What’s the best way to comfort my cat during a thunderstorm?
She get’s terrified at the flash of lightning and the sound of thunder and comes running to me, but what do I do after that? I’m afraid of picking her up because, well, you know how cats can be at loud noises. I’ll talk to her and pet her, but is this helping enough?
The cat is 8 yrs. old, a white Persian and usually very gentle
Thanks for your opinion on this.
Give her a favorite treat during every thunderstorm so she looks forward to them?
How is she about being picked up when she’s not freaked out? Some cats love being picked up, held, cuddled … some hate it. (I have one of each!)
Was she ever a stray, where she would have learned what rain and thunderstorms *really *are? Or is it more that she’s responding to the noise (and possibly, atmospheric pressure changes)?
Maybe lying down on the floor, the couch, or the bed with her might help. Let her curl up in the crook of your arm or something so she feels more secure - like you’re her cave.
Cats are usually more comfortable in small spaces. Possibly wrap her in a blanket so she can duck inside/under it, and the blanket will protect you from scaredy-claws.
If you’re afraid to pick her up, get down to her eye level, on the floor, on the chair, wherever.
Stroke her softly on top of her forehead with only your fingertips, and talk softly to her. If you have a nice soft singing voice, try a soft song or lullaby or two. I got good results with Steven Foster’s Beautiful Dreamer whenever my cats were having a bad time. Watch her eye movements and blink slowly a lot. Blinking slowly at a cat is a gesture of affection, and may help to calm her down.
We had a big noisy storm last night, and one of the two cats was really upset by it - until she climbed into a cat cube like these where it was “safe.” You can get a single cube for less than $5at walmart/target/walgreens, and if you pad the bottom (I made them pads from an old eggcrate matress topper sewn into a fleece sack) it might become her new favorite place to go when it’s noisy or otherwise.
Now, does anyone know what to do for a bunny afraid of storms? Buddy would rather not be held and petted, so he was the only one upset for more than a few minutes.
Victoria Stilwell (of It’s Me or the Dog) sometimes does something like this with anxious dogs.
Another thing she does is desensitize the dogs to whatever scares them. In the case of thunderstorms, you’d get one of those recordings of thunder and play it at a low volume. If the cat can handle that, you gradually turn up the volume.
Cats like small spaces. They also like things that smell like their people, or at least mine seem to. Your dirty laundry would smell like you, as would your bed sheets.
You already have a cat carrier, right? (If your cat ever rides in a vehicle with you, you should) Consider leaving your cat carrier out, rather than putting it away and bringing it out only when it’s time to go to the vet. It gives the cat a small space to hide in (without you having to spend more money on a cat cube), and it also makes getting the cat into the carrier easier when it has to be done. The cat doesn’t see and hear you getting the carrier out, so the cat has less warning of what’s going to happen and therefore less time to hide. If the carrier is already out, you can just pick up the cat and put it in the carrier. The cat doesn’t figure out what’s happening until you’re holding it, at which point it’s not easy (though not impossible) for the cat to escape. In theory, it might even make the cat less anxious about being in the carrier (though this doesn’t seem to work on my cats).
Not quite. One of the challenge behaviors for felines is the stare. A cat staring at another cat is making a challenge (usually about territory or dominance). There are two responses the other cat can make: a return stare, which may then escalate into growling, yowls, and then attacks, or a de-escalation response of slowly blinking into a squint and looking away to the side.
If a frightened cat is staring at you, don’t stare back. Slowly blink into a squint and look away to one side or another. This reassures the cat that you are not a threat.
Cats are subtle beasts. The unblinking stare (usually accompanied by dilated pupils and ears laid back) is aggressive/territorial/fearful. The slowly closed eyes and averted gaze (usually accompanied with body position moved sideways or with back to aggressor, sitting, and ears swiveling) is passive. The slow blink is a greeting and sign of affection (usually accompanied with ears forward and body forward).
For people around just one or a couple cats at a time, the above behaviors can be difficult to distinguish - well, especially the last two. I guess the first one is pretty plain. As someone who is around cats 24/7, with 4 of my own plus being in a cageless shelter with 250 cats for the last 8 years, I’ve felt privileged to see many feline behaviors first hand that most people don’t ever witness with their regular, happy, housecats. It’s fascinating!
This is all fresh in my mind because we just had a well-renowned feline behaviorist/veterinarian give a talk to staff and volunteers where I work. Interesting stuff.
The slow blink/slow winky eyes is definitely a message that cats read in people. If you do it to them when everything is calm and peaceful, they will do it back to you. It’s sweet.
I find the best way with my cat is simply to pretend nothing is happening. I think pets take a lot of their cues from us, and if we expect them to get upset then they will. I’ve seen it happen with our cat where my husband makes eye contact with the cat and calls her after a loud noise, the cat gets all jittery and upset. But if there’s a loud noise, the cat looks at us, and we’re not reacting at all, she just goes back to sleep.
I once had to comfort my two cats during an actual hurricane. They didn’t turn to me for help; one hid in a closet, and the other was under the bed. I got down on the floor and talked to them, but I’m not sure whether that helped.
During storms my cat always hides under the sofa. I leave her alone. When the storm is over, I call her name to let her know it’s safe to come out.
A couple of years ago we had a mild earthquake, and she did come to me for reassurance after that. I had my robe on, and she climbed into it for cuddles. Awwwww.