My cat is clawing at the carpet when we leave

[redqueen13]

So we have a cat who is almost 2 years old we rescued her from the shelter about 9 months ago. We haven't really had any issues with her until about 2 months ago. It all started when we left for a night away. We had some one stop by and feed her Sunday night and we were coming back Monday mid morning. We left early Sunday and got back around 10am Monday morning. No issues then Monday night we decided to go out to grab a bite to eat. It was pretty late about 11pm or so and we leave and all of a sudden we hear her meowing as we are walking down the stairs. She had clawed at the carpet by the door trying to get to us. She destroyed a part of the carpet by the front door, she did this a few times than stopped and I we haven't had any issues. Today we leave to run a quick errand and she started inon the carpet while we were gone, only gone for about 45 minutes. Then we had another quick errand gone for 15-20 minutes and she dug at the carpet again. We rent and now have a small section that's been torn up. She doesn't do it anywhere else or when we are home so we can't use our spray bottle on her. We have plenty of scratching posts for her and we spend lots of time with her. I'm at a loss of what to do.

 

[ruaryx]

Have you tried Feliway to help her stay calm?

If getting another cat is attractive, you can adopt another cat around the same age so that kitty isn't lonely. You can foster it first to see how they get along.

Maybe try playing with her immediately before you leave, so that she is tired out. Or throw some treats in another room to distract her?

And finally, if nothing else works, you can buy a thick rug or mat to put in that area to protect it.

It sounds like kitty is distressed at being left alone. Maybe she'll calm down once she realizes that she isn't being abandoned. Good luck! :heart4:

 

[seaturtleswims]

I've never had direct experience with Feliway but my sister in law swears by it for her over anxious cat that it helps her adjust to new apartments/new pets when they move or when they got new pets. It'd be worth a shot!

This may or may not work for you, she may be too upset to be distracted, but she may only be upset because there is nothing to distract her from your absence haha 

My cat Oscar wasn't suffering from separation anxiety, but he was very destructive (from boredom I think) when I would leave for work and take the dogs to doggy day care and leave him at home all day. 

I got a small kong, like one for a small breed puppy and stuffed it with cat treats. He spent the day playing with the kong and working the treats out. I also hid treats all over the house and he would find most of them while I was out. I would set out a "chaos box" which was basically a small box filled with torn paper strips, shoe strings, a couple toy mice, aluminum foil balls, with everything sprinkled in catnip and he would go nuts in it- and he only got it when I would be gone for a long time so it remained a novel toy. 

Eventually getting a second cat solved his destruction problems, but you can also try behavior modification. 

On your next day off give her a treat and walk out the door for 10 seconds. A while later, give her a treat and walk out the door for 20 seconds. Do it a 1000 times all day long, slowly increasing your length away to desensitize the door as a thing "where bad things happen" into a thing where your cat gets a treat (yum!) and you ALWAYS come back! 

Some cats like music! If you have a familiar cd/spotify station you always play around the house, chances are she's familiar with it and familiarity is comfort. You could try turning that station on for her when you leave!

PS! I second the rug idea! It sounds like that would be a good hail mary to save your carpet!

Good luck!!