On some cats it apparently acts in reverse and they become agitated. Always ask the vet. for an extra dose and try it at home before going anywhere. We tried it on two cats before a long plane trip; one went to sleep (which he might have done anyway) and the other became very anxious but had problems walking; she was staggering around the place in obvious distress.
– you did get a great story out if it, though. Mrow!
Since I know everyone is waiting on an update on Mickey, here it is:
He is no longer afraid and hiding, he is very happy hanging out in the bedroom and sleeping with me, it was only a couple of weeks when he hid in the closet, and he will venture out into the rest of the house, but only when I am there. Yesterday, when Mom and I were watching the VaTech game (Go Hokies!) he came out and sat on my lap. But he still, after 2 months, distrusts Mom. And Mom is the cattiest cat person of all-time, she loves cats and cats love her. And I have left it to her to feed him most of the time. I thought that by now, after the initial shock of moving, that he would be her lap cat by now.
I am writing this from the basement in my parents house, where I have set up a computer and TV. Scrolling up, I did not go into many details about how Mickey and Me (forgive the grammar) came to be here. I was laid off in NJ, my lease was up end of the month, good chance to see my parents until I decided what I was going to do. But this basement is cat heaven, at least 800 sg ft of room to explore, old kitchen cabinets that were moved down here from when my parents got new ones and my Dad moved them down for storage for his tools, old bookcases now empty, except for one with 500 of my Dad’s CDs, old high school yearbooks, many shelves of spray paint and paint remover and rust remover, old LPs and high school textbooks, many shelves for Mickey to explore.
But he will not come down the stairs. I have tried to entice him many times, I have sat on the second step and reached out to pet him, I have put food out, I have sprayed cat nip. Right now he is at the top of the stairs, meowing, but he will not take that first step.
As if it makes any difference to a cat. If they have food and feel safe and can get their 16 hours of sleep every day, and plenty of love from their owner (sorry, Human companion) I think they are happy.
I’ve given up on spray catnip, none of my cats would ever go for it. But they looove the real stuff.
Can you put him in a crate and bring him downstairs?
Thanks for update!
I wouldn’t force him downstairs if he doesn’t want to go; especially as he seems happy and no longer hiding when in the bedroom.
I do wonder what it is about the basement that freaks him out. – a thought: maybe the “many shelves of spray paint and paint remover and rust remover” smell awful to him? A lot of those things produce toxic fumes; while to your nose the fumes may be safely sealed within the cans, he may be able to smell them; and/or even might be endangered by them at a level too low to be hazardous to you.
I could put him in carrier and shut the door at the top of the steps and bring him down, but I don’t want to force him. Maybe I am over protective, if I brought him down, as soon as I let him out of the carrier he would run to a corner and hide. But after a while, with just me down here, he would come out and see there is nothing to fear. Or maybe not, maybe he would hid in a corner of the basement like he hid in the corner of a closet for a couple of days. I am surprised about all this, Mickey is curious like other cats, once he started coming out of the bedroom, I thought he would want to come down here.
Anyway, I can hear his footsteps upstairs as he races around, pent up energy. Just like me following the election.
Maybe he is just an upstairs cat, not a basement dweller like me.
It sounds like he is making progress. I’m sorry to hear about your job. This has been a brutal year.
That doesn’t sound like a cat who’s unhappy with the house in general. I strongly suspect that there’s something about the basement in particular that bothers him. I agree, don’t force it. He’ll either get over it on his own or he won’t, but if he doesn’t forcing him down there will probably only make it worse; and it seems he can get exercise upstairs, as well as sleep with you upstairs in your bedroom.
He may meow at you from the top of the basement stairs because he’s trying to get you to come back upstairs – he may think the basement’s not a good place for you to be either.
I think you may be right. He is up there now again, meowing gently. I just went upstairs to go to the bathroom, and as always, he was hanging out in the living room just off the top of the stairs. He always moves there after 10 when everyone else has gone to bed. Now he is at the top of the stairs looking down, but can’t go any farther. He cannot see anything from there other than the bottom of the stairs. I am on the other side of the basement. He maybe thinks I have gone into some dark, dangerous area and he is worried.
Still debating about whether or not to put him in a carrier and bring him down. This is a rescue cat and I am very sure when we got him that he was taken away from his mother too soon. I am his mother. He always wants to be around me. IF I were to bring him down here in the carrier, when I opened the door I am sure he would run out and hid in a corner. But after 15 minutes, with me being here and no loud sounds or anything to disturb him, he would probably run out and jump in my lap.
But he may not. It’s not worth the risk. I only plan to live here for a month or two more. I would love for him to be able to spend most of his day down here with me (where I usually am) but he sleeps with me every night and I spend time with him during the day.
Let me edit this, yes he is a rescue cat but he is not one of those timid cats who runs and hides in a closet at the slightest sound (he did that for a few days when I first moved here), before I moved here my brother and a friend would come to my apartment, he would hang in the living room with us.
I really wouldn’t. Again, there may be something specific about the basement that’s highly disturbing to him, but which you don’t even notice. The two of you are working from different sensory systems, which have a good bit of overlap but are far from identical. If that’s what the problem is, then you’d be forcing him, not to confront an irrational fear, but into a situation of quite genuine distress; which would increase rather than decrease his fear of the basement, and probably add or increase a terror of the carrier.
eta for grammar
Everyone be very quiet. Mickey is on the 3rd step, looking over here and quietly mewing. I can just barely see his head. I put treats on the 5th step, earlier I put them on the 3rd step.
(very quietly) yay, Mickey! He’ll be spending the day in your lap in the basement before we know it.
Mew! [why are you doing this]
Mew! [why don’t you come upstairs, it’s bad down here]
Mew! [I came all the way down to step 3 for these treats despite the bad, why are they now on step 5]
Mew! [but I really would like the treats. And a pat]
Mew! [come upstairs and give me treats. And pats.]
Mew! [well, maybe, I haven’t run back upstairs yet anyway]
Mew!
– that does seem like a much better technique than trying to haul him down by force.
As usual I am an idiot. RIght now Mickey’s food and water fountain and litter box are in the bedroom. If I were to move them down here in the basement he would come down. This would not be unfamilar to him. When I owned a house in Rhode Island, up through 2017, initially all of the above were upstairs. But when I had finished finishing my basement, all were moved downstairs.
I could start feeding him at the top of the stairs, move down to 3rd stair after a day etc.
I think I’ve said this before, but by the time I get him to hang out down here, I’ll be moving to my own apartment
If the basement distresses him enough, he might start pissing all over the upstairs instead.
I wouldn’t. And I wouldn’t tell him to come downstairs or starve, either – offering treats is one thing, but moving all his food is something else entirely. It’s really not clear to me why it’s so important to you that he hang out in the basement.
Well I would not move everything down all at once. Move food and box to top of the stairs first. Why do I want to do this?
Because I think he would be happier if he got over his fear of the basement. This is a cat who likes to be around me all the time. And I spend most of my day here in this basement. It is where my TV and computer are. I have neither one in the bedroom upstairs where he spends his day. But I do spend some time there, he sleeps with me all night, and I feed him there and sometimes take a nap there with him beside me. So it’s not a huge deal, it’s not that important. Just a little improvement in the quality of his life, and mine. I miss Mickey sitting on my lap while I watch a movie.
I have decided not to move his food and box down here. If I were going to be here for 6 months, I would, but that is not going to happen. Right now I am looking for a job that pays a certain amount, I can get one that pays less than that. .And if I don’t get the job I want in the next month, I will take the lower paying job and get an apartment, when the question will become moot.
Again: there may be something in/about the basement that’s genuinely distressing him, even if it’s something that you don’t even notice – a sound outside your range of hearing, something about the air quality that you’re unable to smell, something of that sort. And if it is that, then what’s going on isn’t that he’s got an irrational fear, but that the space is physically unpleasant for him. In which case, forcing him down there wouldn’t improve his quality of life and make him happier; it would just make him miserable.
I keep picturing the original “Home Alone” movie, with the scary furnace in the basement.
Yes, the kid got over his fear … but not because anyone forced him. If a bigger sibling had scuffed him & tossed him down towards the glowing red teeth, he woulda lost his mind in terror.
Looked over my shoulder and guess who is 2/3 of the way down the steps, looking like he will venture down all the way with a little more coaking?
The question is moot. I just got approved for an apartment and will be moving in a week or so.
He has been doing fine, no longer stays all day in the bedroom. He will be very happy in the new apartment and hopefully, so will I.
Thanks for update and good luck with the new move!