In need of tips

[Arazante]

I have been having aggrivating troubles with my cat lately. His constant meowing is driving me crazy at night AND during the day. He usually naps during the day, but not all day. Whenever he is awake he takes the time to rip up the furniture even though I use bitter scents on it to try and distract him as well as squirting him with water and telling him no. He will not stop. He will also not stop climbing on places I do the same punishment for and it does bother me he climbs on these places. He steps on my wet painted art, knocks down our valuables and I am getting tired of cleaning up his messes. He just seems to be so inconsiderate and I am almost taking this personally!

At night he will not shut up. I cannot sleep an hour because he is either biting my feet or meowing incessantly. I have read about this problem and have done the suggestions: ignore him (easier than it sounds...), squirt him with water calmly, open windows so he can sit on the ledges, give him toys to entertain himself with. The toys are not enough, he rather play with my pencils or paints or figurines on the shelves and it is so messy. He is like a 3 year-old and messier than a dog.

He plays too rough, as well. He bites so hard it leaves marks and breaks the skin. And this is not to just me. He bites strangers as well or bats at their arms. I feel like no one will like him or will think of him as an aggressive animal because he will not treat anyone nicely.

I am frustrated. I am tired of cleaning his messes up on an hourly basis. I am tired of him over-flinging his litter (he does not even USE the bathroom when he does this. He uses it normally but many other times he just sits there and digs and digs flinging the litter everywhere. I put newspapers under it to try and stop it from getting on the floor, but he rips up the paper and always goes to the bathroom the second after I clean his litter box). He is always flipping over his water bowl, so I have to take it away at night, and I am tired of him biting and unplugging plugs and going places I try to keep him off of.

I am losing patience. I have never seen anyone elses cat be so diffcult or.. bratty. He IS neutered.

Please, what am I doing wrong? I thought I was being a good parent here, but I cannot seem to satisfy him. I give him plenty of attention. I play with him, feed him twice a day, give him toys for HIM, let him walk around the house during the day, sleep where he wants, but I feel like its simply not enough.

Sorry for all of this. I am just so frustrated, I cannot sleep. I would like some advice on what I can do, if anything. I am not being abusive or mean to him in anyway, though I do feel he is being so to me and everyone else.

[petsalive]

He sounds like a bratty adolescent (how old is he anyway?) who needs a 'good strong woman' to keep him in line.

Have you thought of adopting a middle aged spayed female cat? It might be a good idea - then she could deal with him, he would have someone to 'torture' besides you and you might get some rest.

[Arazante]

My vet predicted he's less than a year old, perhaps 8 months. I found him in a parking lot last December, so I'm really not sure.

Hmm, I'll think about getting an older female. I'll have to look at my expenses, lol. But, thank you for the tip.

[Ragdoll Mom]

The best I can do is offer you various suggestions. Some may seem absolutely absurd, but sometimes the absurd is what can work.

I would schedule regular set play times with the cat (animals can tell time) where I would use a kitty fishing pole and have the cat chasing it up cat furniture to force the cat to climb and really give the cat a work out chasing balls and having fun. If you have to do this before you start your artwork that would tire out the cat, then do it again before you go to bed and that may help work out that kitty energy to let you sleep.

On an episode of Barking Mad they explained a cat bites feet and legs to get a reaction out of you like when it stalks prey. If you are walking around the house and the cat begins to bite your feet, wear heavy shoes and say nothing when the cat bites. The cat will not get the reaction and effect it seeks and will stop. If the cat is biting legs, switch to wearing boots and when the cat bites say nothing and again the cat will not get the reaction and effect it seeks and will eventually stop. It is probably time to lock the cat out of the bedroom when you sleep until you have it settled down more.

On that same episode of Barking Mad, they had to deal with this cat getting out of hand. So in addition to the regular toys that would always be out, they took a bunch of toys, (including the kitty fishing poles and placed them in a box and put them away and only brought them out when it was kitty play time with the human. The human placed a large scarf around the human's neck. The scarf was used to visually signal the cat that it was kitty play time with the human and the human played with the fishing poles with the cat and all the toys. The cat began to learn that the scarf meant it was their time to play with their human with the special toys in the box. It was successful.

All of this worked successfully and it was incredible to see the cat in the beginning and in the end and the change.

You will have to go to the pet store and pick up the water bowls that cannot be tipped over and that will stop that problem.

Start bringing home paper bags for the cat to play in and bring home any cardboard boxes. Put a bunch of kitty balls or catnip toys in the cardboard box and the paper bags and see if that encourages play.

As to the litter box, I was at Petco today briefly looking at litter boxes and saw the Booda dome and it has stairs that curve around and into the litter section that is covered and on the side. This may be a thought for you as the cat will be hard pressed to be throwing kitty cakes out of the litter box. Here is a link to show you what the litter box looks like. I have never used it but was looking at it today. Perhaps if you went to a Petco or Petsmart and took a look at it--I'm not talking about the Booda that has the swinging door, but he one that has the stairs. http://www.petco.com/shop/product.as...5cm_ite=900915

Other than the Booda Litter box, I can suggest you get a plastic rubbermaid or other brand storage tub from Walmart, don't use the lid and it will make a good litter box. The cat will have to jump in and with 6" or 1 foot sides it will be hard for the cat to toss out the kitty cakes. So that is also another option and the storage containers are actually what people use as litter boxes for the really large cats as the jumbo litter boxes are never large enough for them.

So I hope that there is something in the ideas that you can use. Good luck.

[Arazante]

I'm a bit short on money lately, but we've been chasing each other around and playing with his feather-on-a-stick at night. His crying still continues around 3-4 am, but I do my best to ignore it.

I will remember the paper bags, and I'm guessing I should get him a stuffed animal of his own to beat up soon seeing as he picks on mine, lol.

Thank you for the suggestions, I'll keep working at it.

[Ragdoll Mom]

Since you're running short of money, here's some ideas to make inexpensive yet fun cat toys:

Here's instructions to make an inexpensive butterfly (almost like a kitty fishing pole) for your cat. http://www.angelfire.com/my/witzkatz/handicraft/

Here's a site from a humane society that if you scroll down it tells you have to make a kitty condo "tunnel" on the ground with paper grocery bags. http://www.lenhumanesoc.org/images/K...ttty_Condo.htm

Here's a site that has free instructions on how to make a cat sisal rope scatching board. http://www.tcainc.org/city/sisal_instr.html

I hope that perhaps something here will be of help to you. Making a kitty condo tunnel out of grocery bags may seem useless, but it is something that kids can do and then use poster paint to color if they want--if the cat tears it apart its okay.