5 things that help a cat that hides from visitors

A single guest-proof safe room works because it gives a shy cat one place in the house where the rules never bend, no matter how busy or noisy everywhere else gets. Most owners set one up with good intentions and then let it slide — it doubles as the coat room, a toddler wanders in looking for the loo, and the one thing that made it safe, the guarantee, is gone the first time it's actually tested. I fostered a black cat called Sooty who'd bolt for the airing cupboard at any knock; the day she started walking calmly to the spare room instead was the day everyone in the house, guests included, treated that door as genuinely, permanently shut.

A high hide only earns its keep if a shy cat can reach it without crossing open floor, because what actually spikes her fear is the exposed dash across a room in full view, not just the guest waiting at the other end of it. Height helps too — a spot on top of a wardrobe or a tall cat tree puts her above the sightline and reach of whatever's scaring her, in a way no under-the-bed hiding spot manages. I had a foster boy, Biscuit, who point-blank wouldn't cross the sitting room floor with anyone in it, but happily covered the exact same distance along a shelf six inches higher — same room, same people, completely different cat.

Every time you pick a hiding cat up and present her to a guest, you confirm her exact fear — that hiding doesn't work and she can be got to anyway — so she hides harder and sooner next time. This is the one nearly every owner does at least once, usually because a guest asks to see the cat and it feels rude to say no. It backfires because you've just taught her that the safe room isn't safe and her own legs aren't a reliable way out.

Guests who are told to ignore the cat completely end up seeing more of her over an evening than guests who try to coax one out, because a shy cat reads direct attention as the threat, not the invitation. Eye contact, crouching down, cooing and a hand held out are exactly the moves a confident cat wants and a nervous one reads as being hunted, so the kindest thing an eager cat-lover can do is the opposite of what feels natural. I say some version of the same line at my own front door every time: no calling her, no eye contact, and if she appears, let her come to you or don't expect her at all.

A cat who gets a scatter of a genuinely special treat the instant the doorbell goes starts building a second, better association with that sound before panic has time to take hold. This only works if the treat is reserved purely for this moment and the pairing happens every single time — the postman and parcels included, not just visits — otherwise the doorbell only ever predicts the scary event. It's slow, think weeks of ordinary comings and goings rather than one dinner party, which is exactly why people give up on it too soon and decide it 'doesn't work for her'. My current foster, a torbie called Nutmeg, still legs it for the airing cupboard at every knock, but these days she's nose-down in a saucer of something good four seconds later instead of stuck under the bed for the whole evening.