2 behavior issues. Someone please help us.

[subconsciousme]

Both cats are 1 year old.

1) Is rather pissy to anyone aside from us. Even hisses at UPS guy. We have tried Feliway without success. Nothing has changed... everything is regularly scheduled programming. This poses a huge problem as we are going out of town soon and she's mean to pet sitters :-(

2) The other kitty keeps getting on counter. We have tried squirting her (she's not afraid of water) and shaking cans with rocks in it. Neither phase her. She only does it while we are sleeping and we wake up to a HOT mess.

 

[sarathan]

Wait, your one kitty is pooping on your kitchen counter??

 

[herekittykitty8]

No advice for your first question, though I'm sure others will have an idea.

But for your second question, have you tried putting double stick tape on the counter? maybe cover a few placemats with it then leave it on the counter? That may help. Is she pooping on your counter? Or just making a mess with the food you leave there?

 

[hissy]

are they spayed?

 

[subconsciousme]

Both cats are spayed and utd on shots. I have tried to call my vet for assistance for both and she is out of ideas and we have tried all hers.


#1) She is perfectly nice to us and our other kitty. She poses no problems as long as no one comes in.

#2) Doesn't do anything on the counter aside from tear things apart (no, she doesn't go to the bathroom on the counter). We don't have many more places to store things and really, no place to store some of the things on the counter. We rent and tried to use double sided tape at one time but she just jumped over it and it left a mark on the counter.

 

[stephanietx]

For the 1st kitty, have you tried Rescue Remedy? It should (key word there) help calm her down some. You can get it at health food stores and maybe some pet stores. Be sure to get one without alcohol.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...fm?pcatid=3550

For the kitty jumping on the counter, get some carpet protector. It's sold on a roll at home improvement stores (Home Depot, Lowes, etc). It's plastic and has little nubs on the back to keep it from skidding on your carpet. Cut it to fit your counters and then turn it upside down so the nubs are exposed. It won't hurt your kitty when she jumps up, but it will make it very uncomfortable and hopefully (another key word) she'll learn that's not a place she wants to be.

 

[Willowy]

Honestly, if the kitty finds fun and/or food on the counters, it's not likely she'll be convinced to stay off of them when nobody is looking. Maybe using cat-proof storage containers would be possible? Extinguishing self-rewarding behaviors is extremely difficult, you need to prevent any rewarding from happening.

Does the other kitty actually attack guests? If not, I wouldn't try to change her at all. Not everybody is sociable. If you're having people over for a long time, putting her in another room would probably be best.

 

[subconsciousme]

stephanietx - Is it any different than Feliway because we have tried that without any success. No sense in spending more money if not necessary.

Willowy - Not usually but sometimes she will randomly pounce on people. It's not regular really but it will happen. It's frustrating. We have to go out of town. We dropped $500 on VIP tickets to a concert. Our cat should not be hindering this July vacation.

 

[stephanietx]

Yes, Rescue Remedy is different than Feliway. We've used both before and they work differently.

 

[hissy]

I would start clicker training both kitties. Marilyn Krieger just wrote an easy-to-use guide about clicker training your kitty called Naughty No More. I have used this successfully to stop a counter jumper and an inappropriate pee-er plus it really strengthens the human-cat bond we as cat owners crave.

http://www.amazon.com/Naughty-No-Mor.../dp/1933958928

I was skeptical, but this book made a believer out of me.