attack of the velociraptor kitty

[chestnutcurls]

My cat is very, very bad.

Seriously, I don't know what his problem is. He might be angry because Kathy's been working 15-hour days and thus he's been alone more often. At any rate, he's having a major temperament problem. Last night, before I left for band practice, he kept getting up on the kitchen counter (which he knows he's not supposed to do), so I had to spray him with water as punishment. I hoped that would indignify him enough that he'd stay on the floor for the rest of the evening. Imagine my horror when I pulled into the driveway a couple of hours later to see him sitting in the kitchen window...without a screen, because he had pushed it out. When I got upstairs, I saw the little plant Debra gave me for Valentine's day laying in the sink, surrounded by its dirt. I was beyond angry. I put Gandalf in his carrier while I cleaned up the mess and re-potted the plant. As soon as I let him back out, he started acting bratty again. This morning, it looked like he was trying to take the screen out of my bedroom window. The screens can only be installed from the outside (and I don't know how to do it myself), yet my cat has become an expert at removing them. (This supports my comparison of him to a raptor...remember how they learned to open doors?) Cat people, I need some advice. Fast. I don't want to resort to giving him that Ritalin-for-cats that you find in the pet stores, but I don't know what else to do.

On a happier note, I got a beautiful surprise package from danialand yesterday! She sent me some adorable Easter towels with bunnies and flowers on them. Thank you so much, Dania! :) I was so surprised! I'll take pictures of them tonight, assuming I don't have to deal with more cat drama. :)

Comments

[dakoda.livejournal.com]

Ugh, bad cats!!!! I've been there.
I don't know of any "quick fix" for the situation, other than keep up with spraying Gandalf when he's bad. Or, you could also add on putting him in his carrier after spraying him as further punishment. Do it continually until he gets the picture.

I'm not so sure that cats are smart enough to learn, though. I tend to wonder. We have one cat, Snoots (I call her Grits), she doesn't like our new cat Yves, and she would attack her all the time. We got a spray bottle and would practically soak Grits anytime she attacked Yves. The only thing this did was make Grits run from us when she saw us coming, if she was in the same room as Yves and knew she was bound to get in trouble.

I would suggest checking out some cat websites and see what the experts have to say. They're pretty smart sometimes:)

bad kitty

[(Anonymous)]

I say give him the Ritalin!
love the brens
em
:)

[lovelife.livejournal.com]

I wish I had a solution or suggestion but unfortunately my cat does stuff like that too. Spraying her with water doesn't work because she actually likes it. I found this article (http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art4516.asp) yesterday and am going to try some of the stuff suggested. If you ever find anything that helps you, please pass them my way!

[chestnutcurls.livejournal.com]

Hey, thanks! I'll let you know. :)

[radiojedi.livejournal.com]

How old is he?

Cats get into a stage where they do know better, but want to challenge your authority. Galadriel is doing that right now. It's not fun. Keep punishing him like you do. They will get out of the stage, usually.

[chestnutcurls.livejournal.com]

He's almost seven months old. I hope it's just a phase, too. :P

[calypsobard.livejournal.com]

Cats. Natalie is just bad.. thus, I have dubbed her the little Hellion. She does things she's not supposed to when she wants something. Cats are smart. They act out when they believe they are lacking in something whehter it's food or attention.

My other favorite cat trick is when you call them and their in eyesight, their little ears go back to the source of the sound but they just ocntinue to sit there, ignoring you.

[chestnutcurls.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he likes that trick, too. Just sits there looking at you and pretends he doesn't see you. Lovely. :)

[tingilya.livejournal.com]

Eep. It looks like you've hit the kitty equivalent of the Terrible Twos. He's acting out because y'all are gone more than he's used to. He'll get over it once he realises that's just how it's going to be. You could always keep him in a bathroom while you're gone. We used to do that with our cat when he was a kitten. We just left him food and water and some towels to sleep on, and his litterbox, and he was fine. He hated that, so he started behaving again and we let him roam the house while we were gone.

[chestnutcurls.livejournal.com]

Hmm. That's a good idea. Right now we have his food and box in the kitchen, which is why this new devilry panicks me; it's not like we can lock him out of the kitchen. But there's not much damage he can do in the bathroom. I may try that. Thanks! :)

[tingilya.livejournal.com]

LOL. Devilry. Kitty with horns and a pitchfork. Arr!!

[moredetails.livejournal.com]

Cats! Don't get me started...

I am anxious to see the stuff Dania got you. She told me about it a long time ago when she bought it. Or..wait..did she show me? She was going to but I can't remember.

[danialand.livejournal.com]

I actually DID show you silly!

[aardwolf.livejournal.com]

Do what my parents did when I was bad... don't let him play Nintendo. ;) Maybe you could just shave him bald... that would teach him a lesson. :P

Ok... seriously, find something other than the water he's afraid of. For Buster, it was a rolled up newspaper. Just rolling it up and giving him a good whack would help prevent future behavior (of course, a cat might just look at you funny.) :P

forgive the long comment

[i-am-in-here.livejournal.com]

Well, the bad thing about cats is that you can't punish them. They're not like dogs. Even if they're afraid of the water or the rolled up newspaper, they'll just figure out that they can do whatever gets them in trouble when there's no one home to squirt the bottle or swat them with the sports section. And unless you catch him in the act and punish him immediately, he's not going to relate his punishment to whatever he did anyway. Punishing cats just makes them be afraid of you, which isn't something you want, I assume.

The best thing to do is to train them to do what you want them to do, not punish them for doing what you don't want them to do. As far as the counter goes, if he only jumps up there during feeding time or when you're cooking, maybe leave treats for him on the ground and don't give him one if he jumps on the counter. I don't know if that would work, but I do know that after extensive "how to make your cat stop peeing everywhere" research, I learned that punishment is a worthless tool in cat raising.

But taking away his Nintendo might work.

Re: forgive the long comment

[chestnutcurls.livejournal.com]

LOL! Thanks for the tips. :)