Angry Kitty

Question
Bella is nearly three years old, and she's always been a little aggressive.  We
rescued her when she was just a kitten, and at the time didn't know how to
handle her while in attack mode, so we didn't discipline her properly.  Lately
though, her behavior has been strange.

My husband has just recently gone back to work after being out of work for a
year, and I work from home so I'm with her all day.  I don't have any problems
with her behavior when it's just the two of us, but as soon as my husband
gets home she's a wild thing, and takes her aggression out on me, but never
my husband.  She comes up onto my desk, and just starts biting and clawing
at me.  I'm at a loss as to figure out what to do to stop this behavior (we've
tried spraying her with water in the past, but she's not afraid of getting wet -
she just frowns and goes in for the kill).

Any help you could give as to how to curb this, or even just WHY she's doing
it would be very helpful.

Answer
Hi
just why your cat is choosing to behave in this way is a mystery but what is for sure she obviously feels insecure and has not settled into the new routine yet with your husband going to work.
I don't believe that disciplining a cat works because they learn by experience rather than punishment. A punishment is unrelated to the behavior and can even be seen as a positive reaction from you. the best way to teach act that something they are doing is bad is to associate the behavior with a negative reaction from you, this normally involve you totally ignoring her and not reacting at all. When she starts to attack, don't make a sound (hard i know) get up and walk quickly away from her and do not look at her. Continue to walk away and ignore her if she follows you, close a door on her if she is persistent. This will have to be repeated every time she does it and hopefully over time she will realise that when she attacks she gets a negative reaction and will stop. Always make sure you give her a positive reaction when she is good, this will help to define good and bad behavior for her. I hope this has helped.

Kate
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