help please, DD's friend is terrified of our cats

[mckenzie]

DD has a friend over. The friend is 6 years old and it seems, terrified of our cats. She has quite literally jumped into my arms at the sighting of them. I've had to shut the girls in DD's bedroom while I work out what to do. All of the downstairs of our house is open plan so I don't have anyway i can shut the cats for the next 2 hours.

Any suggestions gratefully received. Can I try and cure her fear in any way do you think? My cats are gentle and affectionate, not spiteful at all so possibly the ideal cats to use with someone who is so scared of them. But how?

[pinkhebe]

our friend is 7 and also scared of our kitten. Good luck, I just remove him from the room they are in, luckily the kitten doesn't like hysterics and so removes himself!

[mckenzie]

thanks pinkhebe for the reply. I managed to get her to stroke our smallest cat by the end of the evening as long as the cat was curled up in her basket. She was scared though if the cat moved and still very scared of our larger cat (who is pretty large it has to be said) but much better than when she first arrived and literally jumped into my arms when the cat moved

[Lizcat]

DD has two little friends (sisters) who were quite literally paralysed with fear over my cats. I never pushed it just kept cats put of their way - mostly cats ran from the screaming. I did not move the sleeping cats if the girls entered the room though. Gradually they got used to the cats and then would even seek them out.