Pretty much everyone has heard a cat hiss at some point. Many times people become concerned if they hear their cat hissing. I’ve heard cats get labeled as ‘mean’ or ‘bad’ or ‘aggressive’ if they hiss. The truth is, ANY cat will hiss under the right circumstances, and today I want you to understand one thing: A hiss is NOT a bad thing.
When a cat hisses, they are saying ‘no’ or ‘back off’ or ‘I don’t like that’. There are many different circumstances in which a cat could hiss; sometimes, we have to work around it- like if a cat is at the vet and they are scared but need an important procedure done- but most of the time, when a cat hisses, it means that you need to listen to them and stop what you are doing. I’ve seen many viral videos where someone is messing with their cat in some way- scaring them with an object, poking them, or holding them in an uncomfortable position- and when the cat hisses, the person laughs and keeps doing what they are doing. I think these videos are the opposite of funny- they are quite mean and sad. I have also seen people respond to their cat hissing by yelling at them, or smacking them gently, as though they believe that the hiss is an ‘incorrect’ behavior that the cat is engaging in. We should in fact WANT our cats to hiss when they are unhappy with what is going on. It’s an excellent form of communication since they probably aren’t going to be able to learn to speak the word ‘no’ anytime soon. If a hiss is ignored, that is often when cats will proceed with swatting, biting, or otherwise attacking- and I don’t blame them for that. If we CONSISTENTLY ignore our cats’ hisses, then they might stop doing them when they are upset- and instead go straight to the biting part. We definitely don’t want to train them to stop communicating!
Cats will, of course, also hiss at each other when the occasion calls for it. Turn up your volume and watch the included video for an example. These two cats are Pirate and Litty, currently available for adoption at our Santa Rosa shelter. They came from the same household and are fine living with one another, but sometimes Pirate spends a little too much time being in Litty’s personal bubble. The way she lets him know that she needs space is by hissing at him- to which he responds with a short pause, then turning and walking away. This is a GREAT interaction- Pirate respected Litty’s wish, and thus the situation was not escalated by either cat swatting the other. This same thing applies to your own cats- I talk to people who are concerned when their cats hiss at each other, and what I always ask is what happens AFTER the hiss occurs. If the cats part ways, then all that happened was likely a play session got too intense for one of the cats, and they told the other ‘no’, and there is no issue if the other cat listens. If the other cat does not RESPECT the hiss and continues trying to interact with the cat who hissed, that’s when there’s a deeper issue that you’ll need to address (and if you’re wondering, some of the main things to do for fighting cats in a household is to increase playtime, increase offered enrichment, and ensure enough resources like food, water, and litter boxes are available for all).
Moral of the story is- respect a hissing cat! Just like we need other humans to respect us when we say ‘no’ to something, we need to respect our cats when they tell us ‘no’ in their own way! They are not ‘bad cats’ or ‘aggressive’ just because they hiss, and we should not treat them as such.
