Ok, we found a little kitty outside one of our windows at 3AM a couple months ago and took him in. Turns out our neighbor has been getting lots of cats on their property and gathered them up, intending to take them to a shelter. So we named the kitty Dreams Of A Cheetah (I screwed up my user name when I picked it) , took him to a vet and got him checked out. He passed the tests and is fine.
He is very, very active, and loves to run around the house and climb on top of anything he can reach. He’s a nocturnal animal, and sleeps a good bit of the day. When he is awake, he is very affectionate MOST of the time. He rubs up against us, frequently kisses us (wife and I are very affectionate and he picked that up), and most of the time is heart meltingly cute and adorable.
However, SOMETIMES he is the Cat From Hell, and gets scratchy and bitey. He likes to climb up curtains and our legs with claws fully extended. My wife and I both have little scars all over our legs and forearms from him, and there have been a few times when he’s scratched/bitten us in the face. I have had eye surgery recently (looooong story) and can see without glasses for the first time since 1st grade. I am seriously worried that he’s going to scratch my eyes out. We don’t know what to do about this.
Should also mention that we have another, older female cat. She is very quiet, non-scratchy, non-bitey, but every time Cheetah sees her he runs straight toward her and she swipes at him. We have been trying to keep them separate, by keeping one cat in his/her room for a while, then switching them out every so often. We are taking Dreams Of A Cheetah to a vet in a couple weeks to get neuterized, and we’re hoping it will calm him down a bit,
So here’s my questions:
5 month old male cat, 16 year old female cat, is there any chance they can get along? Getting rid of either is not an option. Keeping them apart is difficult.
Is there anything we can do to stop Cheetah from climbing up curtains/pants, and biting scratching us? A long time ago when my dad’s GF had a cat, my dad kept a spray bottle filled with water and sprayed it on the cat when it was doing something he didn’t like. My wife hates that idea and says it will make the kitty afraid of water. I mentioned having his front claws removed, but my wife does not like that either. What, if anything, can we do? Like I said, he is very loving and sweet most of the time and we’d like to make that all of the time.