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- Jan 13, 2006
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Hi there,
I'm new to the forums but am desperate for some help. My wife and I picked out a 4 year old female gray/white cat from our local shelter about 3 weeks ago. She (Cleo is her name) was a stray on the streets of Pittsburgh. By her thin looks and slightly dirty stained paws (white fur) it looked like she spent at least a few weeks out there. She had been in the shelter for about 10 days prior to us taking her home. Anyway, she came home with a respiratory cold, which we quickly addressed with our vet who gave us medication for her. Through the first two weeks of having her in the house, she slept a lot - rarely being awake for more than a half hour at a time and sleeping for as long as 7 or 8 hours at a time. We attributed this mostly to being sick. In the last week however, she has come around and seems to be 100% healthy.
Let me give you some background now. My wife is a major cat lover and comes from her parents house where she grew up and lived with 3 cats. She couldn't wait to get this one and loves her to death. I have never owned a cat, and really not had much more experience with them other than to interact with the 3 that she/her parents live with. I've been very open minded about getting a cat for us and am actually enjoying having Cleo around - she's great, most of the time. She is a very sweet and loving cat, who appears to fear nothing and is very curious. She warmed right up to us and to our house (we broke her in slowly, a room at a time). She does not hesitate to jump up on our laps (which my wife loves of course) and is always looking for attention. Strange thing about her - she NEVER wants to play, at all and she could care less about cat nip. We keep her fed, give her treats, and give her all of the attention that we can possibly give her.
Now for the problem, she is incredibly rebellious after we go to bed at night or when we might have to ignore her when she wants our attention. It started out with scratching the couch (she only does it when we ignore her - it's not a claw maintenance thing). We've corrected her with a spray bottle and yelled at her to stop. We shown her her scratch post, but she never uses it. From there, it escalated into carpet soiling (even though she is well trained to use the litter box, as is evident by her actions when we are awake!). Now she has begun scratching at doors and is opening kitchen cabinets, room closets, crying in the middle of the night, etc. Last night she was literally banging on the cabinet doors, on top of the refridgerator (she never even attempts to get onto the kitchen counter tops, let alone the fridge, when we are awake during the day). It just doesn't stop and she'll continue to do it even after corrected. As far as frequency of this behavior? Pretty much every night now since she's been healthy. She does not do these things, to our knowledge, while we are not home. It only seems to be when we are home and having to ignore her. My job involves rotating shifts, and I have been home during the day since we got her - my wife is home at night with her - so it's not like Cleo is home by herself all day either.
Because of all of this, it's tough to sleep at night, not knowing what she's going to do next. We're a young couple, just getting started and are trying to update our house/buy new furniture and cannot deal with the potential of her tearing our house apart. What makes it so incredibly difficult to deal with is her pleasant, loving personality that we see during the day. We both agree that we have never met a cat so friendly and loving - which is what makes this so difficult to understand and deal with.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to deal with this? As of last night's incident, I was ready to take her back to the shelter this morning - but we both really want to keep her. Please help!
Thanks in advance!
Mike
I'm new to the forums but am desperate for some help. My wife and I picked out a 4 year old female gray/white cat from our local shelter about 3 weeks ago. She (Cleo is her name) was a stray on the streets of Pittsburgh. By her thin looks and slightly dirty stained paws (white fur) it looked like she spent at least a few weeks out there. She had been in the shelter for about 10 days prior to us taking her home. Anyway, she came home with a respiratory cold, which we quickly addressed with our vet who gave us medication for her. Through the first two weeks of having her in the house, she slept a lot - rarely being awake for more than a half hour at a time and sleeping for as long as 7 or 8 hours at a time. We attributed this mostly to being sick. In the last week however, she has come around and seems to be 100% healthy.
Let me give you some background now. My wife is a major cat lover and comes from her parents house where she grew up and lived with 3 cats. She couldn't wait to get this one and loves her to death. I have never owned a cat, and really not had much more experience with them other than to interact with the 3 that she/her parents live with. I've been very open minded about getting a cat for us and am actually enjoying having Cleo around - she's great, most of the time. She is a very sweet and loving cat, who appears to fear nothing and is very curious. She warmed right up to us and to our house (we broke her in slowly, a room at a time). She does not hesitate to jump up on our laps (which my wife loves of course) and is always looking for attention. Strange thing about her - she NEVER wants to play, at all and she could care less about cat nip. We keep her fed, give her treats, and give her all of the attention that we can possibly give her.
Now for the problem, she is incredibly rebellious after we go to bed at night or when we might have to ignore her when she wants our attention. It started out with scratching the couch (she only does it when we ignore her - it's not a claw maintenance thing). We've corrected her with a spray bottle and yelled at her to stop. We shown her her scratch post, but she never uses it. From there, it escalated into carpet soiling (even though she is well trained to use the litter box, as is evident by her actions when we are awake!). Now she has begun scratching at doors and is opening kitchen cabinets, room closets, crying in the middle of the night, etc. Last night she was literally banging on the cabinet doors, on top of the refridgerator (she never even attempts to get onto the kitchen counter tops, let alone the fridge, when we are awake during the day). It just doesn't stop and she'll continue to do it even after corrected. As far as frequency of this behavior? Pretty much every night now since she's been healthy. She does not do these things, to our knowledge, while we are not home. It only seems to be when we are home and having to ignore her. My job involves rotating shifts, and I have been home during the day since we got her - my wife is home at night with her - so it's not like Cleo is home by herself all day either.
Because of all of this, it's tough to sleep at night, not knowing what she's going to do next. We're a young couple, just getting started and are trying to update our house/buy new furniture and cannot deal with the potential of her tearing our house apart. What makes it so incredibly difficult to deal with is her pleasant, loving personality that we see during the day. We both agree that we have never met a cat so friendly and loving - which is what makes this so difficult to understand and deal with.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to deal with this? As of last night's incident, I was ready to take her back to the shelter this morning - but we both really want to keep her. Please help!
Thanks in advance!
Mike