Cats and Holiday Guests

Two of my feral rescues are incredibly shy and I am starting to get nervous for them during the holiday season. How do I make them comfortable when tons of guests are going to be coming in and out of my house. I know they are going to freak out.

 

My cats love people, so this hasn't really been much of an issue. I would just make sure that there is a safe place the cats can go hide in, and that al your guests are aware you have cats, and how they should react ie, dont feed scraps, dont pick up etc etc.

I had a party recently with around 20 guest, and my cats loved the attention, but after 6 or so hours of constantly being picked up and cuddled, they got a bit tired, and scurried off and hid in my bed until everyone left. I think having a safe area for them in a bedroom or somewhere the guests wont be, will be good for them, that way they can run off and hide if it is too much for them.

 

They will likely hide on their own. If they are used to going to the back door, filter people mostly in through the front door. Maybe start moving their food dishes a bit farther from the house so that they can still get to it, even if there are guests around, too?

 

I agree that having a safe place for them where they can be alone and/or hide is a big help when you have guests over and your cats are shy. Most of my cats don't mind guests, but if it gets loud and crowded some of them like to get out of the way. They know that in that case they can go into the bedroom and no one will bother them. I don't allow most of my guests to pick up my cats, unless they are people that come around frequently and that they like and are used to. I never let my guests feed them anything, unless they are kids and they love to give them a treat. In that case I'll get some cat snacks beforehand so they can feed them those in moderation off course ;-)

 

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! I plan on letting them have free reign over my bedroom, but I know it is going to be hard for the two older cats to just stay in one room. My eldest, Kitty Love (the one in my profile picture), will rip up my carpet if he wants to go in and out of my room. It's his way of saying "open this door!"

 

Don't think you will get them used to other people unless you got them at a very young age and they are used to some people being around them. If they are free roaming cats then make sure they have a means of escape from the house, it's a form of security for them. If you try to keep them as house cats then a room they can get in and out of when they want to.
The problems will start if they feel completely trapped.

 

I doubt that the cats will ever get used to large number of strangers coming around to the house. My cat is very used to being on its own mostly and there are also only two people at home so it definitely is not used to big groups. Whenever I have more than 3 people coming over, it promptly makes its way to the basement. I have tried letting my cat know my friends on an individual basis by having them come alone but my cat would just smell them,lose interest and go back down to the basement again.

 

I don't think you should worry too much about it, if your cats don't feel comfortable around strangers... they'll just avoid getting close to them. That's it for them actually, as long as they have a place where to hide while the guests are over there, like for example... a bedroom upstairs then they should be just fine