Is this trauma from when the 12 year old girl tried to steal her or is someone else trying to break into your home?
This was something else. Midday Monday I was upstairs getting ready for work. The dogs were crated in the laundry room and it was just Potato Cat out and about on the main floor.
Between the noise of the vent and the tub, I couldn’t hear much, but I did hear something odd enough that I did a quick check around the main floor. Nothing. Finished getting ready and Potato Cat was on his bed on top of Zwi's crate. He usually stays with the dogs while we're gone. Has done since he was a kitten.
I got home a bit after 8:00pm and my best friend said that Potato Cat hadn't come upstairs all evening. He was loaf cating on the ottoman in the basement. (Really weird for Potato Cat.)
I figured maybe it was just mild stomach discomfort and figured he'd be fine in the morning. Mostly like scenario because we were phasing his kibble back over, but I kept an eye on him. And his reactions about the back door were a bit of a red flag, as was the sudden behaviour change.
Potato Cat always follows me into the kitchen when I go to feed them and tries to grab my hand through the crack in the refrigerator door. He has done this every night since he was a kitten. Something was drastically wrong with Potato Cat. He wasn't acting or showing signs of illness. He was terrified.
I had the next day off and his hiding behaviour intensified. He was eating, drinking, using his box, and playing, but he would startle and run skittering into the corner of the closet under the stairs, a place he had never hidden before. He shoved himself so far into that corner it was like he was trying to lost himself. My bright, sociable kitty was shattered by terror.
I googled everything there was to google on potential organic causes (illness). I moved up his wellness check and talked with the vet. Potato Cat is profoundly healthy, but something had happened involving the back door.
Tuesday night we put down the blind on the back door and Potato Cat braved the steps to the kitchen when I filled his bowl.
Wednesday evening we hung out downstairs and let Potato Cat come out on his own terms. He hopped up on me for a bit freaked out and hid in his doughnut tunnel. Big step forward from the corner of the closet. He was willing to play for brief periods and was willing to go up and down the steps as well as into the livingroom with treat motivation. He did do his signature finger grab at the refrigerator door, but there was no confidence in the move.
Thursday I was off and taking Potato Cat's cue, started using the laundry room as a base camp or safe space for him. Actively play with him in the space and just hang out, letting him set the pace. He came upstairs both morning and evening, his breakthrough moment being when he came down the hall to my room by himself. Tail low and ears twitching, but he came in spite of his flight mode.
He didn't spook at the noise of the vacuum, the dryer, the AC, the bathtub, or the dehumidifier when I was cleaning yesterday. Everything has been centered around the back door and I found the evidence while vacuuming the kitchen. A scratch about an inch and a half long near Potato Cat's height on the interior door and a correlating gouge of fresh wood on the doorframe itself.
Someone tried to jimmy open our back door midday Monday and Potato Cat saw them, probably from the top of the steps. Our doors are steel reinforced and always locked so no one got in, but damage was still done to Potato Cat's confidence.
He is regrounding himself with his scent soakers and is still jumpy, but he is actively engaging to be near the rest of his pack.
The incident at the front window Potato Cat rebounded from. He wasn't skittish afterward, but he also defended himself and Rue Dog also came to his defense. In that case it was a kid (female) and if there is one thing Potato Cat isn't very comfortable with it is men. He just hasn't been around them much and will actively seek to hide when they are around.
The majority of our social group is female and Potato Cat is usually pretty willing to hang out with them. He is not a shy cat by nature.
Put a strange man on the back step messing with the door and no one around to defend you, who isn't going to freak out?
I was in the bathroom (couldn't hear what was going on) and the dogs were crated downstairs, so they also couldn't see or hear much beyond the laundry room. Given the evidence, Potato Cat was essential on his own staring at one of his few fears.