Good morning everyone,
If I could have a little bit of insight, thoughts, opinions, etc., that would be great
I just picked up my savannah (she's an F3) two days ago. I consider her a rescue, as I'm her third home after the breeder. Her former owner, whom I picked up up from, has 5 children, and they did the stereotypical "oh, let's play with the kitty!" and child-terrorized her. Nothing malicious, just the typical kid stuff that makes people segregate pets that are "good" around children and pets that are "not good" around children.
Now, here I am on day two. She has acclimated to my apartment (it's a large 3 bedroom, so she has plenty of space), is eating, drinking, using the litter box. So, I'm considering her immediate survival needs met. However, if I get too close to her (so if she's under the bed, or behind the couch), she'll do the hissing and growing. She lets me pet her, and she only swatted me once -- without claws. No biting, no attacking. I don't even consider the hissing and growling aggressive behavior in this context.
I feel pretty confident that she's still just nervous around me -- she's not my first cat, but my two prior were domestic short hairs, and they were also rescues. They hid for a couple days, and then became attached, and I never had any issues.
So I guess, in a nutshell, now that I attempted to explain the entire context, my questions are: should I keep attempting to pet her when she growls and hisses? Should I back off, and keep talking to her? She calms down within about 30 seconds after hissing, and the growling stops within about 60 seconds. I don't want to push her, and like I said, I'm on day two now, but I really want her to get comfortable around me and be a companion, not just a four legged creature that exists.
Thank you in advance!
If I could have a little bit of insight, thoughts, opinions, etc., that would be great
I just picked up my savannah (she's an F3) two days ago. I consider her a rescue, as I'm her third home after the breeder. Her former owner, whom I picked up up from, has 5 children, and they did the stereotypical "oh, let's play with the kitty!" and child-terrorized her. Nothing malicious, just the typical kid stuff that makes people segregate pets that are "good" around children and pets that are "not good" around children.
Now, here I am on day two. She has acclimated to my apartment (it's a large 3 bedroom, so she has plenty of space), is eating, drinking, using the litter box. So, I'm considering her immediate survival needs met. However, if I get too close to her (so if she's under the bed, or behind the couch), she'll do the hissing and growing. She lets me pet her, and she only swatted me once -- without claws. No biting, no attacking. I don't even consider the hissing and growling aggressive behavior in this context.
I feel pretty confident that she's still just nervous around me -- she's not my first cat, but my two prior were domestic short hairs, and they were also rescues. They hid for a couple days, and then became attached, and I never had any issues.
So I guess, in a nutshell, now that I attempted to explain the entire context, my questions are: should I keep attempting to pet her when she growls and hisses? Should I back off, and keep talking to her? She calms down within about 30 seconds after hissing, and the growling stops within about 60 seconds. I don't want to push her, and like I said, I'm on day two now, but I really want her to get comfortable around me and be a companion, not just a four legged creature that exists.
Thank you in advance!