I got home Thursday afternoon from a camping trip I'd left on early the prior Friday a.m. In my absence, a house sitter was here. I found Jasmine cowering atop a box in the closet of my bedroom. She didn't seem to recognize me. I extended my hand but she would not even sniff. I looked for 4 m.o. Kensho. He skittered into the kitchen and got up on a shelf and made an anxious, almost caterwauling sound as I approached him, as though he did not know me! It was weird! That's never happened before, with Cloud & Salem, when I went away, even for longer periods. But those times, I never had anyone stay in the house with them. Just a pet sitter who came and fed them once a day and stayed with them one hour. Anyone else have this experience with their cats? Fortunately, after a few hours they remembered me, and by bedtime both settled into bed with me . . .
Daily Kitten Chat Forum » Cats & Kittens
Temporary amnesia in cats
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One of my cats was always displeased with me when I travelled... She would ignore me for usually 4-6 hours after I came home... not the usual, normal cat ignoring, tho'... She would come into the living room, look at me, and then sit facing away from me in the middle of the room - showing me her back - and then after a few hours, or when it was dinner time, whichever came first, we were friends again. The current crew just act normal, except when I pull out the clothes from the trip they have to inspect everything at great length! lol!
Posted 2 years ago by nawlins catmom #
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You might want to ask the house sitter if anything unusual happened while you were gone - storm, etc. And specifically ask about kit's behavior and eating, etc... That might give you some clues as well...
Posted 2 years ago by nawlins catmom #
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Hopefully your house sitter is a cat lover and didn't mistreat and/or scare your kitties.
When I had to go into the hospital last December, my friend came over to visit my kits, feed them and clean the litter box. I was gone for 5 days, but they were very happy to see "mommy" back.Posted 2 years ago by MaxandCali'sMom #
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In my opinion cats by nature have always had a touch of fickle in their chemistry. Mine all seem to try on different personalities from time to time and all I can say is they truly are fickle. One day they're in my lap and purring and then next day they're slinking in quietly and trying to avoid my every attention. Go Figure!! =)
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Sounds to me like your kitties were very traumatised by something. Do you know the sitter-person well? If not, I wouldn't use them again. Something obviously happened while you were away; if I were in your shoes I'd expect the sitter to at least tell me if something strange happened.
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Skyron, I don't think anything traumatic happened. They're just skittish around strangers. I had a houseguest for a few days a while back and they hid away in the closet for days. I had to feed them in my bedroom. Anyway, I think next time I will just buy a tower feeder and tower water dish and an extra litter pan and leave them alone. Having someone stay with them is probably not worth it unless I'm going to be away more than a week.
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