Hi There,
I would be very suprised if she was anxious - as although I know purring can be a way of comforting themselves... when she is in mine or my partners arms she is so relaxed she has her eyes shut and shes very happy... but yes I think its a possibility shes more loving to reassure herself if she is insecure.
Its just a suprise to think that as she is extremely confident - isnt afraid of anything and does as she pleases so I never thought she would be insecure.
Thanks for the advice on the hissing - when she does this quite unexpectedly - so for example, recently my sister lifted her paw and she didnt like it so she hissed at her
strange reaction but we didnt respond.
However she will on occassion hiss when we pick her up and move her away from something she shouldnt be on.. the fridge or kitchen work surface for exmaple.... she doesnt want us to get her down and will growl and hiss... she used to scratch too but she has stopped that.
We have learnt alot fromher in the last 6 months, she responds to us hugely - so if we are tense with her we get a negative response - when we comb her if we stay very calm she allows it now but still growls the whole way through - but we keep talking to her and give her a treat afterwards. she used to scratch and bite!
If she wont leave the living room, and will bite and hiss if we try and pick her up as she doesnt want to come out we get a treat and she comes running so we try and avoid the stress now.
Like you say it takes time to learn better ways of doing things and what we can and cant do.
Mitzi we can pick up and play with and shes as placid as anything but Tansy wont do anything unless its on her terms.