Letters to the Editor
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Hey LW..
I haven't read the 79 previous letters, so apologies if this has already been suggested.
Like you, I have a problem cat I was growing to hate. My 6 year old cat's particular problem is urine marking, which started 2 years ago after we moved to a new house where previous tenants (canine) had urinated on the carpet.
I read everything I could on the net, and did all I could to remove all traces of urine. I bought Feliway diffusers, which worked for a little whil and then became useless.
I was at the end of my tether, as my 3 are indoor cats. After testing for urinary infections, my vet and I elected to put my cat on Fluoxetine (Prozac). There were 3 or 4 other drugs we could have tried, and may try if the Prozac fails at some point. The medication has worked brilliantly. The cat has not suffered any behavioural side effects and the spraying has stopped, except for one incident when the Feliway diffuser had evaporated. I have no problem with keeping him on this medication for the rest of his life, because without it, he would have no life at all. Once urine marking takes hold, it is almost impossible to change by behaviour modification.
The only requirement is that you can medicate your cat.
Good luck!
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cats need to be raised by other cats
I have known several instances where an abandoned tiny kitten was raised by caring humans. In every case, the cat turned out to be nuts, and very aggressive. Cats need to be raised by other cats. It probably makes me sound like the least compassionate person on earth, but if I found an abandoned newborn kitten, I would see that it was humanely put to sleep. Humans are just not good raisers of newborn cats.
Of course, this doesn't help the letter write as this point, and I think the upthread suggestions about animal beahviorists and so on are good ones, given the current situation.
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Behavior
I get the distinct feeling that when the cat was very little, this type of behavior was not corrected. When you get a new puppy and you are playing with it, you have to teach the puppy the limits of play. There are any number of methods that work and a puppy will learn that with humans he can only bite so hard and with other dogs maybe a little harder.
If you watch a mother cat with her kittens (or a mother dog with puppies) she will growl, hiss or even smack a kitten getting too rough with her and the kitten gets an idea of where the limits are.
When this guy was very little and playing with you, I bet he bit too hard or scratched too hard and all you did was retreat because he was so cute and certainly too little to discipline. He never learned those limits and now what is acceptable to him is terrifying and painful to you and he has no idea what's going on.
An animal behaviorist is an excellent idea, they will teach you how to teach the cat (do not go to any behaviorist that teaches the cat. YOU need to be taught, your cat must learn from you). While I commend your kind hearted gesture taking in this tiny kitten when it needed you, you took on something with out really realizing that you didn't know what to do. This cat is young and probably still somewhat trainable. I would recommend immediately that you stop accepting his behavior. You must find a quick and effective way to relay this this is unacceptable, that he is crossing a limit.
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Re: Behavior
I'm pretty convinced that it's near impossible to change a cat's behavior. My fiance adopted a kitten at 8 weeks of age about a year ago. He was very playful and cute, but definitely a bit crazy. His favorite thing in the world was biting. Anytime you walk by, he would bite your ankles. Or lunge at your thigh, hang on with his claws, and bite you. If you pet him, it would make him quite content, but he would then bite.
Bite, bite, bite. All day long.
We discouraged this behavior in every imaginable way, and with a combination of methods...we would say NO very loudly and firmly, withhold attention and affection immediately afterwards, spray bitter apple on our hands and bodies so it would taste bad, squirt him with water, blow air in his face...everything.
He keeps biting.
While he's not nearly as aggressive or problematic as the LW's cat, he's not easy to live with. The constant attacking, biting, etc. has made me wish that they made Soft Paws for teeth.
And we're both cat people. We're very tolerant (our other cat *likes* to pee in my belongings - it's not an infection, the litterbox is always clean, putting down foil or cardboard just makes her go elsewhere...she just likes to pee and we've learned to deal with it - use Nature's Miracle) and we raise them as well as we possibly could. Premium food, excellent veterinary care, all the love in the world, and even one of those water fountain things.
They're just very odd little creatures and sometimes they come with habits that aren't too compatible with humans. I'm not going to say that it's a matter of the LW's resolve or tolerance level, because it's not. Sometimes you can do everything right, and it still goes wrong. Question is - is it worth it to the LW?
PS: If the LW's cat attacks primarily with its claws, you may want to try putting on Soft Paws, which are little nail caps that you glue onto a cat's claws. They're still able to go through the motions of scratching, but it doesn't cause any damage. While the LW's cat's aggression might be too much to allow nail caps to be glued on easily, you can definitely do it with a heavy towel and two people - one to hold the cat firmly, and the other to glue on the caps. An alternative is to sedate your cat and then glue them on. Here's the website: http://www.softpaws.com/