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Housecats Under Stress

Cats have very powerful natural responses to stress. An encounter with an aggressive neighborhood dog or other cat will activate a whole cascade of internal hormonal interactions that produces the "flight or fright" response.

The stressful situation would be the start of the release of epinephrine (adrenaline), cortisol, and other stress mediators in a cat’s body. These have many effects. In the short-term, they produce increased body temperature, increased alertness and activity, increased heart rate, eye (pupil) dilation, piloerection (hair stands on end), sometimes elimination, hissing, spitting, biting, and scratching behaviors (or running and hiding!).

Once this system is on full alarm, the feline species does not return to baseline (normal) for an extended period of time afterward. Cats sometimes attack owners following high stimulation encounters because the indoor cat is still on full alert and the owner is in the wrong place at the right time; the cat is provoked by the internal emotional state to strike out at the closest moving object. Housemates (cats or dogs) are equally at risk for this inappropriate (but natural) response. The cat may appear to have calmed down, but will suddenly exhibit aggressive behavior, sometimes hours following the inciting event.

After a few hours to a day, this hangover of stress hormones settles back down, but sometimes the memory of the encounter can trigger a fear response for quite a while afterward. The sensitive cat sometimes seems to confuse the attacker with the housemate, particularly if the housemate is a similar color or is moving towards it quickly (as in play behavior). It may take quite a while for the cat to get settled back down in this case.