Traumatic Encounter with Dog

[leo&dominosmom]

Has anyone ever had behavior changes in their cats following an encounter with a strange dog? My outside cat Domino who stays mostly in our garage during the day and doesn't venture out much now that she has gotten older had the misfortune of encountering my step-sons German Sheppard who got into our garage. She was able to climb into my husbands engine compartment of his truck to get away from the dog and luckily was not hurt. Domino has always been wary of any other people and animals and the garage has always been her "safe place". Now ever since this happened Saturday afternoon she does not want to stay in the garage and has been hiding outside until late evening before coming back into the garage to eat. She is always kept in the garage at night and never allowed to be out after dark and now I am so worried when I cannot find her before dark. Sunday morning she didn't come in till about 4:00 AM and last night it was about 9:00 PM. Once she comes in I am able to close in into the garage for the rest of the night. This morning when I went out to the garage to leave for work she was hiding in our riding lawnmower and as soon as I opened up the garage door she ran out and would not come back in. She always sleeps on our vehicles or her cat bed normally. My husband says that she is still scared of the dog possibly still being in the garage and it is going to take her a few days to realize that the dog is not there. Has anyone else had any experiences with this?

[DrKym]

nope.my cats are all indoor

[Catty1]

Can you take her into your house for awhile? Maybe some extra human affection will help.

[Medusa]

It's been my experience that once a cat is spooked like that, it's difficult to get them to return to the place where the traumatic event occurred. I'd bring her in, if I were you, so she knows she's safe. All my cats are indoor cats. Not preaching, I'm just sayin'.....

[leo&dominosmom]

Thank you everyone who has replied to my post yesterday. Miss Domino stayed away again all day yesterday and came home again around 8:30 PM. I was then able to confine her to the garage as usual and she seems to be getting a little more comfortable with the garage. I called our veternarian this morning and he advised confining her to the garage for the next couple of days so that she would realize that the dog is no longer there. I sure hope this works. We had tried bringing her into the house last year after our previous indoor cat Leo passed away and she was always wanting to go back outside. I would love for her to be an indoor cat only but she seems to enjoy the outside better since she has lived outdoors all her life. She came to us as a stray 10-11 years ago and has always been a real homebody until now. I will keep everyone posted on how she is doing.