Hi Everyone,
I need some help/advice on what to do with my 4 year old orange and white cat Charlie. He is a super loving cat 90% of the time who loves nothing more than lying on my chest watching tv, sleeping, and kneeding my neck with his paws. The problem is that he has several issues we have been trying to deal with and correct for for years now and things have not gotten any better.
The first issue is sleep. He wants to sleep on top of either myself or my wife at night. This sounds fine, but when he decides to chase our other cat around at all hours of the night, its impossible to get a good nights sleep. Add to this that he is used to our weekday shedule of getting up at 4:30 am for work and demands we get up this early on the weekends to feed him. We have tried locking him out of our bedroom, but he meows contstantly and eventually learned how to turn the door handle. After changing out the door handle for a knob, he can't get in, but he will loudly jiggle the handle and meaow until we let him in. We also tried locking the cats in the finished basement at night, but he is very loud still and get stressed and urinates on the brand new furniture down there.
He desperately would like to go outside and we have tried that as well. We hoped that outdoor time would help stimulate him and make him happier (which it did) but every time we let him out the neighbors cat has viciously attacked him leaving him covered in blood and urine. We have talked to the other owner, but they are unwilling to keep their cat in and we do not know what else to do. We love the neighbors cat as well and he is super freindly with people and we cant bear to take it anyfurther (ie reporting to the town). Now when the other cat comes onto out deck Charlie stands at the glass door or window and hisses. He has even started taking out his aggression on our other cat and dog and even our guests dog. This morning the neighbors cat was standing on our bulkhead which is right outside of our kitchen window and Charlie was on our counter and they started hissing through the screen. I thought they were about to fight and possibly break through the screen so i went to close the window and charile latched onto my hand with his teeth and scratched my wrist up. It is clear he will never get along with this cat and cannot safely go outside.
We have tried everything including taking him to the vet several times to ensure there was no medical reason for peeing in the basement. The vet thinks its just stress from being seperrated. We even tried Prozac prescibed by the vet and although it seemed to help a little at the begining, the problems returned.
We are finanlly at the point where we can no longer have in our house. He is the only thing we fight about and has become a severe strain on our marriage. We have been calling all of the no kill shelter in Massachusetts and none are willing to take him because of his history of urinating and biting. He is a great cat and does not mean harm. He is extremely loving and would thrive in a home without other pets and a loving owner who doesnt mind him in their bed.
We are stressed and at our limit and our dog and other cat are now stresed whenever Charile goes near them. On top of everything we found out that we are expecting our first child and cannot in conscience bring a baby into our home with Charlie.
Please, we are open to any and all advice and are afraid that our only option will be to put him down.
I need some help/advice on what to do with my 4 year old orange and white cat Charlie. He is a super loving cat 90% of the time who loves nothing more than lying on my chest watching tv, sleeping, and kneeding my neck with his paws. The problem is that he has several issues we have been trying to deal with and correct for for years now and things have not gotten any better.
The first issue is sleep. He wants to sleep on top of either myself or my wife at night. This sounds fine, but when he decides to chase our other cat around at all hours of the night, its impossible to get a good nights sleep. Add to this that he is used to our weekday shedule of getting up at 4:30 am for work and demands we get up this early on the weekends to feed him. We have tried locking him out of our bedroom, but he meows contstantly and eventually learned how to turn the door handle. After changing out the door handle for a knob, he can't get in, but he will loudly jiggle the handle and meaow until we let him in. We also tried locking the cats in the finished basement at night, but he is very loud still and get stressed and urinates on the brand new furniture down there.
He desperately would like to go outside and we have tried that as well. We hoped that outdoor time would help stimulate him and make him happier (which it did) but every time we let him out the neighbors cat has viciously attacked him leaving him covered in blood and urine. We have talked to the other owner, but they are unwilling to keep their cat in and we do not know what else to do. We love the neighbors cat as well and he is super freindly with people and we cant bear to take it anyfurther (ie reporting to the town). Now when the other cat comes onto out deck Charlie stands at the glass door or window and hisses. He has even started taking out his aggression on our other cat and dog and even our guests dog. This morning the neighbors cat was standing on our bulkhead which is right outside of our kitchen window and Charlie was on our counter and they started hissing through the screen. I thought they were about to fight and possibly break through the screen so i went to close the window and charile latched onto my hand with his teeth and scratched my wrist up. It is clear he will never get along with this cat and cannot safely go outside.
We have tried everything including taking him to the vet several times to ensure there was no medical reason for peeing in the basement. The vet thinks its just stress from being seperrated. We even tried Prozac prescibed by the vet and although it seemed to help a little at the begining, the problems returned.
We are finanlly at the point where we can no longer have in our house. He is the only thing we fight about and has become a severe strain on our marriage. We have been calling all of the no kill shelter in Massachusetts and none are willing to take him because of his history of urinating and biting. He is a great cat and does not mean harm. He is extremely loving and would thrive in a home without other pets and a loving owner who doesnt mind him in their bed.
We are stressed and at our limit and our dog and other cat are now stresed whenever Charile goes near them. On top of everything we found out that we are expecting our first child and cannot in conscience bring a baby into our home with Charlie.
Please, we are open to any and all advice and are afraid that our only option will be to put him down.
This is definitely something a cat behaviorist can help you with as well.
