I Regret My Cat

[kittyluv387]

So I still kind of hate one of my cats. I have 2 cats and my bf adopted 1 from my old neighbors. My other cat is a good boy and my bf's cat is a sweet girl too. My orange terror is the problem. And thing is the orange terror is actually a super sweet cat. He loves attention and loves to cuddle. He is very brave so he is always impressing visitors by greeting them when they arrive. Honestly my bf is the only one who understands me because he lives with me. Understandably, visitors all love him. I've had him since late 2016 when he was 2 and he was okay for a couple years when he didn't fully come out of his shell. But I really spoil all my cats and I have turned him into a little hitler. People tell me they want to be reborn as my cat lol... Furthermore he has a lot of annoying little health problems that I really need to stay on top of. I never wanted kids but now I feel like I have a disabled child and to be honest I'm pretty pissed about that.

Behaviors
He is extremely demanding and pushy. When I prepare their food to feed them he will just get in the way constantly. He does not care if I spank him, yell or shove. He just bull dozes his way in and does not care at all. I know it's because he really trusts me a lot. Afterall, it took him a long time to get out of his shell! But he acts like this with everything he wants. I started to go to the side yard with all the cats for about 15 min to give them some more stimulation. He started jumping the fence even when I put a harness on him. When I go through the neighbors yard to retrieve him he will actually growl and hiss at me. The audacity! Now I don't take the cats outside because of his behavior and he just starts meowing constantly around 3pm, which is when I usually took him outside. He's also be bratty about wanting my attention. I am his person but he can be pretty excessive in wanting my attention, especially if he doesn't get his outdoor time. He will even be rude and walk on a cat to get them out of his way so he can have my lap. His behaviors are irritating but I'm pretty reasonable when it comes to different cat behaviors so I don't mind dealing with his demanding attitude. I just ignore him sometimes and overall not a big deal. I try to give him as much attention as possible. We have other cats but he hates it when the girl cat is so clingy with him. She loves him but he doesn't feel the same way lol. He just loves attention from his humans. Mostly me. My bf and I just talk about how horrible he is and laugh.

Health Issues

The worse part for me are all his little health issues. He has meaty cheeks inside his mouth so he gets plaque build up very easily and quickly. He needs a dental every 18 months. I tried brushing his teeth but it was really unpleasant for the both of us. I am able to brush my other cat's teeth and I try to brush them every other day.

And wow...the constipation. I wipe his butt with unscented baby wipes daily after he has a bowel movement. I never wanted kids and I can't believe I've been wiping a cat's butt for almost 8 years and I have to do it for another 10 or so. He's turning 10 in March but I honestly take such good care of him I wouldn't be surprised if he lives till 20. Sometimes we wake up and find that he has smeared poop all over the floor because it got stuck in his butthole. He has had constipation since the day I got him. But it has been getting worse with age. I believe he has a case of mild mega colon. He spent some time being an obese stray before I adopted him. He needs miralax and probiotics with every meal, so meal prep for the cats are so annoying because of him. But managing constipation is not an easy thing. His constipation varies, hence the poop smearing. I have tried giving him the vet prescribed lactulose but I found it less effective than miralax. I have been feeding him wet food with water added since the beginning because I quickly realized he was getting urinary issues on even partial dry.

He is a sweet heart but also kind of ferocious sometimes. He scratches things like a lion. Just completely obliterating my litter robot 3's thick rubber liner. We try to stop him whenever we can but I still end up having to replace them every so often. He also pees in weird spots in there which makes the litter robot 3 very dirty. If we didn't have him the other 2 cats would use the litter robot 3 gently and they would stay tidy and clean. My orange terror just ruins everything. For some reason he likes scratching bathtubs and has ruined batbtubs in all the apartments I have had and the apartment has had to reglaze them. And yes he really scratches that hard. But I have had to recently give him a bath a couple times due to his poop issues and now he doesn't seem so keen on the bathtub anymore. Thank god.

Overall I hate him but I feel like I made a commitment to him. It's really hard to just deal with ALL his issues. I think if he didn't have one or 2 of his issues it would be a lot easier to deal with. Sometimes I fantasize about just letting him go outside like he wants or "accidentally" letting him out. But then I imagine him laying on the street after being hit from a car so I can't do that. But I really feel like a regretful parent of a disabled child and thinking about him living for another 10 years is such a depressive thought to me. He has a lot of needs so I can't just simply give him away or unload him at the no-kill shelter. The average person cannot deal with him. I guess a catio or balcony would be a solution. One of my last apartments had a nice balcony and he would stay out there all day and night. That was nice and I miss that. Now we live in my house but I don't have much yard space to build him his own little catio where he can come and go as he pleases. I just have a tiny side yard.

So yes I'm not really expecting anyone to give me a miracle answer. Just ranting. It's a difficult situation. He was already abandoned once. He had a microchip and his old owner didn't respond when he was contacted. Now I kind of see why, he's horrible. He lived as a stray in my apartment and he was friendly enough so I took him to the Animal Services. When I knew his old owner never retrieved him I just adopted him out of duty. I didn't really want him in the first place. I had my other cat who was a kitten at the time and I wanted to get him another kitten for a playmate. But nope I had to do what I thought felt right and unknowingly adopted a little orange hitler. I do care for him and love him but I also truly regret him.

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi
Try something different so that you can take the cats outside again, they need that, especially him. Since you know he's a jumper, keep an eye out and if you can safely, pick him up and hold him so he can't get over the fence etc. Anyway, point being, change up how you handle him so that everyone can get outside.

For him to hiss when he's in the neighbors yard simply means that you don't have any idea what other people might have done to him in a similar situation. One of my cats, who always runs to me when I walk out into the backyard, was frightened and freaked out enough that he tried to run away from me when I had to retrieve him from my neighbor's yard. It was almost as if he didn't recognize me there.

I'm not surprised, miralax works better than lactulose and is a bit easier on the body too. I had to handfeed one of my cats three times daily for years because he could detect even the tasteless miralax and wouldn't eat on his own.

Would your Mr Orange Marmalade use a cat wheel?

I'm suggesting to get him back to the outside time, and a cat wheel if at all possible, because more exercise can help the constipation issues.

 

[kittyluv387]

Hi
Try something different so that you can take the cats outside again, they need that, especially him. Since you know he's a jumper, keep an eye out and if you can safely, pick him up and hold him so he can't get over the fence etc. Anyway, point being, change up how you handle him so that everyone can get outside.

For him to hiss when he's in the neighbors yard simply means that you don't have any idea what other people might have done to him in a similar situation. One of my cats, who always runs to me when I walk out into the backyard, was frightened and freaked out enough that he tried to run away from me when I had to retrieve him from my neighbor's yard. It was almost as if he didn't recognize me there.

I'm not surprised, miralax works better than lactulose and is a bit easier on the body too. I had to handfeed one of my cats three times daily for years because he could detect even the tasteless miralax and wouldn't eat on his own.

Would your Mr Orange Marmalade use a cat wheel?

I'm suggesting to get him back to the outside time, and a cat wheel if at all possible, because more exercise can help the constipation issues.

Thanks for the response! It's nice to just talk to other cat people besides my bf lol. And plus other people are so dismissive because they think he's awesome. Which he is in certain ways and especially if they're not dealing with his downsides.

Wow I guess I'm lucky he doesn't mind the miralax and probiotics. He will even lick up the miralax in powder form in his food bowl if I let him. He's strange. The vets will always try to push the lactulose on me but I'm just like nope been there and done that it just makes his poop dense and sticky at the same time. Horrible combo.

I actually don't think he's frightened when he's growling and hissing at me at the neighbors. He has a very strong personality and is a brat. He's sweet but does not appreciate being handled in a way that he does not approve. And when he did that towards me he had a good 5 min to really get into the outdoors. Just got super into it. Like other times when he ran off towards to the front of the house I'm able to grab his leash it's kind of comical like a cartoon because his limbs will just be flying everywhere trying to run away from me. Just imagine the old cartoons with the running sound effects. That's how he looks. It's like he gets into this intense state of excitement and he can't stand letting go. He's a big cat but also very agile. He can even scale an 8 feet fence pretty quickly. I just have to stand there with the leash in hand the whole time to ensure he doesn't jump off which I just can't stand due to my attention span. I bought a new harness for him earlier this year because it fits better and is way more comfortable for him. He really acts like he doesn't mind the new harness at all. I may have to just go back to his old harness that's not as comfortable to discourage his jumping. Unfortunately he only seems to be really stimulated by the outdoors. He doesn't get too excited about indoor play. With the wand he might lazily bat at it while lying down or run off to the other room in excitement just once. The other cats are more into it. So I'm a bit skeptical about him using the cat wheel I guess.

Edit: Oh and to explain his attitude more he actually "huffs" when I don't give him what he wants. Imagine a person huffing, but it's literally my cat. Did not realize before him that cats can huff and puff in displeasure. Okay he huffs just once so it's like maybe a loud sigh but still. He does it when it he doesn't get what he wants.

 

[Furballsmom]

He sounds like such a character. I personally think he couldn't have been luckier in finding you, and that you took him in, quirks and all