Charlie, my cat, is terrified of the sound of fireworks. Even distant thumps make him look wide-eyed in terror. His ears are permanently pricked up or swiveling to locate the the source of the sound.
Some cats are much less bothered about the noise of fireworks but for some, like Charlie, it seems to be, almost, traumatic.
He scuttles off to find somewhere to hide. In fact, I made sure he had somewhere to hide for his peace of mind. It was a dark corner of the apartment behind some books etc.. I have spent quite a lot of time reassuring him. He is quite twitchy at any noise now, even noises that I make. He is clearly on edge.
For the past five years of his life he has gone to the toilet outside in the garden. Having just moved home I had to introduce him to a new place. Then came the fireworks in the lead up to bonfire night (5th Nov.). He was too frightened to go out. I knew he’d do it and he did. He pooed on the floor in the lounge. It was OK because it is a wood floor.
I cleaned it up and found my old cat litter tray and placed it in the place where he had gone. The next day he took his time sniffing around it and jumped in. Great. He had a pee. I left the pee in it so that he knew for sure that this was his toilet. This morning, early, he peed in it again. I am waiting for the poo to seal the deal, to confirm that this is his new toilet.
In my experience cats naturally use cat litter because the litter tray is normally inside the house where the alternative, a hard floor of some kind, is much less attractive for a cat to poo and pee on. Cats like to bury it. They want something that can be raked over to form a small hole. As a results cats migrate to the better substance on which to go to the toilet.
I am actually pleased that he is using a cat litter because it is safer for him. I don’t really want him wandering too far outside and getting lost or meeting another cat and having a standoff.
I think that the only time when a cat needs litter training is when he has developed an aversion to cat litter for a multitude of reasons. They are all good reasons. The oft-used phrase “inappropriate elimination” refers to the cat owner’s reaction. To a cat it is appropriate to pee and poo where it feels right.
Why are cats scared of fireworks?
Is it just the noise? Some noises don’t worry cats. There is something about the sound of fireworks that is very worrying for a cat. Cats are also frightened of thunder but fireworks seem to be worse. There is a similarity in sound and I wonder if there is a sort of primeval automatic response to the loud bangs?
Wild cats might have a standard reaction to storms for self-preservation and it is possible that this reaction is hard-wired into the domestic cat’s head, who thinks that a storm is coming when he hears fireworks. Of course, that is pure speculation without supporting evidence whatsoever but it would make sense. It may also have something to do with the hearing frequency range of cats, which is much higher than for humans. Cats are very good with high pitched sounds. We don’t know what fireworks sound like to a cat.
I have learned to dislike fireworks for the reason they upset my cat. I hate seeing him scared and be unable to do anything about it. Calming music is available but I can’t see it working.
Firework night (bonfire night) is Nov 5th in England, so we – my cat and I – have at least three more days of this.
Maybe Ruth, it’s not in our street, it’s the next but one which is quite notorious for the police always being there. But the local shops are selling fireworks too. I saw some boxes of 24 rockets £24 !!! £1 each !!! £1 would buy 2 big tins of cat food for needy cats. It drives me mad that idiots have money to see going up in smoke.
To give you an idea what it’s like, I was in the Post Office up the main street last week and there was a gang of yobs with one waiting to be served, he was cross eyed with drugs and talking in ‘rap’ on his mobile phone about the number of girls he sleeps with and how he has a ‘disease’ from them…. Louise who owns the P.O put them all out! Very brave of her. They set off along towards where Babz works alone in Funeralcare, I had my mobile ready to phone the police if they bothered her, thankfully they went past. She has a panic button.
When she can afford to retire we intend to move away but that’s a long way off…2019 🙁
Yes some of our youths are quite insane Ruth, our once beautiful town is now a dumping ground for druggies, decent people are moving away and buy to let landlords putting anyone in who they get the rent paid for!
We had criminal/druggies as our last neighbours, they were evicted but are still in this town.
But there are a lot of decent people here too, thankfully most of our neighbours are nice. Babz and I set up Neighbourhood Watch and are in close contact with our friendly neighbourhood PC, so he can nip any trouble here in the bud.
A few years back an idiot putting a firework through an old man’s door caused him and his cats to die in the fire. The thought of that haunts me!
I think some of the very loud stuff being set off by you, Ruth, is probably homemade. Changing the laws won’t stop it. Somebody is making his own little bombs. The police catch people doing that by us routinely. Every time someone is caught making homemade explosives we all cringe hoping it’s no one we know or work with (and that’s the first question we get– did you know that guy making bombs in his basement?) But so far it’s never been anyone we know. But it’s almost scarier when it’s a total amateur because they take horrible risks and don’t realize just how dangerous production really is. Far more dangerous than handling or even lighting a finished product. But I’d be willing to bet you have somebody making their own fireworks, possibly quite near you. It takes decent people who know the culprit to rat him out to the police. Perhaps he doesn’t know any decent people.