My cat hates strangers

Question
I have a one year old cat about 5 months ago my house was robbed and she was the only one home at the time. Ever since then she has been very skittish with strangers which is understandable but now when friends come over she attacks them for no reason hissing, growling, and swatting with claws. I put her in a room to herself but i dont know if i should alienate her from people. She is good with me and tolerates my boyfriend very well as she has lived with us since she was 7 wks old. I dont know what to do about her when i have people over or when i have children. Will this just fix it self as time goes on or can i help the situation in any way? Thanks for your help!!

Answer
Hi Jessica,

I am very sorry to hear your house was robbed, but thankfully no one was hurt including your cat! But as you can imagine, just as for humans this kind of experience can be very traumatic for a cat. Cats like to feel safe and secure, and having a stranger break in, probably make a great deal of noise and possibly chase her - has left her feeling defensive and insecure. So your cat needs some help to learn that most people who come to her house are friendly and harmless!

First you might want to try Feliway, it is a calming spray and plug-In you can buy at pet stores and online. Put one plug-in in every large room. Or you can use the spray, re-apply every 2-3 days in doorways, furniture etc near cat level.

There are also some calming supplements you can add to her food to help ease anxiety. One that I have used with success is Nutricalm:
http://www.petnutritioninfo.com/products.html

Once she has had the Feliway around and the calming supplements for at least a week (to take the edge off her anxiety), have some friends help you out. Have a different friend come every day just to feed your cat. Don't have them go near your cat or try to even look at her, they should just come over, talk to you and ignore the cat, and put the food down on the ground (works best if it is canned, smelly food so she noticed right away). This way she will learn that others coming to her house is a positive thing, and that they will not bother her.

Try to have friends ignore your cat as much as possible when they visit. The more they try to reassure her by talking to her etc the more she will feel intimidated and become violent in what she sees as self defense.

Once she seems to accept visitors OK, you can stop the herbal supplement but continue the Feliway for at least 6 more months. This whole process could take a year.

Take things slowly, but I think you will find that in time and the steps described above, she will get over this traumatic experience and be back to her old self.