Hello, my cat is a six year old female and I'm starting to become quite worried by her behaviour. She came from a cat sanctuary when she was a very young kitten and one of the conditions of taking her was to have her spayed as soon as possible, which I did. Normally she is completely placid and loves being around people.

A few weeks ago a male cat turned up a couple of times in the garden and the next day she had obviously been fighting or more likely the other thing with this cat. Anyway, her behaviour has completely changed. She won't stay in, if you try to keep her in she will literally climb the curtains in desperation to get out and cries so obviously I have to let her out. When I do she vanishes for about two days at a time and comes home starving and looking thin. When she does want to stay in she goes into the very few places she knows she isn't supposed to go like the bath! She has also taken a dump on the carpet which is so unlike her I'm actually starting to really worry. She has taken to going into a stone outbuilding and hiding right at the very back behind some timber.

I worry about it a lot, the exact same thing happened last year about this time and the other cat was around then too. She hid in the shed in the end until I went in and got her out and basically sealed it up so she couldn't get in. Unfortunately I can't do that this year as there are two hedgehogs living in there.

I really don't know what to do. She seems manic all the time though she is still friendly and has the odd hour of being normal. I think that she thinks she is pregnant and she is looking for somewhere out of the way to have her kittens. Do you think that's possible? I asked a vet about it and he said it was very unlikely as she has been spayed.

Any advice really appreciated. I hate to see her distressed and she isn't a very big cat so when she doesn't eat she looks incredibly ragged and weak.