our cat is insane

[smashingjj]

Gijs suddenly turned super hostile against my girlfriend. I was gone for band practice on Sunday and he physically attacked her; he bit her in her leg and her arm till she bled. Rest of the night he would scream and hiss when she was nearby, she locked herself up in the bathroom for a while.

When I came home he was still screaming and hissing but he calmed down slowly. The next day girlfriend was gone and everything seemed like it was.

But when she came back his anger started off again. He didn't actually attack anymore, but starts screaming and hissing whenever she stands up, basically. He was on the balcony yesterday and I came out to see how he was doing and he purred and squinted and I pet him. Girlfriend came along and he turned into a monster.

We've sent him to the vet and nothing physical is going on. The vet gave us the contact of a cat behaviour therapist which we found a bit silly at first but did call after Gijs turned out to be serious. Gf had been painting the doorsills and steam cleaning some places in the house with a device that makes a hissing sound; apart from that our neighbor's appartment is being renovated. According to therapist those things stress Gijs out and he may associate gf with said changes. Ideally we have to drop off Gijs to another house for a couple of days for him to cool down. Which is kind of a weird thing to me since new places cause stress like nothing else to him.

Gijs is 4,5 years old and always was a very sweet, relaxed cat and it is the weirdest thing to see him turn into a little demon that seems hellbent on attacking the gf. Situation is also very tiring and hard to live with; gf had to get up early for work and she could barely put her clothes on with him in the room and I had a couple more hours of sleep which I was screamed out of.