toy dog. Whenever he sees it, he raises his back and hisses. Pochi, my youngest, isn't afraid of anything. She is the hunter among the three. She even provokes our labrador. Thankfully, our dogs do not mind her all that much.
We have 2 cats and one isn't scared of anything at all. He just saunters around the house and doesn't let anything or anyone bother him. The other cat is super afraid of our dogs barking! They have lived together forever but still he hates it. He runs and hides every time. Even when the dog just randomly barks at nothing !
I had a cat that was horribly afraid of thunder. Now that might be understandable since a lot of people are afraid of thunder, since it's a fearsome thing, but Obadiah didn't used to be afraid of thunder. In fact, I went looking for her one day after a thunderstorm came in and I realized she hadn't come back inside, only to find her sitting on the picnic table in the backyard, seemingly enjoying the storm. She never was afraid of rain. Then, for reasons that I am unaware, she became very afraid of thunder. She would sometimes hear it before we did, and there was nothing we could do to comfort her, except to allow her to go under the sink, under the bed, or inside of something until the storm passed.
My youngest kitty now, Ella, doesn't seem to be afraid of anything yet. When she saw a skunk through the window, she wanted to go out and play with it. When a raccoon comes to the window, she get excited, scratching rapidly on the window, but she's not at all afraid of it. However, I couldn't get her to look at a gopher that was busily digging a hole in our yard one day, so I brought her out to see it. The gopher was in the hole which, by then, was only about a foot deep, so it couldn't go anywhere, but Ella refused to even acknowledge the gopher's existence, as if she was pretending it didn't exist. I've seen that before, with my other cats, when we were living in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas; they were eating out of the same bowl as a possum, pretending that the possum wasn't even there. Later, when the possum came to the window, they didn't acknowledge it.
Our cat is not afraid of much, and has decided that our big pit bull mix Willie is just a clumsy oaf beneath her notice, but she is not fond of a clanging metal sound. I notice this when I am getting out cookie sheets, or if a pan lid slides down on the stove. For some reason she finds what I think of as a benign noise to be alarming. She's also not a fan of storms and will disappear under the bed until the storm noises have passed.
Hmm...Minnie and Pepper were afraid of all humans except me (although they were born indoors and reared as pets). Graybelle, the overgrown Manx who was mistaken for a bobcat, was afraid of heights. Mackerel, the only adult male cat I've kept, was not afraid of much--he chased a huge wild "coy-dog"--but he was afraid of vets (he was feral until he was three months old). Mackerel, his sister Polly, and his niece Mogwai seemed to *like* dogs, but his niece Grayzel was afraid of dogs. My current cats, his great- and great-grand-nieces? I only wish I could get them to be afraid, or at least healthily wary, of being stepped on. They're a team, and although each seems to have a specialized role, I've not noticed them being afraid of anything...not even vets!
And now I'll sign off for the night and go home and feed them.
Our girls are horrified by the sound of the vacuum, getting baths ( more cats are right? ) and thunderstorms.
during thunderstorms they talk to us non stop and pace around. It is actually quite funny for a little while the it gets very old real quick. lol. Thats just to name a few. We adopted our 2 kitties from a shelter that takes in abused cats and fixes em all up, but never the less they still have triggers that remind them of the trauma they went through. They are well loved and cared for now though!
My cat, Bamf, is a nervous wreck at times. He was my daughter's cat, and she gave him to me when they moved into a home that doesn't allow pets. For the first year we had him, he stayed in one room of the house, coming out only to eat and use the litter box. Bamf would crawl underneath the comforter, in order to feel more secure. The only way we knew he was there by the big lump in the middle of the bed. He wasn't always like this. He seemed to gradually become anxiety ridden, first being scared of flip-flops, then hating to be alone. We realized this when we would come home and find the lump in the middle of the bed. He is also scared of thunder, heading for the dark corner beneath my desk on the rare occasions it storms. We have given Bamf a secure home, but we accidentally sit on him when he hides under the throw on the couch, or when he hides under the comforter on the edge of the bed instead of in the middle. He's affectionate, craves attention, and is a wonderful companion.
This topic made me chuckle actually, because my cat exhibited his phobia just this morning -- and it's been a long running thing, ever since he was a kitten! He's absolutely petrified of the vacuum cleaner! As soon as I unroll the cord and I plug it in, he starts looking wary, as if something bad is about to happen...but then once it is on, oh boy...he runs as fast as he can into another room, or even upstairs if I am vacuuming downstairs for instance. I think quite honestly it's mainly a loud noise phobia though.
Also, I think he's afraid of being alone too. If we have to go out for the day, and don't get home until very late in the evening, he sometimes won't even touch his food -- I think part of his brain thinks he's been abandoned and will have to ration out his food! Makes me sad when I think about it too much!
One of my cats has anxiety disorder, and is easily freaked by loud noises and new people. She's an odd one, because she acts like a little devil around people that she is comfortable with, but is a timid and meek girl around strangers. The main root of her anxiety is being left without food, she's rescued and has some trauma relating to not being fed or going without.
(05-29-2015, 10:38 AM)Shihtzufan Wrote: Also, I think he's afraid of being alone too. If we have to go out for the day, and don't get home until very late in the evening, he sometimes won't even touch his food -- I think part of his brain thinks he's been abandoned and will have to ration out his food! Makes me sad when I think about it too much!
My kitty is also afraid of being alone. When she thinks that she is home alone, she will howl (literally like a dog) and pace around, she only stops when I call out to her and show her that I'm just upstairs in a closed room.
I've been using a Feliway diffuser for her anxiety, it's a product that puts synthetic cat hormones into the air and creates a sense of security. It definitely makes a difference, but it's a shame that it's so expensive.
Hands down, it's storms. She's an outside mostly cat and very adventurous so not much shakes her up, but a big storm with lots of lightening and thunder will have her leaping into my arms! Last night we had a big one roll through here and it was about time for me to bring her in to be with her kittens anyways, so I decided to go ahead and grab her up. As I opened the back door to call for her a bright flash happened and a very loud roll of thunder. She bolted across the yard and actually leaped up onto my chest, into my arm. Her heart was just racing, bless her heart! She nuzzled into me and seemed very happy to nestle up with her babies after that!
lol. Thats just to name a few. We adopted our 2 kitties from a shelter that takes in abused cats and fixes em all up, but never the less they still have triggers that remind them of the trauma they went through. They are well loved and cared for now though! 