Have You Ever Not Liked A Cat?

[Elphaba09]

Of our nine, two were a bit difficult. Freya because she avoiding any affection for almost four years. She was just sort of there and only connecting with my daughter. The other was Tara because she would stalk and attack all the cats but would target Astrid. It took a lot of work and patience, but she is no longer an attacker!

There was one cat I did not actually like; however, I put the blame on her owners. Firstly, they had her declawed. Secondly, when they moved, she was left alone in their summer house for over a year. They "visited" her once every three weeks or so to make sure she had food and water. She then was confined to their adult daughter's rooms while two other cats got the run of the house. To be fair, they are very wealthy and their daughter's rooms were essentially a moderately sized apartment of about 600 sq ft, with a bedroom, a large bathroom, a kitchenette, and a living room. Their whole house is over 9000 sq ft, so they had plenty of room. (I was friends with the daughter in question.) That cat hissed at and scratched everyone. She scratched the daughter less often than she scratched other people.

 

[NY cat man]

When I was a kid, they guy that owned the garage where I worked had several cats that lived there. One in particular turned me off of cats for years, because she would hook you with her claws- for real, not in play- if you didn't pet her, or bite if you did pet her. I hated that cat

 

[jefferd18]

I mean I know you might not be ready for the humor now, but this cat needs to be on TV, or at least Youtube. My gosh his antics are quite funny. He may make you rich? But honestly, and seriously it sounds like it is a good time to rehome the cat if you can do so. It's not good for the cat, you or the other cats in the house. It's just not a good fit. Yes some of it is normal kitten behavior, and he will grow out of it, some of it is likely not. You would have to spend a lot of time training him, and working with him, and he still may have the same type of issues. I do think a lot of what he is doing could be prevented by now knowing he is prone to this. I mean our cats would NEVER take a watch or anything like that, they just don't do that stuff, but clearly he does. I would not get rid of him until you can find a loving home for him though. Good luck.

My cat Jeff had me rolling with her antics. She would pretend that she was going to nail a bunny in the yard, just to see how I would react. She would also tackle me whenever I was outside. But the difference between she and Figaro is that Jeff had no malice in her pranks- nobody got hurt and nothing got destroyed.

I think he is just an unusual high energy cat and needs some way to let off some steam.

No, I would never kick him to the curb. There will be a lot of thought and time put into finding his next home.

 

[jefferd18]

When I was a kid, they guy that owned the garage where I worked had several cats that lived there. One in particular turned me off of cats for years, because she would hook you with her claws- for real, not in play- if you didn't pet her, or bite if you did pet her. I hated that cat

I have one just like that! If you don't pay attention to her she will hook you with her claws (and they are prickly), then she will bite if you do pet her. Its like you never know what she wants- you get nailed either way. Luckily, cats like those are in the minority.

 

[jefferd18]

I love both of our cats, Olive and Gohan. But Olive is easy to love - she will sleep on my lap (or neck, or face) for hours, she is exuberant and playful but not excessively, she’s super food motivated so it’s fun to feed her. Simply she is a delight.

Gohan is another beast - he’s hard to relaxingly enjoy. Until recently he’s not a cuddler, but he seeks constant attention. The best way he does this is by walking up to you and shouting. So if you sit to pet him he will walk just out of range, or move to stand behind you and meow if you don’t move to follow him. He also won’t play like other cats and get good and tired. We found he loves the Cat Dancer but he sits and watches after a few pounces and won’t get much exercise in. So while nothing he does is really bad, he’s harder to relax and enjoy because it’s constant work to give him all the love and petting he wants. We do our best though, lol

Oh wow, Gohan sounds like quite the riddle.

 

[jefferd18]

Of our nine, two were a bit difficult. Freya because she avoiding any affection for almost four years. She was just sort of there and only connecting with my daughter. The other was Tara because she would stalk and attack all the cats but would target Astrid. It took a lot of work and patience, but she is no longer an attacker!

There was one cat I did not actually like; however, I put the blame on her owners. Firstly, they had her declawed. Secondly, when they moved, she was left alone in their summer house for over a year. They "visited" her once every three weeks or so to make sure she had food and water. She then was confined to their adult daughter's rooms while two other cats got the run of the house. To be fair, they are very wealthy and their daughter's rooms were essentially a moderately sized apartment of about 600 sq ft, with a bedroom, a large bathroom, a kitchenette, and a living room. Their whole house is over 9000 sq ft, so they had plenty of room. (I was friends with the daughter in question.) That cat hissed at and scratched everyone. She scratched the daughter less often
than she scratched other people.

I feel so sorry for that feline. A declawed cat is an insecure cat and the fact that she was basically shunned made her even more neurotic.

It is heartening to hear about Freya and Tara, sounds like you made some real improvement in their lives- well done.

 

[jefferd18]

Oh, pots on the stove are my another cat's specialty Especially if it's filled with liquid - I use pot with hottish water to warm up their food few times a day, and if I forget to take it away, this cat will move it around with his forehead on the whole counter as he simply loves splashing water Of course the best splash is when it hits the floor so that's the goal. Sometimes I wait till the very last minute before taking it away from him because well, I'm filming it
We had to stop using glasses with water for that reason, we now have bottles that we need to close after each sip.
Trash can we keep under the sink in the cupboard that can be closed, if we'd want to keep it outside of it, it would need to be raccoon proof one

I know you're angry and annoyed with him and given what happened to your other pet friends, I totally understand this. But when you feel calmer, you can try to see him differently. Such cats are great in teaching patience and understanding Plus, I'm sure there's something good you can say about him.

PS Re harness training: you need to be aware that some cats, when they start outside walks, they start to demand it all the time; sometimes making it a regular habit helps, but other times the cat can spend awful amount of time crying to go for a walk. So this solution may actually backfire.

The one good thing that I can say about Figaro is that he won't hurt people. He has never bitten or clawed me or anybody else who visits my house.

In regards to harness training- I can't just let him go outside because my street is just too busy and he want to so badly- he just cries and cries at my front door.