I have 2 cats, both Domestic Shorthair. Both are about 2 years old. One is a tiger-striped(Devon), the other is black(Moon).

Here's my query:

My black cat, Moon, has a problem. He is terrified of strangers. We even had someone spend a weekend at the house with us, and Moon hid the entire weekend.

This terror does not manifest itself in aggression, but he will hid for hours at a time after a visitor has left our house.

We are going on vacation the end of August and we are concerned about Moon. We spoke with our vet, and the vet is 50/50 on whether we should board our cats for a few days, or not. My wife and I decided that we are going to try leaving them at home, with arrangements made at the vet just in case.

Anyone have any advice on what to do about this problem?

Hi Ron, welcome

I wish I had an answer for you, but I had a DSH cat named Mac many, many years ago who had the exact same problem. He was terrified of strangers and never did get over it. His terror, unfortunately, did manifest itself in aggression -- he was one nasty kitty to almost everyone but my daughter Maggie.

I would think leaving them at home (with arrangements made at the vet just in case) would be okay. Will someone be checking in on them? I'll be interesting to read what my members respond.

Be sure to stop by the "Introduce Yourself Forum" -- I've opened a post with your name on it.

By the way:

Yes, we will have someone stopping by daily to check on them. I'm afraid that Moon won't eat, or will hide the entire 4 days we are gone. Hence, the arrangements we will make with the vet if we do have a problem.

i saw a t.v program about a parrot who had the same problem so befor his owners left on vacation they consulted a behaviorist. he said to start small and go slow have a stranger come to the house for a few hours every day so the pet can get use to his presence. then put some food at some distance from the stranger and when the pet eats that put the food closer to the stranger. they were only able to get the parot to eat while a strager was in the house (it took about 2 weeks) but when they got back from the vacation the parrot was sitting on their neighbor's shoulder, he was also less afraid of other strangers and better behaved with the owner's wife.
hope it helps.

Great advice, Maya! I also had a cat who was the same way......as he got older he did get better with strangers, though. Now we have a cat who loves everyone...especially our dogs!!

I don't know what to tell you. I was fortunate to have cats who love people. They are always pestering them when they come over!! LOL

I haven't had a cat since I was a little girl, and she loved people, I'm sure you will get lots of ideas from our members,.good luck