Give me advice on how to take care of this new cat

In My Humble Opinion
1

So a few weeks ago I was driving downtown and there was a busy intersection, and I noticed a cat scampering back and forth across the street. I was afraid it would be hit by a car, so I parked, managed to chase it down, captured it, and took it home.

After checking all of the Craigslist lost pet ads and those in the newspaper, and calling the animal shelter, I figured nobody was searching for the cat so I decided to keep it. It makes a pretty good pet; I think it is about one year old. I don’t know if she (it’s a girl) was owned by someone else before, but she knew how to use the litterbox and everything and seems house-trained. She is a “tuxedo” cat with a nice black and white coat and a little streak of white in the middle of her face which extends from her forehead, down through her nose and ends at the chin.

Most of the time, the cat is calm and very easy to get along with. But when it’s very late, like now, the cat seems to go wild. I generally spend these hours in my study at my computer; every time the cat comes in her, she automatically goes right into the most annoying spot - the tangle of wires right behind my computer, in between the side of my desk and a closet door. Either that or she just jumps right onto my desk. I’m not sure what to do. When I close the door and just leave her out in the hall, she claws at my door and scratches the carpet, tearing it up, trying to get in here.

Frustrated, I put her away in the bathroom, but now she’s just meowing and meowing like crazy and pawing at the door.

I don’t know how to keep this cat under control. What do I do? I tried just giving her lots of treats but as soon as she was done eating them she started going crazy again. She is young, I guess, so is she going to grow out of this rambunctious behavior? How should I care for puss?

Here are some pictures of the pusa: Pic 1 Pic 2 - my camera is out of batteries so I had to take them on the cell phone. It’s a cute little puss. She has the weirdest meowing sounds too - it sounds like she’s saying, “mom! mom!” Often times she really sounds exactly like a human baby, especially from another room when her voice is muted by the door.

2

Young (and old) cats need to play! If they’re not using their brains and muscles to catch the prey they need to feed themselves, then they need to use them in other ways, i.e. play. Cats are usually most active around dawn and dusk.

You need to get some toys for her and spend some time playing with her, to release that pent-up energy. Does she have a scratching post? Get a big sturdy one that she can really go to town on.

One thing my cat particularly loves is my hair ties, they are the perfect size for mouthing and carrying around, and because we have a lino floor, she loves the game of us flicking them across the floor and she chases them around like a mad thing.

She also has ‘Mr Fish’ which is a fish shaped toy about the same size as she is. She loves grabbing him and kicking him with her hind legs. She also incorporates him into her hair tie play, by dropping a hair tie on him and then attacking both at the same time.

3

When you give a cat treats, you’ve just told it, “Hey go crazy, if you do you’ll get a treat.” :slight_smile:

I had a tuxedo cat and mine responded well to the old squirt gun. Go to the dollar store, get a squirt gun and when she starts doing bad things, give her a squirt and a very firm and loud “NO.”

She’ll get the idea quick. Cat’s love computers. There’s lots of clicking and wires to play and you may be jiggling the wires with your foot too.

I would also buy baby blankets. Cats love them and you can get them from yard sales cheap. Put one down and the cat runs to sleep on the flannel blanket. Then when it’s full of cat hair, into the wash it goes to be replaced by another baby blanket.

She may be an outside cat too. My cat would start meowing at dusk and spend the next 6 to 8 hours stalking things in the yard, hiding in bushes. So unfortunately you’re computer time matches her busy time.

4

Have you checked if she’s chipped? And isn’t she the right age to be spayed?

5

Awww, I love tuxedo cats. She sounds like she’s lucky to have found you. And honestly, if you were able to catch her bare-handed she must have been around people before. (Someone with no cat experience canNOT catch a feral by hand and still be able to type about it. Your fingers would not still be attached and non-shredded.)

The other posters are right. Cats are most active around dawn and dusk because that’s when their prey are most active.

Try out a few different toys on her. You don’t have to spend a lot of dough, and in fact, there seems to be an inverse corrolary between the cost of a toy and the amount of fun it brings a cat. Cheap = good. Free = better.

Crumple up some foil or a piece of paper into a lightweight ball to throw. Wiggle a piece of ribbon or a thin leather cord. She’ll probably prefer that you play *with *her, rather than just tossing a toy into the middle of the floor and expecting her to amuse herself, although that’s still better than being totally bored.

Playing with her will be a good way to bond together as well as wearing her out a little.

Try this: once you find a toy she likes, give her a good, vigorous play session. Get her to roll over, bunny-kick with her back legs, run around … really get a little tired. THEN give her the treats.

You will have just simulated an actual chase and kill. When a cat hunts, it starts out by stalking, then the hunt escalates into killing, and only THEN does the cat eat.

Ideally, play with her every day. Young cats really do have a lot of energy. You wouldn’t expect a little kid to sit still and stare at the ceiling all day, would you? No, they’d run around like crazy. Same here.

6

She sounds exactly like little Stokie when I got him - he was a true honest feral, but he didn’t mind it at all when I picked him up and stuffed him in a crate. Except he mowwwed “Mom! Mom!” at me.

Laser pointer, dude. Hours of entertainment for all involved.

7

I can’t bring myself to use the laser pointer on our cat anymore. She’ll spend a good thirty minutes after ‘play time’ is over, still looking for it and she gets quite upset and I feel really guilty!

8

I was told that when you put the laser pointer away you should “pick the dot up” and “put it away” so the cat knows it’s gone. So we do that, although I don’t know if it’s fooling the cats or anything. All three of ours seem to get that it’s just a game anyway.

9

They spay cats at quite a young age now. But yeah, she needs a vet to check to see if she’s been chipped, and to see if she’s been spayed. I wondered if she was was unspayed too.

I have had very good success with leaving a cardboard box in my computer room/library. The cats enjoy curling up in the box, and just hanging out in the room. They’re happy to be in the same room as I am, and of course it seems that one rule of felinity is Boxes Contain Cats.

As someone else said, get some baby blankets. We have half a dozen store bought blankies, and I’ve knitted a couple out of scraps of yarn. These blankies are placed in favorite lounging areas, to collect the cat hair that would otherwise accumulate on the furniture, and washed when needed.

10

One other thing - it’s pretty normal for cats to want to sit in your line of sight. My cat does this all the time when I’m at my computer, my previous cat would sit on my book or newspaper if I was reading. I think they figure that if you’re staring at something you must want to look at a cat.

11

I did get a laser pointer a few days ago; it captured the cat’s attention for all of one day. For that day, she chased it all over the apartment; going wherever it went.

But after that one day, she gradually lost interest in it. Now she will sometimes follow the laser pointer if it is really close to her and to the side of her head, on the carpet, but otherwise I think she has figured out that it’s not an actual thing that she can pounce on and grab, and now she’s not nearly as enthusiastic as she was before.

12

Awww. . . . :frowning: that’s like a cat figuring out there’s no Santa.

Time for a new toy! :slight_smile:

My little Nikki has a favorite toy. Mr. Horseshoe and I refer to it as Feather Thing. (There are occasionally two at once at home, in various states of decay, in which case it’s Blue Thing and White Thing, since they come in different colors.) It’s a little puff of feathers from the Container Store, and it’s sold as a gift bag decorator.

Someone gave me a present last Christmas with one of these feather puffs on the wrapping. I brought it home and set it on the dining table to deal with later. Sometime in the night, Nikki came by, popped the little puff off the gift bag … and fell in love. It’s her absolute favorite toy. They come on a sticky piece of thick cardboard, so that holds the whole thing together for a while.

YMMV of course, just one person’s anecdote. Will post photos sometime when I’m both on the Dope *and *not at work.

13

Cats get bored with toys. The good thing is that is rarely a permanent state. You should get several and cycle through them ( including solo play items like fake mice ), removing them when they seem tired of them, then bringing them back days or weeks later.

Also different cats prefer different toys. One of my cats in particular is almost perpetually entranced with the three dollar cat dancer. The other one just likes any toy ;).

But, yes, in general cats are crepuscular and when young benefit from being played with most every night, even if only for 15 minutes or so ( some cats may need more ). And yes, they do slow down as they age, but it will vary based on personality. Just one of the little frustrations of owning a pet ( if you want to call it that ).

Best cat toy much of the time? Another cat. Two will still pester you, but less than one would. Two cats are generally better than one, unless one of them is truly antisocial and won’t abide the other.

14

just sounds like early morning crazies. most cats get them, they zoom and bounce off walls and make a mighty racket. an hour later they zonk out.

try a dangly toy. i have one i keep by the computer, it has a finger ring so i have hold of it. the other end has feathers and strings. a few dangles, some tug of war, and all is good.