I Want to Get A Cat, But.......

I have a rather ornery male cat. Neutering him only slightly mellowed his aggressive disposition. (He’s a sweetheart when he wants affection, but when things don’t go his way, don’t get in his way!)

One of the things I regret most is not trimming his claws early. Now that he’s 14 years old, he will not allow anyone to trim his claws if he is at all conscious. In the past, I’ve given this 20-lb cat three tranquilizer tablets in preparation, and even then, trimming claws was an ordeal, involving blood loss and permanent scars… for me.

Add to that, the fact that one of the first times I did it, I cut too far, causing pain. So now, when he feels the trimmer blade touch his claw, even if it’s not up at the quick, he goes ballistic.

There’s a reason I named him *Boojum.

I clip my cats’ claws monthly, and they still scratch the hell out of my furniture. Only difference is, they don’t get their claws caught in the rug and trip themselves.

Amp, this was going to be my suggestion.

Take a look at your local humane society and see if you find a sweet, declawed kitty in need of a good home.

You might be able to save yourself alot of trouble, and save a kitty in the process. =)

That being said, a declawed kitty will still ocassionally puke on your carpet, knock the kitty litter out of it’s box and steal all of your hair ties when you aren’t looking.

They’re cute though.

Not to mention go out to the mailbox, pick up the checks, take 'em down to the bank and cash 'em … disguised as you.

And then, when you go out to his house, outside, where he sleeps … you find about $3,000 worth of cat toys out there.

And you can’t return 'em 'cause they have spit all over them

I hate it when that happens.

That’s when you gotta get a pair of cat handcuffs.

Pay attention to what Eve said. She knows the ways of cats. Except that she forgot to mention that cats won’t throw up ONLY on the rug…they’ll gleefully throw up on any valuable item you leave around.

Make your choice…you can have nice home decor OR you can have cats. In my experience (I’ve had cats for over a quarter of a century) you can’t have both. But cats are very entertaining. Give them an empty box or paper sack and they’re happy for hours.

That’s just too strong a statement. I trained my cat to stay off the coffee table by <shudder> actually yelling at her every time she got onto it. She also cleary understands the meaning of the word “no”; when I tell her “no”, sternly, she stops what she’s doing, whatever it is (and usually utters a few mews of complaint). This “negative feedback” has not adversely affected her at all; she’s a sweet, loving, gentle cat who never gets onto my coffee table, but does climb into my lap and purrs.

Getting back to the OP, I will agree that yelling at a cat is not very effective for getting it to stop clawing the furniture, but the reason is that an animal has a really difficult time grasping the subtle distinction that it’s not ok to claw certain things but it is ok to claw other things. So yelling at a cat when it’s clawing the furniture is, in the cat’s mind, telling it that clawing in general is bad. And since clawing is an instictive behavior, the cat can’t really stop it all together, even if it thinks that’s what the owner wants.

A better way is to show the cat your preference. When it starts clawing at the furniture, pick the cat up and put it down by the scratching post, take its front paws in your fingers and make scratching motions against the scratching post. It’s another old wive’s tale that cat’s don’t want to please their owners. If the cat sees that scratching the scratching post makes you happy and scratching the furniture makes you pick it up and move it over to the scratching post, it’ll get the idea.

Lastly, on the subject of de-clawing, I agree with the poster(s) who said it’s unfair to compare it to cutting off a human’s fingertips. I’ve known a number of de-clawed cats, and they’ve all been just fine. I’d use it as a last resort, but if I had a cat that just wouldn’t stop wrecking my furniture, I wouldn’t hesitate to take that last resort.

The spray bottle works with my cat also. She has the habit of scratching my screens to get out when I have the windows open. :frowning: (She’s an indoor cat now but was an outdoor cat.) A quick spritz now and then stops her from scratching the screens.

I’m also trying aluminum foil taped to certain spots on my furniture where she’s been clawing. Hope it works! :stuck_out_tongue:

I see they cost around $20,00 plus shipping. How often would I have to do a retread? My cat’s middle aged. Also, I’m on a fixed income and think a one time removal might be more effective cost-wise. (?)

AND, if you piss them off (it doesn’t take much), they’ll pee on your favorite whatever.

And if you have more than one cat, they enjoy running little Kitty Marathons and relay races ALL FREAKING NIGHT LONG. Down the hall, around the table, through the kitchen, back down the hall, up and across the bed, back down the hall, quick reverse, down the hall, up and across the bed again, down the hall… and on and on ALL FREAKING NIGHT LONG.

If you have a damp basement, they’ll catch crickets, kill them and deposit them in your shoes. Lovely.

They’ll also drive you absolutely batshit staring at NOTHING on the wall for hours on end.
You can get them back, though, and drive them batshit with a laser pointer.

That’s what ther’e FOR! BTY how much catnip is available to the kitties?
Heh. :stuck_out_tongue:

You don’t need more than one cat to have the midnight crazies. We had only one cat when I was a child, and she would sometimes start in the basement and TEAR up the stairs, through all the first floor rooms, up the stairs, through the second floor hall, and then up into the attic. Where she would yell triumphantly for a few minutes (she was Siamese). And then she might (or might not) repeat in reverse.

Remember, cats are fundamentally nocturnal. If there’s nothing to stalk or to chase, they have to do SOMETHING.

My daughter tends bar, so she usually gets home from work any time between 11:00 and 3 a.m., which is very convenient for the kitties because she’ll play with them for a good while before they all nod off.

Yeah, most cats seem to get the Midnight Crazies. I’ve found, though, that by playing with the cat during the evening, it’s possible to sort of reset the cat’s clock by a few hours. Cat is happy to have the human interaction, the human gets to see kitty cuteness (and why else would one want to have a cat around?) after dinner, and everyone gets a better night’s sleep.

Cats will catch ANY sort of insect, not just crickets. Sometimes they eat them, sometimes they leave the corpses in their favorite human’s shoe. If the cat manages to catch a bird or small mammal, then that too might be eaten, left as a present, or half-eaten and the remains given as a present.

Siamese…Siamese, as a general rule, have very intense personalities. What is considered “separation anxiety” in other cats is considered normal Siamese behavior, at least by Siamese lovers. Siamese have louder voices than other cats, and tend to make a greater variety of vocalizations. Siamese also tend to “talk” more frequently than other cats. A Siamese queen in heat has to be heard to be believed. So for everyone’s sanity, get her spayed as soon as the vet will do it. Other cat breeds will exhibit a variety of heat symptoms…some of them go into heat so quietly that the owner doesn’t even know about it until Fluffy gets absurdly football-shaped and then delievers a litter of fuzzballs. Most cats DO get overly affectionate while in heat, though, and do give out some mating calls. Again, it’s best to spay or neuter your pet before it reaches puberty, no matter what breed it is.

Cats are a lot of fun, and having a couple has certainly helped keep me from getting quite so depressed at times. But they do require some care and attention. Many people think that cats are aloof and uncaring, but I’ve never found this to be so. I’ve always found that cats will return my affection, if not immediately, then when they get used to me offering some love.

One more thing, will a cat be all right by itself for about 10 hours a day? I work Mon- Fri but am home all weekend long. Is that to much time by itself or will I need to get two so the one wont get lonely?