Toddler with cat
I have an almost 3 year old who has recently become obsessed with our cat. We only have 1 and she is quite old (18) and they have both avoided each other up until now. My toddler has started fixating on her and will chase her around the house for ages if we let her. She starts with gentle hands and wants to help (giving her treats and covering her with a blanket) but it generally escalates to where she is holding her head to force her to eat something, or running after her to try carry her somewhere. The poor cat gets quite stressed 🫣
I try to teach her to be gentle and to leave the cat alone when she walks away, but being a toddler she doesn’t seem to understand.
It generally ends up with me having to close the cat in a different room or being an actual shield between them so that the poor cat can have a break.
Any ideas on how to stop my toddler from chasing the poor cat?
Show your support
No .. it won't stop until you separate both to protect your elderly cat from your toddler being too rough 😭
You sound like you're doing your best in your situation🧡 I hope you find some helpful solutions! My only experiences are with my son and younger cats (3-7 years old).
Trending in our community
Following as unfortunately my 18mo is like that. Always starts with pets, very quickly turns to full hitting. Follows him around the house to lay on him sit on him you name it. My cat is only 4 and has 0 self preservation skills. Thus far, we’ve started training him to get into furniture or the windows, we’ve also blocked off a good portion of the house for him to have. We stay in the living room, bedroom, kitchen area, cat has family room, and whole basement to himself. It’s exhausting trying to wrangle and excited toddler away from a stressed out pissed off cat.