My kitten is driving me crazy!!! He has decided he needs to pull off every little “stopper” thing on every cabinet in my kitchen. YES, this means he is climbing on my counters to do so. NO, I am not happy about it. He even climbs to the place between the top cabinets and the ceiling, and manages to get the cabinets open far enough, even though we have rubber bands holding all of the cabinets closed. I need an intervention or something… I know we won’t get rid of him, but I can’t wait til he (hopefully) outgrows some of his habits.
He often acts bored when we try to engage him with the laser toy, feather toy, electric ball with attached feather like thing, balls, springs, etc. But pushing paintings (and mirrors not strongly attached) back and forth (we’ve had to remove most), biting the cabinets to get the stoppers (he can no longer open them and climb into them/knock things out), and trying to torture our smaller cat are his current fixations. He can also open doors, and seems to love to barge into the bathroom.
We have to pay someone to come to our house and take care of him when we go on vacation, even though my son wouldn’t mind them coming to his place, because we don’t want our kitten destroying their house.
We had a female cat that was like that! Got her as a kitten; she was the runt of the litter, but boy did she get going once she grew a little! She would pluck every little stopper including the wooden ones used to conceal the screws in furniture! The oak rocking chair was her favorite target. Liked to scratch vertical wood surfaces and ignored sisal and carpet. And she was constantly surfing the top of the cabinets in the kitchen! It took her about 3 years to mellow out. Hang in there!
I actually have never had 2 kittens at the same time (but always had other cats). The rescue I got my kitten from recommends having two so they can play together. Passing that along in case it is helpful.
We have a 2 cat rule, but I admit we thought about “stealing” his sister when we picked him up. Our vet said he got 2 kittens thinking they’d torture each other instead of their older cat, but nope, the older cat was just tortured by both of them. We got a male because we heard/read that a male Bengal would be easier to integrate with a female than another female (we had 2 females before). That hasn’t turned out to be true for us.
Love it. My guy is 15 lbs. My son has one 13 pounds. We are fine if those 2 wrestle, etc. But my guy is a “bully” and picks on the little cats. Actually, he might not chase them if they didn’t run, but they don’t seem to understand that.
I’m thinking one of my 18 yo cats (I have two who are 18) is developing–or already has developed– dementia. When we lived in CA, she use to sit behind a bookcase and stare at the blank wall for up to an hour at a time.
More recently, she’s become confused about where her food is located. I had to relocate her food bowls 3-4 months ago because there’s now a puppy in the house. Although the other cats figured it out immediately, she still hasn’t. Every morning when I pick up her food bowl, she heads for the laundry room and waits and waits and waits. I’ve repeatedly shown her where her food is, but she can’t seem to remember it’s not where it used to be.
She’s has also decided that throw rug = litter box. She is peeing and pooping on my bathroom rugs at least 5x/week. I got tired of always having to wash my rugs so I removed them all. Now she just poops and pees on the bare floor where the rugs used to be. (Floors are tile so at least the clean up is easier.) And last week, she pooped in the middle of the seat cushion of my leather armchair.
She doesn’t meow uncontrollably all night, but she does wander all over the house, even up to the third floor to wake up my daughter and/or SIL in the middle of the night.
She’s also started biting for no discernible reason. She’s bit me good about 5 weeks ago when I tried to pet her and I ended up needing to see a doctor because the bite was deep and it abscessed. She’s bitten the grandkids more than once in the past 4 months. Scratched them too. And she’s become aggressive toward the other cats, growling and attacking them for no apparent reason. (The 2 older cats have lived together for 12 years with no issues. The younger cat joined the household 5 years ago–again with no issues.)
Her health is otherwise good. Her bloodwork is normal. She’s in better shape health wise than my other 18 yo cat who has early stage kidney disease and fairly severe arthritis in his hips.
I have actually said the euthanasia word to my daughter. (This cat was hers originally. I inherited her when D moved away for her medical residency in 2014.) I’m not sure I’m ready to do that yet, but the soiling, the aggression and the biting are big problems.
She’s scheduled to see the vet the week after New Years and I’ll talk with her about it, but I’m really not sure what to do.
@WayOutWestMom, I sympathize with you. Earlier this year I had to put down my 19 year old cat with dementia. She had many of the same behaviors you described. I hear you re the litter box issues–my girl decided she liked to pee on my bed! I do have a waterproof mattress protector, but got tired of having to change the sheets in the middle of the night, so finally had to lock her out of my bedroom. That was very sad because she’d slept on the bed with me for years.
When to say goodbye is always such a difficult decision, but I found it especially hard with dementia, since she was in decent shape physically, at 19. As my vet put it, her body is outliving her mind. He did say something that helped me make peace with my decision: you have to consider not just her quality of life, but also the effect her decline is having on your relationship with her.
Best wishes for dealing with a sad and difficult situation.
This. H (our cat-dad) waited too long with one of our cats, and it had a negative effect on his own health (he lost 25 pounds). We had to say goodbye to another cat this past spring, and it was really hard to decide on “the right time.” I think H made the right decision, and when he started to second guess himself afterwards, our wonderful vet helped him to understand that there is no clear answer to whether it’s the right time - but when the decision is made with love and respect for our pet, we can rest easy that it was the best decision we could make.
I’ve euthanized pets before but always because they’ve had serious health problems. (Advanced cancer, advanced kidney disease/kidney failure.) But never for behavioral issues. So this is a tough decision. Moreso because I know my sweet, loving 18 yo male brown tabby is playing on the back nine. His health is in decline and losing both cats close together is going to be tough.
Today I left to get groceries as my husband was running on our street back to our house. Between when I left and my husband got home, maybe 2 minutes later, our kitten was able to “roll” a 15 lb weight (with 6 sides, not round) away from blocking our basement door, and the weight moved the kitchen chair we also had blocking the basement door, and down he went. He is too smart for his own good, but a menace to live with.
Wow, 15 lbs, that’s impressive! I guess I shouldn’t be so surprised then that last year one of my cats found an old 1lb weight with hand strap ( I guess intended for power walking) in our basement. My little orange girl (adult) carried that weight up the basement steps by the strap and dropped it on the top step! She couldn’t figure out how to get it through the cat door . I was in the room, just outside the door when I heard the thump. I opened the door to find her there with the weight, looking proud of herself!
I took the weight back downstairs and mistakenly placed it where she could still access it. Sure enough the next day she brought it up again! But still couldn’t get it through the cat door. After that I put it in a closed cabinet so she couldn’t get to it again. Crazy what they turn into cat toys!
Are you sure your kitten is not a leopard ? That is some impressive muscle power!
In his prime years, our grey tabby used to weigh 17 pounds and was mostly muscle. We had to use a big kettlebell to keep him from pushing one door open which he was not supposed to open. He is now 13 years old and does not cause trouble other than bullying the other cats periodically.
3 years ago I began feeding a feral cat who showed up in my back yard. I had left a bowl of food for my next door neighbor’s cat, who visits us daily. Every once in a while I give him wet food. He only licks off the broth and leaves the food hahah. Well, one day I saw a beautiful gray older kitten eating the leftovers with great zest. I began a one sided relationship with this kitty. Feral, “Gray” hissed at me every time I put food out for him.
Every year, DH and I rent a house in Carmel CA during the intense Texas summer heat. I always worry about Gray, but he must find another source of food, because he eventually comes back here within a month of our return. This summer, he didn’t.
It’s now December. The last time I saw him was the end of June. DH fed him mid July when he came back for a business thing. He hasn’t come back. I’m thinking something happened to him. Coyotes, hit by a car, disease, heat stroke, what have you.
I’m very sad about this. Maybe he found a new sucker who feeds him. I hope so.
This is the exact reason I didn’t get a new kitten after my sweet girl died at 18.5 years old. It just hurts too much.
Love to all of you who continue to provide homes to sweet kitties.
. I was in the room, just outside the door when I heard the thump. I opened the door to find her there with the weight, looking proud of herself!
? 
That is some impressive muscle power!