…especially when one of them bites, harasses the other cats, keeps knocking over the folding bookcase and biting every wire in the house, and wakes me up by clawing at my face (albeit not maliciously, he’s just too goddamned stupid to retract his claws).
I am thisclose to opening the door and letting the adorable little shit go,* which I will then proceed to feel awful about FOREVER, both out of a general sense of ethics and because I genuinely love the adorable little shit, so someone please talk me down.
*Not really. But damn it’s tempting.
My sister’s having this problem. She waited too long to spay a stray tom she took in, and he learned to be a bastard. She basically has to keep him in an isolation tank (the bathroom) so he doesn’t hurt her 2 females.
Can you isolate him from wires and your other cats?
Um, well, no, she didn’t wait too long. Because a tom is NEVER ready to be spayed. However, you can neuter them at a fairly young age.
Back to the original problem…it might be that Adorable Little Shit needs a playmate with an energy level closer to his. Yes, I am suggesting that you get another cat! What can I say, it worked for us. We have a very energetic, and completely adorable, male cat whose life mission is to cause mischief. I mean, most cats like causing chaos for its own sake, but this guy is into Xtreme Chaos. I kept telling my husband “Charlie wants a kitten of his own”, and my husband kept telling me that three cats is ENOUGH. However, one day, my husband brought home a half grown female cat, who is even MORE energetic than Charlie. Naturally, her name is Chaos. Charlie and Chaos are very best buddies, and keep each other busy when they’re awake, and warm when they sleep curled up around each other. The two older cats are very much relieved.
So the answer to your problem is to get another cat. See how helpful I can be?
My Linus wakes me up by poking at my face with his claws. Never enough to really hurt, never enough to leave any kind of mark, but definitely enough to get my attention. Then, of course, he insists upon being patted. At length.
Can’t help with most of it, but for the unintentional clawing of the face, try Soft Paws. Clipping helps, but not for long, I’ve found.
Let me know if you find a solution to the chewing wire problem. Shiva’s 8 and *still *does this, the little shit. A few months ago he chewed the tip off one of those rubbery straps put on laptop bricks to hold the power cable in place when not in use. Chewed it off and swallowed it. Two days later, I found it in a pile of stuff he threw up. Gosh, thanks.
How old is he? When Soda was a kitten he was generally a terror. When he got to be about two, he calmed down and is now quite a charmer. And it did help that he had Scotch, his littermate, to play with.
We had similar problems with our Maine Coon boy. He started by peeing on things to express clear, definite displeasure (such as right after a friend came over with her dog, etc.) and it escalated to the point where we really were ready to give him the boot out the back door. Except, he’s declawed. We’d complained to enough friends that nobody was forthcoming with a new home, either. “Oh, yes, let me take in the horrible little piss-machine. Sounds great!”
We got so frustrated, we borrowed a large dog crate, fixed him up with a pan, water, food, and a towel, and crated him like a damn dog when we weren’t both home and awake. (Most of his Anger Peeing happened while we were asleep. We both were at the point where if we’d caught him in the act we would have cheerfully peed on him.) Anyway, after two days of adjustment … magic. He “kennels” himself now each evening, and while he’s glad to see us in the morning there’s no “OMG lemme out NOW!!” kind of behavior. He seems to like having his own little spot. I don’t know if it’s the security of having his own cave, or if it’s just the sheer reduced opportunities to “be naughty” (as Other Shoe’s mother phrased it) but he hasn’t once pissed inappropriately since we got the thing.
Anyway, you could try just penning The Little Shit in the bathroom each night, for starters.
Thanks all. Honestly, the Little Shit isn’t anywhere near as bad as some of what you guys have dealt with (no pissing, for instance). He’s just sort of consistently annoying. He’s affectionate, but he’s aggressively affectionate, with constant foot-twining and head-butting and jumping. Of course, he also meerkats for kisses on his head, which is adorable.
I’m not remotely worried for my other cats’ safety, they could shred him if they wanted to, bless their little kitty hearts. But he annoys the crap out of them, especially the oldest (who’s only five, so he’s not cranky-old) who he never became real friends with. He’s nearly three years old (and fixed at six months-ish), but he’s like a perpetual kitten. He’s high-energy and just doesn’t know when to Give. It. A. Goddamned. Rest.
He randomly runs around the house as though something spooked him, literally jumping at and bouncing off of walls. He regularly needs to be rescued from the top of the hallway door. Though he’s not otherwise food-aggressive, when I try to give all of them treats I have to throw his into the bathroom and lock him in there in order for the other cats to enjoy theirs in peace. When I try to play with either of the other cats, he’s RIGHT UP IN IT, and the other cats just give up. And he’s dumb. He’s really, really dumb. But on the whole, his endearing behaviors outweigh his aggravating ones (even to at least one of the other cats) and he’s not awful or anything. He’s just kind of exhausting sometimes, and I was just extra-cranky last night.
I’ve bought a squirt gun to discourage the most troublesome behaviors, particularly the ones that are likely to ruin my stuff and kill him in the process (e.g. jumping on the folding bookcase and trying to pry his way into my closet by pulling on the heavy mirrored doors that are meant to slide). That’s helping. And it’s fun, because I’m evil.
I can relate. My problem is different, but I’m ready to strangle my cat, which I tell him at least four times a day. He just doesn’t stop meowing. Ever. Well, that’s not true. Between the hours of probably 10:00 PM and 4:00 AM, he’s quiet. Outside of that, he walks around yelling for no reason I can discern. I’ve had cats my entire life and have never been this frustrated with one. I just can’t figure out what his freaking problem is.
I have one of those, too. I got him last August - poor little guy was starving, dirty, and had nearly been run over on a freeway entrance ramp. He was saved and brought into my work. I said I’d take him home if no one else did. He snuggled his bony little scared self up to me when I picked him up, and I knew I’d never let anyone else take him.
After he fattened up he became the biggest PITA. He harasses my other cats, meows loudly, insists I wake at 5:30 even on weekends, and he steals - especially food. He is still the hungriest cat I’ve ever met (and he is not skinny by any means), but he just turned a year old and is really starting to mellow out. He is still a snuggle monster, and when he’s good he’s such a sweet boy.
Your kitty looks young like mine; I’d give him a bit more time to grow out of it.
One of mine is over six and still acts like a big goofy kitten. And like yours he is dumb as a rock, a correlation that doesn’t shock me. About the only way I can tell he is aging is that in the last year he has decided he likes to sleep in sunny patches like a normal cat. Previously he shunned the sun for shade and he still enjoys lying in front of a running fan - I guess his motor just runs hot. He’s the only kitten I have ever had that would keep playing until he was literally panting ( somewhat disturbing in a cat, but his health checked out fine ). Thankfully he takes out most of his excess energy on his adopted sibling, who is smaller but can and will kick his ass when he gets fed up with being jumped on and playfully mauled.
So…uhh…you may be stuck with his idiosyncratic behavior for years to come. Best of luck with that ;).
Hanna, he was young in that picture but he’s three now. No signs yet of calming down. (Before someone recommends that cat hormone thing… like the goggles, it does nothing.)
NG, my cats are all incessant chatters. I don’t even notice it now unless they sound like they’re distressed.
Honestly, though Little Shit is the most annoying on a daily basis, I should really be more worried about Mischief who gains weight when he breathes, and Gary, who despite seeming otherwise happy and healthy has taken to overgrooming himself to the point of rawness (and the bitter apple, like the hormones and the goggles, does nothing). Seriously, I finally see the kid safely through to 21 and now I have a self-harming cat to make me feel bad about my nurturing skills.
Bonus slideshow of Gary and Mischief’s typical day before we got Bitten (otherwise known as Little Shit). That’s old, and Mischief (the black one) is MUCH bigger now. Seriously, he’s huge. Both fat and huge. He’s gotta weigh 20lbs. Gary looks pretty much the same.
Same here. Our yells his head off all day long for no reason. If you yell back he thinks you’re engaging in conversation and escalates in volume. He’s 14 now and shows no sign of learning to shut the hell up. He only yells in the middle of the night about once a week. Around 3am. We think he likes the acoustics in the upstairs bathroom.
I’d just like to say that like some cats, like some people, apparently just like the sound of their own voices. Siamese and Siamese mixes are notorious for this. A Siamese who is awake and not commenting on everything is probably feeling under the weather. And they will carry on a conversation with you. That is, they’ll make a comment, and wait for you to respond, and then they’ll reply.
This is just one of many reasons why Siamese are not for newbie cat owners.
