'm at the end of the line with one of my cats, Ivan.
He is about three years old (strictly indoors/Nutered) and either he is crazy or just slowly going feral. I got him as a kitten at about 8 weeks old from the animal shelter, and while he has never been loving at the least he was a good animal.
In the last year, though, he's been going downhill. It started with obsessivly scratching at things. He will sit there and just scratch and scratch at a peice of paper left on the floor for hours.
He started to startle unexpectally and freak out randomly when you picked him up. One such time left a six inch long scar on my arm. He'll be fine one second and the next something will scare him (what this something is, I'll never know) and he'll be fighting and biting to get away.
He was always really rambuncious, so my boyfriend and I got a second cat, Vlad for him to play with. Vlad turned out to be everything that Ivan wasn't, playful, gentle and just a really sociable guy.
Ivan started to get worse and eventually he would stop eating. My boyfriend and I didn't figure it out for a bit because we volentary feed, but we realized that as much food as we put in the bowl Vlad kept getting fatter and Ivan skinner.
A trip to the vet diagnosed worms for both of them, but dewarming didn't help Ivan. (And to be honest, now Vlad is obease) Thinking that maybe Vlad was somehow chasing Ivan from the food we would lock Ivan in the bathroom with food to himself. He'd cry and meow at the door, not paying any attention to the food.
Finally my boyfriend got fed up, and grabbed Ivan and shoved his nose in some wet food that we got him. Ivan licked his nose and we had sucess! He started eating again. But now it's created a whole new ruitual my boyfriend and I have to go though. We have to feed Ivan wet catfood, and the damn cat will not eat until his nose is shoved in it. Ivan has increasingly become anti-social and will spit and hiss every time we try to pick him up. So it's a big deal trying to get him to eat. First we have to chase him around the house, then we have to avoid the claws, then we have to carry him to the dish (still trying to avoid those claws) and get him to look at the food bowl.
I haven't tried to pick Ivan up for weeks now other than feedings do to his hissing and spitting. He compleatly freaks out when anything at all is changed in the house and actually snarled and hissed at me when I came home wearing new shoes.
He has a bad habit of attacking the two of us out of nowhere. We used to have the couch away from the wall and he would come up behind us, claw at the back of our necks and run off. When that mysteriuous _something_ startles him, he runs across the house at top speed, tail poofed and not caring who he runs over. My foot has been horribly slashed three times beacuse he has had his claws out when he ran, my boyfriend has been slashed twice.
We have to lock him in another room when guests come over because NO ONE but myself and my boyfriend can really tell the difference between Vald and Ivan. Someone will reach down to pet "Vlad" and recive a bite or a slash from Ivan.
Yeah, did I mention that he bites? Hard. Sometimes when he's not running from the things only he can see, he'll come up to you and just bite you. Or if you reach down and pet him, he'll swing around and bite you.
He goes thorugh days where he dissappers under the couch and we never see him (and we have to drag him out to get him to eat) and somedays he'll be roaming around the house looking for that special peice of paper he can scratch for hours. He ignores all the toys we give him (and the scratching posts, he perfers the walls instead), he likes the tops of water bottles, though for some reason.
I am personally at my wits end with this cat. I could take the twice a day feeding disaster, but the main thing is I just do not trust this cat any longer. He is mean, and he scratches and bites for no reason. It's like we have a crazy creature inside our house that brings us no joy, but just a lot of physical pain and honest fear. I've been trying to figure out what to do with him... My boyfriend threw him outside the last time he got scratched badly (another mistaken idenity, Ivan for Vlad problem), but he sat outside and cried until he let him in.
I don't want to bring him to a shelter because he's still so skinny it'll look like I've been starving the cat! (If only they could see Vlad). Plus there is no way he would pass a behavior test, and he would be put down.
What do I do? Take him to the vet and leave him there? Heh. Oh yeah, I forgot getting him in that cat carrier was pure hell. I have to wear leather gloves just to get him into the carrier to spare my hands. He is compleatly out of control. What if we decide to have kids in the future? This cat cannot be trusted whatsoever.
He is about three years old (strictly indoors/Nutered) and either he is crazy or just slowly going feral. I got him as a kitten at about 8 weeks old from the animal shelter, and while he has never been loving at the least he was a good animal.
In the last year, though, he's been going downhill. It started with obsessivly scratching at things. He will sit there and just scratch and scratch at a peice of paper left on the floor for hours.
He started to startle unexpectally and freak out randomly when you picked him up. One such time left a six inch long scar on my arm. He'll be fine one second and the next something will scare him (what this something is, I'll never know) and he'll be fighting and biting to get away.
He was always really rambuncious, so my boyfriend and I got a second cat, Vlad for him to play with. Vlad turned out to be everything that Ivan wasn't, playful, gentle and just a really sociable guy.
Ivan started to get worse and eventually he would stop eating. My boyfriend and I didn't figure it out for a bit because we volentary feed, but we realized that as much food as we put in the bowl Vlad kept getting fatter and Ivan skinner.
A trip to the vet diagnosed worms for both of them, but dewarming didn't help Ivan. (And to be honest, now Vlad is obease) Thinking that maybe Vlad was somehow chasing Ivan from the food we would lock Ivan in the bathroom with food to himself. He'd cry and meow at the door, not paying any attention to the food.
Finally my boyfriend got fed up, and grabbed Ivan and shoved his nose in some wet food that we got him. Ivan licked his nose and we had sucess! He started eating again. But now it's created a whole new ruitual my boyfriend and I have to go though. We have to feed Ivan wet catfood, and the damn cat will not eat until his nose is shoved in it. Ivan has increasingly become anti-social and will spit and hiss every time we try to pick him up. So it's a big deal trying to get him to eat. First we have to chase him around the house, then we have to avoid the claws, then we have to carry him to the dish (still trying to avoid those claws) and get him to look at the food bowl.
I haven't tried to pick Ivan up for weeks now other than feedings do to his hissing and spitting. He compleatly freaks out when anything at all is changed in the house and actually snarled and hissed at me when I came home wearing new shoes.
He has a bad habit of attacking the two of us out of nowhere. We used to have the couch away from the wall and he would come up behind us, claw at the back of our necks and run off. When that mysteriuous _something_ startles him, he runs across the house at top speed, tail poofed and not caring who he runs over. My foot has been horribly slashed three times beacuse he has had his claws out when he ran, my boyfriend has been slashed twice.
We have to lock him in another room when guests come over because NO ONE but myself and my boyfriend can really tell the difference between Vald and Ivan. Someone will reach down to pet "Vlad" and recive a bite or a slash from Ivan.
Yeah, did I mention that he bites? Hard. Sometimes when he's not running from the things only he can see, he'll come up to you and just bite you. Or if you reach down and pet him, he'll swing around and bite you.
He goes thorugh days where he dissappers under the couch and we never see him (and we have to drag him out to get him to eat) and somedays he'll be roaming around the house looking for that special peice of paper he can scratch for hours. He ignores all the toys we give him (and the scratching posts, he perfers the walls instead), he likes the tops of water bottles, though for some reason.
I am personally at my wits end with this cat. I could take the twice a day feeding disaster, but the main thing is I just do not trust this cat any longer. He is mean, and he scratches and bites for no reason. It's like we have a crazy creature inside our house that brings us no joy, but just a lot of physical pain and honest fear. I've been trying to figure out what to do with him... My boyfriend threw him outside the last time he got scratched badly (another mistaken idenity, Ivan for Vlad problem), but he sat outside and cried until he let him in.
I don't want to bring him to a shelter because he's still so skinny it'll look like I've been starving the cat! (If only they could see Vlad). Plus there is no way he would pass a behavior test, and he would be put down.
What do I do? Take him to the vet and leave him there? Heh. Oh yeah, I forgot getting him in that cat carrier was pure hell. I have to wear leather gloves just to get him into the carrier to spare my hands. He is compleatly out of control. What if we decide to have kids in the future? This cat cannot be trusted whatsoever.