Last week when my wife and I got home from work we couldnt find our younger cat Jefferson, he is 1 year and 4 months. He always greets us at the door, and comes up on the counter where I dump my phone/keys/etc, to be face level for some petting. We searched the house, and I found him in one of the upstairs bathrooms cowering under the enclosed area of the sink. He saw me and came out, but he was adgitated, and jumpy..he zipped around upstairs "talking", and looking around for something. I thought Oh no, the older cat Jeeba (hes 12, had passed away.) Not the case. For the next few hours Jefferson was in either my wife or my arms just wanting to be held. and was jumpy, and not his usual Alpha Cat self. It took about 3 days for him to get back to his usual self.

My first thoughts were someone got in my house, and kicked/hit my cat, by how jumpy, and upset he was.. But I have an alarm system which didnt go off, and nothing seemed out of place or stolen. ( so I came to the conclusion no-one breaks into a house to abuse a cat, even though there are some sick losers out there who hate cats, and do worse to them.)

Now we think either a wild animal (coyote,wolf, or one of the stray dogs in the area spooked him coming up on
the deck. Or he was startled by someone coming to the door, or scared himself getting himself stuck, trapped somewhere.

I have had 3 cats now, and never had something like this happen. Anyone with some insight, or similar experience?

Did you have a recent change in your family, i.e. new animal etc?

My cats are 17 year old brothers. A couple of months after their sister died, they started seriously fighting all the time. It wasn't very obvious as long as she lived, but she must have been the alpha cat and after she was gone, they had to fight it out. However, that didn't happen for 3 months after the female cat had died.

Let us know if he displays that kind of behavior again please. I'm a cat lover myself and would like to know, too, what scared your cat.

No changes,

our oldest cat we had to put down last fall (he lost movement in his back legs due to a tumor.) , other than that my wife is pregnant right now, (expecting Oct 17th). But he seems very interested in all the baby stuf, and loves to lay near her stomach, and feel the babies heart beat/kicks..

I was initially worried he might be sick, but like I said he is back to his usual fun, crazy self..

thanks for the reply.

I don't want to get all spooky, but I've seen cats and dogs react to things that I just couldn't figure out. There are things that we'll never figure out about our beloved pets. I hope there are no more episodes for this poor little guy. Let us know if you do figure something out about this.

Our cat, who is normally quite smart, managed to freak himself out once at a very early age by going after a toy under our dining room hutch -- laying on his back, he got his head stuck under the hutch, couldn't get unstuck, and flipped out -- yowling, screaming, etc. Luckily we were home and were able to quickly slide him back out. But he was really freaked out for a couple hours, needed to be held by us both for a long time, was very skittish, etc.

Maybe Jefferson did something dumb to himself, and freaked himself out?
(Excellent name for a cat, by the way!)

wvridge,

thanks,

I also thought, maybe a ghost, I am leery of the wood behind my house, I always think something is watching me when doing yard work.

One time @ dusk I went in the woods, to get closer to some deer, and before I knew it I was at least 100 feet into the woods, and it was pitch black, I stood still,and heard footsteps/russling of leaves all around me, I got out of those woods as quick as I could. The area I live was once a area with a couple of Indian tribes that killed each other off for control of the Illinois River. so you never know, .....:eek:

uglytruckling,

thanks for the input, and compliment on his name,

I am leaning towards your experience, he is always getting into everything, I bet he got himslef somewhere he couldnt get out of and freaked...

Jim,
Have you checked your house for little critters? You have a new house and undisturbed fields/woods around you, and the weather is chilling down. Just a thought since your cat is an indoor cat could be a little spooked. Unfortunatly we have a cat door, mine bring them in to play.:eek:

eagles,


excellent idea,

I took a look around and didnt see any signs of any other animals. He is always interested in going down to our basement wich is unfinished, I also looked down there, and saw nothing. With the way he was acting I thought there might be a person in the house, who had somehow surpassed the security system. I was so concerned I checked every closet, room, and under every bed.

I just wish I had a camera or something running that day to see what actually happened...

Poor buddy. :(

LR,

yep I was upset because he is my little buddy, and it scared me to think something was wrong with him.. like I said hes back to his old self thankfully..

thanks for the supportive posts folks..

DING, DING, DING, Congrats chrisoxjim on your 1,000th post you just made here!

I can't recall anything similar to what you described in my decades of being owned by cats. The most amazing and bizarre story I have had to do with my two senior neutered male cats many years ago. After years of not liking each other much, 2 Spot and Sebastian became mortal enemies. They engaged in the most ferocious cat fights I've ever witnessed. I got a painful bite on my shin one day in my effort to break up one fight. Finally, Sebastian had enough and he left.

For the next two years we would see him in the neighborhood periodically. When I could, I would catch him and haul him home, get him vaccinated and feed him. Usually, he would not allow me to catch him. If I got him home he would chow down and be gone the next day. Our sightings of him grew infrequent.

2 Spot got sick on a Saturday and I had him hospitalized over the weekend to get some fluids in him. On Monday I swung by the vet's office to check on him on my way to work. The receptionist went back to get some information on him. When she returned, she told me the vet would be out in a few minutes to talk to me. I knew this was not good news.

Our vet apologized for not being able to contact us on Sunday when 2 Spot died. His record still had our old phone number on it, since he was one of our senior pets. I took his body home and he was buried in our pet cemetery.

At dinner that very night I noticed a cat coming up the steps to our back door. When he got to the sliding glass door I about fainted. After all these months and years that he would not live with us anymore, here was Sebastian coming home on his own. And he never left again until we had to euthanize him at age 18.

That's some amazing psychic ability. I would not have believed it if it hadn't happened to our family.

truckin,

thanks for the reply, the animal world is definitley a mystery. I would be devistated if I heard about one of my guys passing after the fact.


northen lights,


no new plants, I was concerned he got into a household item (toothpaste,lotion, soap, etc.) but nothing out of place, or with teeth/claw marks...

The very same thing happened to us last week. We have 3 cats,2,6,&13. I bet they just somehow managed to scare themselves. We also thought someone was in the house, but after a quick look around....nothing.... they probably were playing and just got tooo frisky...it happens!:rolleyes: