We have two kittens, almost 6 months old (two sisters). One of them is happy to climb up on you for cuddles etc and is generally fine. But the other is so so jumpy. We’ve had them for nearly two months now. We have tried using the feliway plug in. We have tried leaving her to come to us. We have tried handling her as much as possible but nothing works. Once you have hold of her, she will, for the most part, sit nicely and purr very loudly and just enjoy being stroked, sometimes even falling asleep. But if you walk past her, go near her with your hand, basically breathe in her direction, she jumps and runs away. She has hissed at us a couple of times and if you put your hand near her, she will sometimes bat at it with her paw before running off. She can even sense you getting closer to her even if she can’t see you.
I know not every cat is a lap cat and that’s okay but why could she be this scared? As far as I’m aware, the previous owner wasn’t abusive or anything, her sister is absolutely fine around us and even lets my 10 year old daughter pick her up and carry her round like a baby. It’s just odd because it’s like she enjoys attention once she is with you but trying to get her to come anywhere near you or letting you get anywhere near her is basically impossible.
She’s fine in every other sense in that she eats fine, plays fine etc. The only way I can get her to come up to me is offer her a treat but once she’s eaten it, she will jump and run off again. I feel bad for her because when her sister is getting love, she just kind of sits there watching.
Would you say this is normal behaviour? Not the fact she’s not a lap cat but that she is just SO jumpy around people. Even if she hears a noise like the floorboards creak upstairs when someone is walking around, she panics and scarpers. Is there anything else I can try to stop her from always being so petrified of everything?