[sdc2626]

Hello this is my first time posting, but I'm really worried about my dogs and I don't know what to do with my cat. We never had any animals before we got Bea. She's a calico and she was the sweetest kitten. Not afraid of anyone, very loving to the whole family. But when she was 8months or so we when away on a family trip for christmas and when we got back she was a totally different cat. She became very mean, no one but me could touch her and she became very aggressive. We considered declawing her, but I really didn't want to do that to her- plus i've read that it can make things worse.

Well we eventually got a dog about 5-6months after she became mean and they got along fairly well. They basically ignored each other, so two years later we got another dog and they got along about the same. But now for the last 3 months she's been getting really bad. Attacking me and brother pretty severely. But the worst thing is that she's attacking the dogs daily.

The dogs are both maltese-mix, one is 10lbs and the other is 5lbs. The littlest one is so docile and sweet, but the cat hates her. Today the cat came up behind the dog and attacked her. The dog was screeching and crying and trying to run away, and she was really scared for a while. This is a daily occurrence, and it's stressing us out. We're really worried that she's going to hurt the dogs, or claw at their eyes.

What should we do? We've been very good to the cat, we have given her the entire downstairs and blocked the dogs from going down there ever since we brought the dogs into the home. And I try to play with her, but she's not interested and everyone else in the family is scared to go near her. Lately she won't even let me go near her, and it has been getting worse and worse. We don't want to put down a perfectly healthy cat, so what can we do?

I realize this is a very long post and I apologize, but I just need to know if there is something that we can do. I used to love this cat so much, but now she's become a real problem and i'm beginning to be a little afraid of her. What should i do?