I’m hoping someone can help me understand my cat’s behaviour a bit better.
She is an old girl (10+) who used to be stray so I don’t know a lot about her life before she came to me a year ago. She’s got a very gentle temperament, likes to be cuddled, eats well etc but she’s not very ‘active’ except at night, when she is needy. She is territorial and has favourite rooms, favourite items, etc.
To try and tire her out a bit at night, I’ve been trying different toys – she wasn’t very interested in the feather-on-a-string or treat balls so I got two dancing fish and I’m regretting it. She carries the fish everywhere, sleeps on it, grooms it, bites it and plays with it etc – and if I even go near it, she growls and just behaves in a really uncharacteristic way. She bit me earlier because I took the fish for a minute to charge it up. She gives these strange, prolonged sort of warning ‘moans’ if I come into the room when the fish is there and is starting to be hostile towards me and I’m baffled. She doesn’t sleep in her bed now unless the fish is in it. I’ve been reading that some of these toys have catnip inside and I think this one has it and I’m wondering if that is having an effect. I want to replace it just with a plain soft toy as I don’t like the effect on her but maybe I’m just not understanding?