- Joined
- Sep 10, 2017
- Messages
- 1
- Purraise
- 0
First things First: I'm never giving him up. I've had him since he was a kitten and he's 6 now. His first vet said he imprinted on me like a duckling. I know what every meow means. I know what every tail flick is. I know what every walk and stance means for him and for me. But just because he's attacking me and I feel scared in my home and of him, I am not going to get rid of him. I am going to figure out what is going on in order to best help him and I. What is it that I am doing wrong? Or is it our apartment?
Background Info: Abbott is a 19 lb (the vet says he only needs to drop 2 lbs), 2.5 foot long cat (estimate). He's what coastal Carolina calls a Carolina Kitty as a breed. He is long and big and I no longer know what an average sized cat weighs. He LOVES people. He loves socializing with new people especially. He has in the past waited till night time to "prey" on me and whoever else is in the apartment (this is the Savannah one, I will get to the present one shortly). I closely resemble it to how a tiger moves when it is preying on a food item. Except Abbott is constantly looking at us in the eyes which I expect because all of my animals in the past have done this. He would only do this randomly and it would start with bathroom issues so of course I would assume a UTI, so I would take him in and the VET at the time would just assume (I just found this out; I've been livid) that he had crystals instead of appropriately test for so that we could figure out the type or even see if it was even crystals or just a UTI or even nothing? So that's a thing in his history where they just kind of gave me the medication and hoped for the best. The medication did seem to help a bit, so I won't be too angry at them.
He grew up with me in my family of mom, dad, sister, another cat named Doc, and 4 small dogs. He loved them all except Doc and him got into a ton of fights. So my family and I felt that as soon as I had my own apartment at college my Junior year (his 3rd year) I would take him with me to alleviate stress on Doc. He got daily walks outside to sniff the flowers, he hikes rather well (it's how I keep him active), and wet food.
Junior year and an apartment came around so I packed him up and moved him 3 hours away.
SAVANNAH APARTMENT
Abbott never once showed any signs of stress at this apartment, even with it being in the city of Savannah and so far away from grass and chirping crickets and his daily walks. He still got his wet but not as often. He got cat grass. He had a balcony that he got to go out on and sun bathe. He consistently and constantly saw different people and greeted them at the door like a dog and wouldn't leave their side.
During holidays we would travel back home and then come back to the apartment. No stress seen. We would just have to keep a watchful eye on the two cats.
FLASH FORWARD:
I moved him 18 hours north to Rhode Island a year later. He was only drugged for the first morning and then he seemed to accept it. I had a second driver so one person could help with him while the other drove and this way we could tag team to help get him a litter box. Obviously a stressful situation for everyone and for him especially. He was in a medium sized dog crate (the only one he fits in comfortably before going up in size). He was near AC vents so that he had a constant flow of air coming his way. He never once panted, he mostly slept through the entire trip (we did it one full day). He meowed whenever went over a bump. He did have a case of diarrhea but that was from his car anxiety but it didn't happen until late in the evening (it happens even when just going to the vet 5 minutes down the road). So we allowed him out on the leash at a park so he could stretch his legs and we all just kind of laid down where he loafed on top of me. It was a great moment.
RHODE ISLAND APARTMENT
My apartment is obviously a ton smaller than a house that had 5 people, 5 dogs, and 2 cats in it or the Savannah apartment which housed 3 people and a cat and some bikes. This apartment is a 1 bedroom, 1 bath, 1 hallway, small living room, kitchen apartment. It has one wall of windows that I can open and have kept opened for Abbott's enjoyment. We are in an apartment complex so there's only hallways when we exit our door. The weather is obviously different up here. Everywhere Abbott has been there has been salt in the air and that is not the case here.
He lives with two new boys and I, an English Springer mix and my boyfriend whom he already has known for almost 4 years. The English Springer is new, and is named Sawyer. Sawyer came after Abbott but Abbott has been attacking before Sawyer came into the apartment. Sawyer and Abbott have just now started to get along, before Sawyer ignored Abbott whereas Abbott tried his hardest to get Sawyer to play with him.
THE PROBLEM:
He started attacking me at night again in the same manner. So I found a vet and took him in. The vet was really great, told me about the UTI shot that no one ever told me about. And said he definitely has a UTI but no crystals as of right now. But let's treat the UTI as a stress UTI to see if it helps him at all. I'm down with being proactive since no other vet has tried that yet. So I have been doing the Feliway which was helping a ton! We saw immediate progress in his actions and the way he was feeling as soon as we plugged in. But now we are on our third one and he's worse than ever before.
He does the tiger preying method- but it is no longer just at night. It's during the day, in the morning, in the middle of the night. When I get up at at 4 am to go to work. He chases me out the door. I have to lock myself in my room. I'm afraid to walk down the hallway to get one thing and I wait till have more than one thing on my list to grab before I start my trek because of him. I know as soon as he starts walking quickly he is coming for me. He never hisses. He does a sharp meow, sometimes a deep meow, and whips his tail back and forth before grabbing me. He does it to my boyfriend only sometimes, he does it every single day to me, sometimes multiple times a day. He does it a ton more when my boyfriend leaves the apartment (immediately after), when he goes to the bathroom, and when he's in bed already and Abbott puts himself between us while I'm still in the living room. He's started doing it when I am about to leave the house and he sees me putting on shoes, when I try to get changed, when I get water, when I get food for myself. This will happen just moments after he was being cuddly and rubbing up against my leg and talking to me. Just moments after I was giving him attention. Moments after I was playing with him until he dozed off. I'm not understanding it. With Nick (the boyfriend), when he attacks him it happens usually when he is in the bedroom standing at his dresser in the bedroom. We have been in this apartment since June 2017 now.
I have tried tapping him politely on the butt like you would a dog and saying "NO!" and I've tried yelling "NO!" and shaking my finger at him, and I have tried saying "YOU ARE BAD" but instead of getting a reaction of remorse he pins his ears back and lunges for my face. Lately he doesn't look me in the eyes, he looks and preys on my knees. I'm not afraid of him as much as I am worried, sickened, and constantly wanting to cry because I can see our relationship crumbling. It used to be that wherever my head was closest to his, he would head butt me and rub against me. And now I'm just fearful of hurting him and him hurting me. I'm fearful of us growing distant and not being able to get back to what we have been for so long.
I have also introduced new toys, new treats, and I am in the process of ordering cat shelves for him as well to see if that makes him any more comfortable. I'm really worried that he is just not comfortable here.
There is one other thing that I have noticed but I don't know how to explain it because I haven't found anything on the internet that even remotely comes close to it. One day I was cleaning his litter box and almost 100% it is on the dot consistent. Except lately there is a smell that is extremely off and I can't tell if it is his poop or his urine. I clean the litter box consistently so that it doesn't stack up. And this smell doesn't smell like cat urine and it doesn't smell like poop. It smells as if maybe there's a combination? It smells acidic. I have to cover my mouth and my nose and set off all of my candles in the bathroom to try and cover it because I feel like I have to throw up. That's been fairly recent and I don't know if the behavior issues are tied to this issue. But If anyone has advice on how to get samples of this from the litter box that would be great because Abbott never pees or poops outside of the box ever.
Background Info: Abbott is a 19 lb (the vet says he only needs to drop 2 lbs), 2.5 foot long cat (estimate). He's what coastal Carolina calls a Carolina Kitty as a breed. He is long and big and I no longer know what an average sized cat weighs. He LOVES people. He loves socializing with new people especially. He has in the past waited till night time to "prey" on me and whoever else is in the apartment (this is the Savannah one, I will get to the present one shortly). I closely resemble it to how a tiger moves when it is preying on a food item. Except Abbott is constantly looking at us in the eyes which I expect because all of my animals in the past have done this. He would only do this randomly and it would start with bathroom issues so of course I would assume a UTI, so I would take him in and the VET at the time would just assume (I just found this out; I've been livid) that he had crystals instead of appropriately test for so that we could figure out the type or even see if it was even crystals or just a UTI or even nothing? So that's a thing in his history where they just kind of gave me the medication and hoped for the best. The medication did seem to help a bit, so I won't be too angry at them.
He grew up with me in my family of mom, dad, sister, another cat named Doc, and 4 small dogs. He loved them all except Doc and him got into a ton of fights. So my family and I felt that as soon as I had my own apartment at college my Junior year (his 3rd year) I would take him with me to alleviate stress on Doc. He got daily walks outside to sniff the flowers, he hikes rather well (it's how I keep him active), and wet food.
Junior year and an apartment came around so I packed him up and moved him 3 hours away.
SAVANNAH APARTMENT
Abbott never once showed any signs of stress at this apartment, even with it being in the city of Savannah and so far away from grass and chirping crickets and his daily walks. He still got his wet but not as often. He got cat grass. He had a balcony that he got to go out on and sun bathe. He consistently and constantly saw different people and greeted them at the door like a dog and wouldn't leave their side.
During holidays we would travel back home and then come back to the apartment. No stress seen. We would just have to keep a watchful eye on the two cats.
FLASH FORWARD:
I moved him 18 hours north to Rhode Island a year later. He was only drugged for the first morning and then he seemed to accept it. I had a second driver so one person could help with him while the other drove and this way we could tag team to help get him a litter box. Obviously a stressful situation for everyone and for him especially. He was in a medium sized dog crate (the only one he fits in comfortably before going up in size). He was near AC vents so that he had a constant flow of air coming his way. He never once panted, he mostly slept through the entire trip (we did it one full day). He meowed whenever went over a bump. He did have a case of diarrhea but that was from his car anxiety but it didn't happen until late in the evening (it happens even when just going to the vet 5 minutes down the road). So we allowed him out on the leash at a park so he could stretch his legs and we all just kind of laid down where he loafed on top of me. It was a great moment.
RHODE ISLAND APARTMENT
My apartment is obviously a ton smaller than a house that had 5 people, 5 dogs, and 2 cats in it or the Savannah apartment which housed 3 people and a cat and some bikes. This apartment is a 1 bedroom, 1 bath, 1 hallway, small living room, kitchen apartment. It has one wall of windows that I can open and have kept opened for Abbott's enjoyment. We are in an apartment complex so there's only hallways when we exit our door. The weather is obviously different up here. Everywhere Abbott has been there has been salt in the air and that is not the case here.
He lives with two new boys and I, an English Springer mix and my boyfriend whom he already has known for almost 4 years. The English Springer is new, and is named Sawyer. Sawyer came after Abbott but Abbott has been attacking before Sawyer came into the apartment. Sawyer and Abbott have just now started to get along, before Sawyer ignored Abbott whereas Abbott tried his hardest to get Sawyer to play with him.
THE PROBLEM:
He started attacking me at night again in the same manner. So I found a vet and took him in. The vet was really great, told me about the UTI shot that no one ever told me about. And said he definitely has a UTI but no crystals as of right now. But let's treat the UTI as a stress UTI to see if it helps him at all. I'm down with being proactive since no other vet has tried that yet. So I have been doing the Feliway which was helping a ton! We saw immediate progress in his actions and the way he was feeling as soon as we plugged in. But now we are on our third one and he's worse than ever before.
He does the tiger preying method- but it is no longer just at night. It's during the day, in the morning, in the middle of the night. When I get up at at 4 am to go to work. He chases me out the door. I have to lock myself in my room. I'm afraid to walk down the hallway to get one thing and I wait till have more than one thing on my list to grab before I start my trek because of him. I know as soon as he starts walking quickly he is coming for me. He never hisses. He does a sharp meow, sometimes a deep meow, and whips his tail back and forth before grabbing me. He does it to my boyfriend only sometimes, he does it every single day to me, sometimes multiple times a day. He does it a ton more when my boyfriend leaves the apartment (immediately after), when he goes to the bathroom, and when he's in bed already and Abbott puts himself between us while I'm still in the living room. He's started doing it when I am about to leave the house and he sees me putting on shoes, when I try to get changed, when I get water, when I get food for myself. This will happen just moments after he was being cuddly and rubbing up against my leg and talking to me. Just moments after I was giving him attention. Moments after I was playing with him until he dozed off. I'm not understanding it. With Nick (the boyfriend), when he attacks him it happens usually when he is in the bedroom standing at his dresser in the bedroom. We have been in this apartment since June 2017 now.
I have tried tapping him politely on the butt like you would a dog and saying "NO!" and I've tried yelling "NO!" and shaking my finger at him, and I have tried saying "YOU ARE BAD" but instead of getting a reaction of remorse he pins his ears back and lunges for my face. Lately he doesn't look me in the eyes, he looks and preys on my knees. I'm not afraid of him as much as I am worried, sickened, and constantly wanting to cry because I can see our relationship crumbling. It used to be that wherever my head was closest to his, he would head butt me and rub against me. And now I'm just fearful of hurting him and him hurting me. I'm fearful of us growing distant and not being able to get back to what we have been for so long.
I have also introduced new toys, new treats, and I am in the process of ordering cat shelves for him as well to see if that makes him any more comfortable. I'm really worried that he is just not comfortable here.
There is one other thing that I have noticed but I don't know how to explain it because I haven't found anything on the internet that even remotely comes close to it. One day I was cleaning his litter box and almost 100% it is on the dot consistent. Except lately there is a smell that is extremely off and I can't tell if it is his poop or his urine. I clean the litter box consistently so that it doesn't stack up. And this smell doesn't smell like cat urine and it doesn't smell like poop. It smells as if maybe there's a combination? It smells acidic. I have to cover my mouth and my nose and set off all of my candles in the bathroom to try and cover it because I feel like I have to throw up. That's been fairly recent and I don't know if the behavior issues are tied to this issue. But If anyone has advice on how to get samples of this from the litter box that would be great because Abbott never pees or poops outside of the box ever.
Last edited:
