My new roommate is scared of cats. How to train my cat to stay away from her?

Ailurophobia. Image: MikeB

The question in the title was asked on Reddit.com about two months ago. It's a good question because there must be lots of occasions when young people share a home and have their own rooms and in which there might be a domestic cat belonging to one of the roommates. Not all roommates will be relaxed around a domestic cat. In some instances, a person might be genuinely fearful. It may be an irrational fear of cats which is called ailurophobia. This is the beginning of her post:

Hi, I have a 1year old female orange cat. She is quiet and a curious cat. So, my new roommate although she is doesn't like them, but from her behaviour it seems she's afraid. Every time she sees my cat from distance screams, my cat runs towards her to smell her and she keeps jerking or screaming.

Ailurophobia can be cured because it is irrational and it probably arises because of a traumatic incident when the person was young involving a cat. Perhaps they were scratched or bitten when they were impressionable toddlers. They become sensitive, overly sensitive to the presence of cats. You can desensitise people by gradually introducing them to cats at a distance and in a safe way such as putting the cat in a carrier and allowing the fearful person to sit in the same room as the carrier.

That would be a good starting point and then gradually you bring the carrier nearer the person and over time it would be satisfactory to open the carrier and allow the person to sit near the cat. You might start with a kitten rather than an adult cat which might be more acceptable to a person fearful of cats.

The point is that it is far easier to train a person to begin to accept cats and not be fearful of them than it would be to train a cat to avoid a person who is fearful of cats. I don't think it would be practical to train a cat to do that. Especially in a small space such as a shared home.

Of course, the person fearful of cats could frighten the cat away all the time which would probably deter the cat going near her but that I think would be very much second best and in any case a form of cat abuse.

The solution is in the hands of people and the concerns people behaviour. Below is my shortened version of the answer which I left on the Reddit.com website as a comment. It says the same thing.

I have an article on this on another website. The link to that page is below.

How to Cure Ailurophobia?

For the sake of completeness, I will prefer to Dr. Desmond Morris's words on this topic. I mention that ailurophobia might start with a traumatic incident. A second way in which cat phobia can arise stems from an irrational fear on the part of parents that the family cat might try to smother the newly arrived baby by sitting on them or lying on them when they are asleep in their crib. 

This is an old wives' tale and people still believe it. Not that often I have to say. This parental fear may be transmitted to their children because many a child may experience a shrieking mother rushing into the nursery and yelling at the cat to leave the room. The child develops an association between cats and panic which leaves him or her panicked when in the presence of a domestic cat.

It appears that in studies women were more likely to suffer from the affliction than men. It has been suggested that there may be a sexual content to ailurophobia. This is because the cat has often been seen as a symbol of sexuality. It's possible that in some instances an intense fear of the feline may reflect a suppressed sexuality on the part of the woman suffering from ailurophobia.

Many who suffer from the condition believe that there is no cure and they go through life with this irrational fear. In an extreme, sometimes they refuse to go outside in case that they meet up with a cat on the street. That would be extremely sad. There is certainly a cure as mentioned. It just takes patience and a willingness on the part of the sufferer to participate fully to a successful conclusion.

Guardian journalist overcame her fear of cats using 2 methods

Having read Annalisa Barbieri's article in The Guardian online newspaper, I can take from it two methods that she used overcome her irrational fear of cats.

There is no doubt that she suffered from ailurophobia which is the scientific name for a fear of cats. It was a lifelong fear which she readily admits in the first sentence.

Annalisa Barbieri and Sidney. Photo: Dan Burn-Forti/The Observer

This fear ruled her life until she became a mother and her children asked for a cat. She said no. And then gradually, she decided to take the plunge and adopt a kitten.

But she wasn't really prepared for it. She felt that she wanted to do this but I sense, reading between the lines, that she had not got her head in gear. She dived in and initially it did not work out.

She admits that she thought that domestic cats were tricky and that they wanted to harm her. And then a friend of hers, Tasmin, a person that she describes as being "a cat pro" came over and spent the day with her because clearly Tasmin understood that Annalisa was having trouble and she wanted to help.

Her adopted cat is a beautiful gray (blue) male who they named Sidney. He was 13 weeks old when they adopted him. A young cat. But he has a very beautiful personality, very calm and ideal for Annalisa.

Despite his personality she was fearful because of a deep, ingrained irrational fear. She watched Tasmin play with Sidney and noticed that Sidney genuinely wanted to play. However, when Sidney played with her, she felt that he was trying to be tricky and wanted to harm her.

Having seen Sidney behave under these two scenarios she was able to make the rational decision that she was perceiving Sidney's behaviour in the wrong way. The problem was hers she admitted.

So that objective appraisal of her mentality unlocked the door to enable her to follow the normal route of acclimatising herself to a domestic cat in baby steps. That is the way you overcome a fear of cats or any fear. You do what you are frightened of but in very small steps which makes each step manageable. In doing so you chip away at that irrational fear.

And that's what happened. There came a moment when she realised that she loved cats. She could kiss Sidney. She can 'read' him and understanding him and no doubt this skill is reciprocated.

The key, in conclusion, is to realise that the problem is yours and not the cat's and then to chip away at that fear in tiny steps because if you take big steps you reinforce your fear. That's because the interaction can go wrong.

There is no doubt that if a person is fearful of a domestic cat, they are not really going to interact well with them which might encourage their cat to take a swipe, perhaps in play. That would be enough to set back the whole process to square one and even worse potentially.

The cure for a fear of cats is slow desensitisation (familiarization)

A fear of cats, as you might know is called 'ailurophobia' (eye-lure-o-PHO-bia). A fear of cats is not uncommon. I'm told that nearly 22.2% of individuals living in the USA are frightened of animals of different kinds. I don't know the percentage for cats but it won't be insignificant. It might be to do with the fact that they are very competent predators with sharp claws and long canine teeth!

The cure for a fear of cats is slow desensitisation (familiarization). Image: MikeB

The cure for ailurophobia is straightforward enough and it concerns desensitising the individual. This is distressing for the patient. It requires a step-by-step process in which the first step is presenting to the individual things that are only remotely feline. They just need the merest impression that something associated with cats is near them such as a photograph of cats or kittens or toy animals.

After a while a kitten can be placed in a small secure cage and left about 10 or 12 paces away from the patient on the far side of a room. The phobic person is gently reassured to tell them that the cat cannot get near them.

Then gradually the kitten or cat in the cage is moved towards the patient over a period of days. The phobia can be reduced in intensity in this way until eventually the victim can actually hold a kitten.

At this point the sufferer can spend a lot more time with a kitten or cat and the longer they do so the better. It's important that there are no sudden unexpected moves. This would suggest that the cat playing the role in this process should be very placid and guaranteed not to undo the process by, for example, scratching the patient. That would probably terminate the whole process and call it off.

After a few months of therapy, it is usual for even the most intense forms of cat phobia to disappear.

The whole process, as mentioned, is about desensitising the individual or familiarising them to the fact that they need not be frightened of cats.

Ailurophobia might start with an unfortunate childhood trauma, a sudden unpleasant shock involving a cat or kitten. For a very small child, a kitten might look like a fluffy toy. They might squeeze the kitten too tightly whereupon the fluffy toy produces needle sharp claws and inflicts pain and injury on that vulnerable child.

Such an action is so unexpected that in some cases the child might suffer a mental scar and this traumatic memory can then develop into a full-blown phobia in adult life.

There is an old wife's tale about cats smothering newly arrived babies by sitting on top of them. Perhaps a cat sits next to a child while they are in bed in their crib and the mother comes charging in believing that the child's life is in danger. She shrieks and yells at the cat to leave the room. The child believes that the cat is genuinely dangerous. That memory carries forward into adulthood.

It is that kind of way in which children can develop ailurophobia but as mentioned it can be removed with a great deal of patience.

Declawing

I feel compelled to briefly mention declawing. Clearly, cat owners who declaw their cats are frightened of claws and teeth. In fact, some people even de-tooth cats. Can you believe it? But this fear of claws is irrational in my view. It is possible, using intelligence and learning about cat behaviour to totally eliminate the possibility of being scratched by claws. And also, it is possible to protect furniture from damage through scratching.

Knowing this, it is clearly immoral to mutilate a cat. Cat owners who want to declaw their cat need to be educated on how to live with a domestic cat and if they are phobic about claws, they can be desensitised as mentioned in this article.

Ailurophobia means a fear of cats

Ailurophobia has different degrees of severity. Some people simply can't be in the same room as a cat while others can tolerate them but can't touch them. Others might have a specific cat fear such as jumping up onto their lap. These are phobic reactions. Superstitions about cats particularly black cats still exist even though we are hundreds of years beyond that era in humankind's history, the Middle Ages, when cats were persecuted and they were believed to be the familiars of witches. Go to Africa and you will see a lot of cat superstitions.

Love Island lads are terrified of a cat! Screenshot from the TV program.

Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) suffered from extreme ailurophobia. Julius Caesar also feared cats as did Henry III and Napoleon Bonaparte. He became frantic in the presence of a cat. One night he was heard screaming with a sword in his hand. He was in a state of acute panic as a cat was hiding behind a tapestry.

This sort of acute, intense ailurophobia is rare. It may start as a childhood trauma. One simple reason might be that a young child grabbed a cat roughly and inappropriately and the cat struck back biting and scratching leaving the child traumatised for life suffering from an intense fear of domestic cats. A traumatic memory can evolve into full-blown ailurophobia.

There is an old wives tales about domestic cats suffocating babies. They have of course been entirely disproved but they are persistent and no doubt some people believe them. The mother who believes this may have a form of ailurophobia as a consequence.

Apparently, studies have revealed that women are more likely to suffer from ailurophobia than men. Dr Desmond Morris the renowned zoology and author says that some experts believe that there may be a sexual element to women having a fear of cats. Cats are sometimes seen as a symbol of sexuality. Perhaps these women have suppressed their sexuality.

The way to cure ailurophobia is to gradually desensitise the person concerned. You introduce the person to the domestic cat step-by-step. At first something remotely connected to a cat is presented to the person. This may be a picture of a kitten or a plush cat toy. From there you can build up to putting a kitten in a cage or carrier and the carrier is placed in the same room as the person. You then gradually move the kitten in the carrier closer to the person and in this way step-by-step you desensitise the person until she can hold a cat without fear. It may take several months. The most intense forms of ailurophobia can be cured this way.

We don't know how many people suffering from ailurophobia seek treatment like this. Many will suffer all their lives believing that there is no cure. There is a cure and there is a reason for it. The reason is irrational because there is no rational reason to fear domestic cats except that you might be scratched or bitten :)  !

An ailurophile is someone who loves cats.

The Irrational Fear of Cats

Witches are conjured up

The irrational fear of cats is called ailurophobia. A fear of cats may result in a phobia.  A phobia may result in a fear of cats.  The two seem to be bound together but we're not sure.  A phobia is a “persistent and irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that is excessive and unreasonable, given the reality of the threat" (American Psychological Association-glossary).

Ailurophobia is also called felinophobia. The former is more commonly used word. Ailurophobia is one of many anxiety-related disorders, which have been defined such as: agoraphobia (fear of crowds), acrophobia (fear of heights), and arachnophobia (fear of spiders).

A phobia about cats does not seem to be linked to a dislike of cats.  I guess it has to be a fear, an irrational fear.  What causes the fear?  I don't think even scientists are always certain about the causes.  The fear may be the result of a bad interaction with a cat at an early age.  That is the common sense answer.

Although many children may have a fear of certain animals at an early age, they often grow out of it but adults who continue to retain a fear of certain animals including of course cats appear not to have grown out of the problem.

The symptoms of a cat phobia may include: sweating, dizziness and breathlessness.  Sometimes the symptoms could be more severe such as heart palpitations and a full-blown panic attack.

Treatments range from traditional psychotherapies to behaviour therapies and hypnosis.

Desensitising the baby to the cat allergen!

You'll enjoy this picture of a baby using the family cat as a pillow.

The cat is a brown/gray mackerel tabby and the child is Caucasian! I read somewhere that it is healthy for a child to be exposed to allergens as it helps to desensitize the person. It provides some protection in later life. And there is no doubt that when this child grows up he or she will like to keep a cat. Which brings me to the next point. It is during childhood that we can learn to love cats or be frightened of them. A bad experience or bad teaching from parents can leave the child with a fear of cats. A lot of people are frightened of cats to varying degrees. This is usually due to a lack of understanding or knowledge about the domestic cat. Once the person gets to know and relate to a cat the perceptions change for the better.

The fear of cats can result in an abuse of cats.