I don't know if anyone can help but Magic has started to act oddly.

It started about a week or so ago, hubby was giving him a treat when he suddenly went wide eyed and looked really scared and backed away from him as if he has hurt him.
It has happened a few times since.

Then today it happened with me I was stroking him and he suddenly looked scared and backed away from me.

After this he was asleep on the cabinet, Pearl was asleep on the sofa when they both woke up looked frightened, he ran off upstairs and she hid behind the sofa.

They do not go outside and we only have 2 cats that come into the garden which doesn't seem to worry either of them.

It's a total mystery.

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Clare
Magic (brown spotted boy born 31 March 2012)
Pearl (seal Lynx Point girl born 1 October 2015)
Bristol, UK

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The little monsters 3

I also thought pain reaction, although when you mentioned Pearl I'm wondering if maybe something else has started coming into your garden. Of course, she could just be reacting to Magic, but I think possibly he can sense something he isn't used to around the house.

You could easily be bringing a new scent into the house if another cat has started coming into your garden, or even a fox might be coming in. If they're not used to a fox scent that could easily freak them out. Magic being older than Pearl would definitely be upset about that. Foxes scent mark all over the place and whilst foxes have always been around our place, it has become an issue for me this year now my two are socially mature and as a result much more territorial.

Urban foxes can be around in broad daylight too, they are very bold. I have seen my two suddenly wake up and start staring out of the window only to see a fox staring in at them.

I'd probably get him checked out at the vet though just in case he is in some sort of pain, if only to rule it out.

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Clare
Hendrix and Jagger, Brown Marble Boys (born 18 August 2013)
Hampshire, UK

He still eats fine and crunches on his dry food no problem.

We have started to notices he only acts this way when he jumps up onto the worktop where he would have his treats ( they are only soft treats).
He looks around as if something has scared him on the worktop, we wondered if he had accidentally touched the kettle but he will walk past it.


If we give him his treats on the table instead he is fine, no problem at all, it's very strange that it's just the work top.

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Clare
Magic (brown spotted boy born 31 March 2012)
Pearl (seal Lynx Point girl born 1 October 2015)
Bristol, UK

I'm sorry to hear this, Clare. For the time being, I'd try to keep him away from the work top. You may never know what spooked him. Cats do crazy things. I take care of an outdoor cat who was on his heated beds and in his heated cat house all last winter. This winter, he's gone all night long, while the heater is running. It is 21 degrees F here and he showed up to eat and ran off again. Raiden is still sleeping for some unknown reason! It's COLD here.

My mum came up with an idea, it might be totally wrong but you never know.

About a week ago there was a terrible smell over by the work top, I searched everywhere and could not find what it was, I cleaned everything including the sink and drain, smell still there, I thought it may had been a pouch of cat food split and gone off, as this has happened before, but no it wasn't.

Eventually I discovered the smell coming from my egg container on the work top, one of the eggs had gone bad, they were still in date but you could see the dark colour through the shell and smell it too, it was horrible, anyway got rid of the whole lot and washed the container.

My mum wondered if it was the smell that upset him as the look on his face is as if you've put something they don't like in front of him and it's only on that work top.

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Clare
Magic (brown spotted boy born 31 March 2012)
Pearl (seal Lynx Point girl born 1 October 2015)
Bristol, UK

Our boys are also trying to deal with static electricity. Moving from a home that was around 55% humidity inside yo one that is 18% has them all out of sorts. They go bananas randomly when they shock themselves... Or us.

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Cats sense of smell is 14 times stronger than ours, so it is possible there is still an odor there that Magic can smell but you cannot. It sounds as if your mom hit on the problem.

Static electricity is in the air here as well. I've gotten shocked just touching Raiden! Just know that you should NEVER wipe a dryer cloth on a cat -- many contain small particles of metal which can stick to the cat's fur and then the cat grooms itself. It's just something I will have to live with for the next three months.