Some animals can go into panic mode quite easily. It all depends on the animal. And when they do, they get into a frenzy and will “forget” everything except to save themselves. In other words, they go into survival and defense mode.
Amongst our cats, Riley goes into panic mode very easily. Hopefully, as she grow up, the tendency will decrease.
Today, we had some massive installation done at our house for green energy, so there was a lot of noise and a crane came too. Riley went into total panic mode and Robin was panicky as well. Tabs was quite okay.
Luckily after all the pandemonium, I managed to catch Riley and put her in Bunny’s Place. Otherwise, in her total panic mode, she would have escaped and run away and in that panic mode once, Bobby once disappeared for 7 hours and was sighted very, very far away from our house. I drove all over looking for him and I actually found him several times, but the moment I got down from my car and approached him, he ran for his life, as fast as a horse. Every time that I saw him, he was running like a horse.
That was one of the worst 7 hours of my entire life where I thought I had lost Bobby for good. I had already printed a ton of flyers and distributed them to mailboxes in the whole neighbourhood (this was way back when there was no whatsapp or neighbourhood groups of any kind). I finally settled as calmly as I could, opened the front gate wide and waited. Bobby was already partially blind at that time.
What do you know? He finally found his way back home!! He jumped through the window and came back!! That was also one of the happiest moments of my entire life!
I later asked my senior vet about animals who panic and he explained the syndrome to me. When they go into panic mode, it’s a survival mode for them. They will not recognise even their pet-parent (meaning, owner) anymore.
So I know about this panic mode in animals and I saw that in Riley today when the heavy machinery came to our house.
Luckily I managed to restrain her a few times to put her into Bunny’s Place. She did squeeze out when we opened the door, but I caught her back, struggling and all.
Robin also displayed signs of panic this morning. Luckily he went to his safehouse, the big cage.
After a few hours, Riley calmed down.
Tabs was afraid too, but not panicky. Since there were workmen coming in and out of the house, I also kept her in Bunny’s Place.
Cow Mau was totally cool about it all. Well, he’s everyone’s protector, right?
Samantha slept through it all. No sweat for her. The Blondies too.
Four of them are in here – Robin (hidden by the cloth), Ginger, Rey and Lynx.
Minnie is not afraid at all.
Smurfy is hiding in his private cage.
Gerald and Misty ran away while the heavy machinery and workmen were here, but after they left, they both came back, safe and sound.