In some ways, a cat’s natural state is paranoia. Cats survived, alone, by being alert, suspicious, and over-sensitive.

This was once a survival trait. Now, it’s the opposite.

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James Bond illustrates the vital difference a paranoid personality can make in a modern pet situation.

He was one of a litter of four, but he was the only one to react badly to being taken away from their mother, taped into a cardboard box, and left on the doorstep of a pet store. The other three kittens found homes quickly. He remained, plastered into the corner of the cage with his eyes the size of silver dollars, too frightened to cuddle. With very poor prospects.

I took him out and held him while plying him with cat kisses, and he was startled, then reassured, to discover I spoke Cat. Within ten minutes he was relaxed and purring.

While the other kittens had reacted to adversity with curiosity and trust, James Bond had a different sort of personality. He continues to be on a “hair trigger” regarding unusual events, new objects, and his peoples’ disapproval.

Innate suspicion, and a big tender heart, means he’s more than usually anxious about bad things happening. He suffers the most when I leave on trips; he sulks the longest when I get back.

By making sure I alert him to future events, by explaining deviations in his routine, and by reserving times and places to let him know he’s my Special Boy, I keep Mr. Bond happy about his mental, and physical, security.

All cats do better with these kinds of attentions; Mr. Bond has to have it to function at all.

If the scenario I envisioned for this poor little kitten had come to pass; if he had spent a couple more months in that cage not getting cuddles, and then gone to a shelter where he could get no sense of security, I might have encountered him as a shell-shocked adolescent. Then it wouldn’t have been a matter of ten minutes to make him into a happy, trusting, boy; it would have taken months, even years, to get him to his centered, present, self.

So if we have a wary, suspicious, cat, the most important element is this cat’s trust in us. We are the ones who offer support; we are the ones in charge of their environment, we are the ones who might, or might not, show hostility to them.

If we can gain such a cat’s trust, they will still be a bit nervous and prone to over-react.

But they won’t be that way all the time.

Consider our cat’s resilience with Are Cats Sensitive?.

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There’s more ways to care for our cat with The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See all of my posts on CAT CARE.