Me and my partner have recently adopted a cat from the RSPCA. He's name is tom and he is approaching 10 years old. His previous owner was an elderly lady that went in to hospital and never came out. He was then passed on to foster parents and is now with us. We brought him home and he seemed fine a little nervous but ok. The first night I was stroking him and my partner came into the room and he started hissing at him, so we thought that this was purely because he was new to us and nervous. But gradually the hissing and growling have got worse. The second day he was again very sweet playfull etc. but towards the end of the day started hissing and me and my partner everytime we waked passed him. I Was actually stroking him in the living room when he walked away from me I then proceeded onto the hallway and again started hissing at me, this has got progresively worse to the point that he dosent want us near him and constandly hides under neath the bed and will only come out to eat and drink and use the litter tray everytime we go near him he hisses or growls at us, we have only had Tom for five days, but his behaviour has got so bad we just do not know what to do. We have contacted the RSPCA and they do not know what to suggest as he has no record of behaviour problems and apparently has always been friendly and affectionate

He has also urinated on the couch twice. Tom is neutered male tom cat.

Anyone had the same problem? or any suggestions would be much appreciated??

Just sounds like too much too soon, to me.
You've only had him five days so it's a bit early to be writing him off as having behaviour issues.
Leave him alone for a while and let him come to you.

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We are not writing him off at all. But we are currently resigned to the living room as he is in the bedroom and dosen't like us in there, and we do not want to disturb or or anger him.

We have left him alone two whole days and nothing has changed at all. Whenever we accidently meet him in the hallway we get the same response, the hissing and spitting he then runs back into the bedroom

Could something or someone spooked him? A dog? Someone other than you?

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Nothing really, we have no dogs cats anything else around. He hasn't even been in our garden, and he has been fine with the one or two visitors that we have had.

We caught him weeing on the sofa we did not tell him off as we thought it was too early to do that but we did go over to him and tap him off very softly. At the moment that's all we can think that it could be apart from that nothing has happened to him nothing seems to have spooked him in anyway well not that we have seen.

It's just a bit worrying. both me and my partner have always had cats, I myself had a stray cat at an early age, but neither of us has ever expeirenced anything like this with a cat.

I bought a older cat a couple of years back and she was quite timid,she stayed under my bed for a week,maybe a bit longer,we just left her alone eventually she came out and started to interact with us,she ended up being very loving and sociable.It must be quite unsettling for a older cat to be moved to a new environment,give him all the time he needs and hopefully it will come right.

Does anyone have any advice for the urinating on the couch. He has done this twice now but is also using the litter tray.

I was told that a spray called feliway would work??

You can buy sprays from petshops and vets which contain bacteria which neautralizes the smell,making it less likely for the cat to reoffend.It sounds like hes marking his terratory.You can also buy plug in units from the vets which helps to relax and calm.

The Feliway comes as a plug in - not sure about other forms. It is supposed to calm cats down, but all it did with my cats was attract them - very successfully! I didn't see any change in their behaviour towards each other. However some Bengal breeders swear by it.

To neutralise the smell use something like 'Urine Off'. It smells of lemons, so is quite pleasant. However if you have a leather sofa that could be trouble! Leather + cat pee = sodden seats and smells that last forever!

Other people also swear by scrubbing with vinegar and drying it out with biological washing powder. The cat, apparently, will not return to that spot.

A bit of a pain on a sofa though.

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Beautiful Savannah Kittens from Teardrops Savannahs

I think feliway could help him
As for him having a pee on your sofa I would clean it with biological washing powder. I'm sure he will settle down just give him time

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