Hi all, I wonder if anyone can give me some advice.....

My partner has just moved in with myself and my 2 young children ( aged 3 & 4) and he has brought his 18 month old cat with him. She is a very loving cat and quite sociable normally, even with new people, well adults at least. When we brought her to her new home for the first time the children weren't around and it didn't take her long at all to be seemingly quite comfortable and at home. When the children came back from their fathers after the weekend however she has been terrified. She has been hiding behind the microwave all day until the kids go to bed. Once they are in bed she comes out and is pretty much normal. I do know that this is the first contact she has had with children, and my 2 aren't the type that will chase her round and try to poke and prod her. Is there anything i can do to make this easier? I really don't want the cat to feel frightened in her new home.

It sounds to me she hasn't had to deal with kids before! It really is a case of introducing her to the children. Maybe get them to be around, but sitting down being quiet, when she is fed, she needs to associate them with good things. And then getting them to play with her, but with dangle toys so she doesn't feel any pressure to be close to them yet. If it can be done it would make things easier if the children didn't try to have any direct contact with her just yet. (i know its hard i have a 3yr old myself!) Eventually, maybe the children can feed her etc. It might be a slow process but it will be worth it.

Bear in mind she hasn't had that much time to acustom to all these new things yet.

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If she has never lived with or been around children before then she is bound to be scared of them.

After all even the calmest, well behaved child can still be quite noisy and active to a cat that is used to adults.

Simply get the children to give her a wide berth and let her hide if that is waht she wants to do, she will start to realise in time that they are no threat and start to accept them.

I once re-homed a 16 year old cat that had never beena round a child and although it took a couple of months she ended up loving my children and would sleep on their laps!

My daughter had a similar problem so we tied string to their trousers, so it dragged behind them, we told them not to even stroke or turn to the cat's, their inquisitive minds overcame their fear, they started pouncing on the string, then the cat came closer when the kid's sat down, they would dangle the string & the cat would play, but the kid's still did not touch the cat's, after a while the cat's would jump down & run after the kid's even before they got the string, when the cat stopped playing & laid down, the kid's gave it one stroke & built up from there. Everything ok now.

That sounds like a brilliant idea!!!

All in moderation I guess... our cat is the orignal scaredy-cat around new people... but if they leave him alone for the first few visits he soon warms to them (or just learns to ignore them!!)

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