shy kitty

Question
Hey there! Yesterday, my family and I adopted an 11 month old cat from PetSmart. We took her home and she was super shy until she finally started to play and cuddle up to us. However, I don't think she spent a good night. We have a big house and so to keep her from hiding in some place and us not being able to find her, we kept her in the upstairs bathroom with her litter box, in the upstairs bathroom. When I woke up, I found her in the space under our sink. I have a lot of questions regarding this: First, should we have turned the lights off? Second, how do we get her to sleep in her bed? She doesn't even want to get into it. And another thing is that she is constantly going to that space under the sink to hide. I hate leaving her there because I don't want her to feel neglected or unhappy in her new home. There's times when she's really playful and happy, and others when she's scared of us all over again. Moreover, how do we get her used to the house. She gets so frightened and we don't want her running to a place where we won't be able to find her. And finally, how should I hold her? When I hold her she's calm for a few seconds, but then she claws out and I have to let go. I'm so frustrated because I want her to be super comfortable with us and be happy!

Thanks in advance for your expertise!
~Anie~

Answer
Hey !

It's completely normal for kittens to shy away, it just takes you a bit of time to get use to. However do not block off other access to your house at night as restricting a cat to a room can really upset it, and cause it too shy away from you'll. Too make things simple for your cat since you have a big house make a second litter box available in an upstairs bathroom and one in a down stairs bathroom. There should always be two litter boxes because cats hate to use the bathroom in the same spot in a soiled area so having two litter boxes will make it easier on the cat so it wont have to run up and down the stairs to use the bathroom. I hold my cats as if they were babies and you were rocking them (such as singing too a baby and rocking your arms). One thing you must do is make sure the cat's rump is secure so they have a sense of security, try grasping him under his belly and pick him up and then but him in rocking position to make him feel secure.

You can never restrict a cat to sleep in one spot, that's one thing you will never be able to do, cats sleep where ever they feel comfortable. For instance when I first had got my cats long long long long long long long etc. time ago I had bought an expensive cat pad to put him on at night but my cat seemed to prefer sleeping in a kitchen table chair, after many times of trying to teach him where to sleep I eventually gave up. Cats wont go directly to one place and sleep that's something that dogs would do but not humans.Cats generally like to sleep in a safe secure place where their is little noise unless it's peaceful (one cat loves to sleep near the Aquarium where he could hear the water trickle from the filter, its something that us humans can't do. Cats love to sleep everywhere but make sure you train him not to sleep on the kitchen table, or other surfaces you find inappropriate if he does this get a spray water gun and every time you catch him on the surface spray him in the face with the water gun, soon he'll learn that jumping on the counter equals water which means wet fur which means cats hate lol.

You have to let her experience the house on her on. Just show her where the litter box is, and the feeding area and let her be, and everything will fall in place. If you keep getting in front of her encouraging her to come out from under the sink she'll get more and more nervous because she's in an unfamiliar place, just let her discover everything for herself as this is what cats prefer.

At night time cut all of the lights off in the house when you go to bed except one light like for instance I leave one of my kitchen lights on, and your cat would be good to go. Cat's love to explore at night time since they are nocturnal. Too also help settle your cat in go to www.drsfostersmith.com and purchase FeliWay, which calms feline's in stressful situation which in your case this is stressful upon you and the cat.

Don't ever try to retrain a cat if it wants to jump form your arms it doesn't always mean you're holding the cat wrong sometimes cats just like to get down, as my cats do this with me every now and then, but never try to retrain it as this will only make it struggle more which may cause him to scratch you (Trust me cat scratches hurt and burn afterwards lol).

Don't worry about not being able to find her, let her explore the entire house as this is the only way to get her use to it on her terms, then soon you may notice her rubbing up against some furniture, but at least once a day when you see her pick her up and sit down on the couch and rub her behind the ears (gently very gently)and then after you do that for about a minute get up and go about your business soon your cat will start following you around and start trusting you more, when you notice one day that you feel some sticky sandpaper rub against your skin and you realize that it's your cats tongue you will be honored and happy to be licked because in a cats book that means your #1 and that your doing everything perfectly.

Cats are normally solitary animals which mean they really don't depend on others much, trust me she wont feel neglected when she goes under the space in the sink that means she's nervous and that's her place of security just go about your way as if she wasn't there, soon she'll come out of her shell.

I hope I've helped as with my cats these methods have worked, I hope all goes well, if you have any problems just feel free to contact me again.