My female cat growls at guest that come to my home. She doesn't act this way to my children, husband, my sister or myself. When company come over and they try to show her affection she will growl at them and afraid she will scratch them. We have to put her in the room until they leave. This started about 2 years ago when my dad and brother started adding on an extra room and they blocked the doorway so the cats wouldn't get in and get her or jump out the open window. They had to go in and out of the room and house several times to work, and even when they tried to show her they were nice and affection she would growl, kind of, low meow at them. Ever since then she continues to do this, people are a little nervous around her, the male cat is great. I am concerned and really need this behavior to stop. Any suggestions?

This isn't something you can train a cat to get over. You will have to put her in a crate or in a closed room when you have guests. I would try the crate out where the guests are for a while, and occasionally let her out to see if she has become used to them. You could have tiny treats for the guests to give her.

She was traumatized by strangers tromping through HER territory and making weird noises and smells. Now she's wary of intruders.

There's really nothing you can do about it. Does she approach strangers, or wait for them to approach before warning them off? If she doesn't approach them, then it's fairly safe to assume that she's not going to go berserk and attack unprovoked. Just warn people to stay away from her and back off if she growls. It's possible that she'll eventually stop seeing any stranger as a threat.

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Originally Posted by hheath541

she was traumatized by strangers tromping through HER territory and making weird noises and smells. now she's wary of intruders.

there's really nothing you can do about it. does she approach strangers, or wait for them to approach before warning them off? if she doesn't approach them, then it's fairly safe to assume that she's not going to go berserk and attack unprovoked. just warn people to stay away from her and back off if she growls. it's possible that she'll eventually stop seeing any stranger as a threat.

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Thanks for your response, it makes a lot of since. She will approach my guest, when she does we watch to see what she will do and sometimes she's great and others not so much, then we just put her in our bedroom until they leave.

The top two post are correct you can't train her not to be scared of people BUT you can make feel more secure. My mom had this problem with her cat. May I suggest a cat tree something she can climb up so she can look down on people and maybe the fear of being trampled on will subside. Something like this one.

Cat Tree