My cat is terrified of the fly-swatter... WTF?

[belladonna]

This is a cat who, up until now, I thought had no fear of anything. She rules the house with an iron paw and the dog is completely subservient to her, as are we. I rescued her as a 5 week old kitten who'd been thrown away (literally) in a dumpster. Yet to look at the way she reacts to this thing, you'd think she would have had a horrible experience somewhere along the way with a flyswatter. Cats are such little weirdos :shrug:

[MissMillie]

1. It scares me too

:scared:

[belladonna]

2. Thing is, it's never used around here

I'd rather let the flys do their thing most of the time and I forgot we even had one until my daughter used it and accidently freaked out the poor kitty :yoiks:

[sakabatou]

3. Maybe fly tape...?

The one that comes in those small containers...

[belladonna]

5. Eh, I'll just get rid of it

Summer's over and, like I said, I don't think I picked it up once this year anyway. Apparently, there was a creepy looking spider that freaked my daughter out and she grabbed the fly swatter. Must of been one scary mofo too, cause she's the type that will usually pick up the spider and take it outside rather than freak out and smash it. Molly just FREAKED, was actually cringing and cowering and it's just so weird. This cat gets treated like a queen by everyone here, including the dog, but she looked like my dog after I rescued her from the pound, hand-shy and cringing at any sudden movement. :shrug:

[SOteric]

4. Maybe she was a fly in a previous life?

:shrug:

[belladonna]

6. Haha, I didn't think of that!

Makes more sense than anything else, so we'll go with it :thumbsup:

[GCP]

7. I've seen that

Weirdest thing.

My theory is that their eyes, which are good at night but have crappy clarity have trouble with the mesh, and it makes some drug-like trip-out effect.

[Bassic]

8. MAybe your cat has been in my house then!

That would explain the fly-swatter thing :D (this is a joke of course)

[AlCzervik]

9. thats ok, my daughter's guinea pig bob is afraid of orange slices.

go figure.

[Bassic]

10. It's a guinea pig.

It's genetically engineered to be dumb and cute.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

11. I had a cat who would freak out anytime we put on hats or Halloween masks

We raised her from birth.
There's no telling what will set them off.

[NMMNG]

12. She may have been abused previously

either by a flyswatter or something similar. Even in a few weeks of life it's possible she was hurt prior to being dumped. :-(

[VOX]

13. I had a big, studly cat who freaked out at rotating ceiling fans...

He was mellow, burly, a lord of the manor, but when a ceiling fan was switched on, he'd wig out and run for cover.

He was raised gently and lovingly from kittenhood. But he just couldn't handle ceiling fans, for some reason known only to him. :shrug:

[2008]

14. the babysitter

got drunk and chased your cat with the fly swatter

thot it was pretty damn funny too

you might want to hide your alcohol before hiring that babysitter again

[LaurenG]

15. Cats are really funny

one of my cats hates hammers. He lives with my mom now butif he ever saw a hammer he'd raise up on his back legs and attack it. My other two think winter coats mean "danger" they run when we put them on.