Pet advice needed for a brand new owner

I posted this in the pets group too. :)

Hello Everyone,
We recently adopted a cat name Mr. Bojangles. He has been with us for about 3 days now, so it's a very new relationship. But we've run into some problems already that I was hoping to solicit advice for.

Issue 1: Incessant meowing. He never stops. He was in a house with 2 dogs 2 other cats and 3 humans. He is now a lone animal and alone all day. However, I thought this newfound quiet would be a treasure to him, we adopted him because the dogs in his old house were terrorizing him. Is he lonely? He doesn't meow when I put him in the "cat room / laundry" room at night. I don't imagine cats can have agoraphobia, but he doesn't meow when locked in the cat room at night but cries incessantly when let out.

Issue 2: He hates being brushed. Whenever I get near him with the brush I bought he recoils and gets a look on his face like I am about to hit him. He's then weary of me for several minutes because of the attempted brushing. This is a problem because we really want to keep shedding under control. My husband in particular doesn't want cat hair everywhere. What to do?

Issue 3: Husband doesn't want Bojangles on the furniture. Is there a way to deter him from sitting on the furniture?

Thanks in advance for any help.

--Suzbaby

1. May be craving attention. Our one cat does the same thing whenever I'm around. Stops when I pet her (or feed her, if that's what she wants);

2. He may well be thinking you're going to hit him. Was his previous household abusive in any way? He may also just not be used to a person coming at/near him with a sticklike object. Was the brush used on a previous/other pet? May smell like another animal;

3. Two solutions: either cover the furniture 100% in motor oil (he'll go sliding right off) or get rid of the furniture. You COULD try being consistent in shooing him from it, but I'm putting my money on the cat.

1. He is VERY attention hungry. So what do I do? Just pet him constantly?

2. No, I don't believe the previous owners were abusive in anyway. They're friends and tend to treat animals/people well.

3. I was afraid of that.

Once he's used to the place and the attention, there's a chance he'll stop.

I really don't see how you can keep a cat as a pet in the house and not have him sit on the furniture. However, there are ways to decrease the problems with cat hair everywhere. First, make sure he has a few places off the furniture where he likes to sleep. One could be one of those fabric igloos you can find at any pet store. Put it in a quiet corner so he can sleep undisturbed. You might want to put some catnip in it to get him to go there. Another place could be a scratching post with an area where he can sleep. Another place could be a window ledge so he can sit and watch the world go by.
Second, spread blankets or towels on furniture he seems to gravitate to. You can pick up the towels/blankets and wash them once a week.

I really can't help you with the other issues. Good luck to you and Mr. Bojangles.

Cats love their soft texture and they wash well. We keep them in all the favorite sleeping spots in the house and whip them off when company comes.

Really, you just have to get used to the idea that it's his house now and you're just allowed to live there as servants.:eyes:

In one apartment, we put up a carpeted windowsill sleeper and our cat slept there in lieu of
the furniture. Unfortunately, where we are now, the windows are too low to the ground.

Last year I got a new cat and he meowed almost constantly for the first week I had him. I thought I'd got the world's noisiest cat. But after awhile he became familiar with the house and made friends with the other cat and then he quieted down, and now he rarely makes a sound except when he's hungry.

The cat probably isn't used to being brushed, or maybe the brush is uncomfortable. You can buy a kind of mitt thing you wear on your hand that has little rubber bristles -- try one of those, maybe the cat will like it better.

Sitting on the furniture is a more difficult issue, but maybe you can designate a chair that's the cat's chair and put a cover on it to keep the fur off. Or maybe your husband could learn to loosen up and accept the fact that cats have fur and it gets around. :)

You will see what I mean in a while.

1) Let him get comfortable in the new place. My two cats meow when they want attention, maybe thats what he wants.
2) Start petting him first THEN use the brush.
3) No. If you are lucky he will allow YOU to sit on his furniture.

My cat does that everytime I move. Your cat is just not used to his new environment yet. He'll stop soon. My cats hate to be brushed, too, so I can't help with that. I think they make sprays that are meant to deter pets from getting on furniture. Try Petsmart or PetCo.

and I think he will settle down soon. Just give him lots of love and talk to him and he'll be reassured. Although I have a Siamese, so I don't know what it is not to be yoweled at continuously (you get used to that) most cats won't meow continuously unless they are stressed.

What type of brush are you using? It may be that he doesn't like the particular brush. I use the Zoom Groom as it has really soft large rubber bristles. Even Charley, my orange boy who doesn't like to be brushed allows this.



About minimizing damage to the furniture. Brushing will help but not eleminate hair on the furniture. You could try one of these, my Siamese who craves warmth, loves this:



You could also do two additional things, provide a scratcher for your cat and clip the tips of their nails. Some people use the rubber tips, but I find I can just clip my cats' nails.





Good luck with your cat. And we have a rule here at DU, you must post pictures. :)

Is that bad?

On Edit: I don't have any pics yet as I don't have internet in our new house yet. I type this from work. :)I will post pics when I can.

You want a softer pin brush made for cats and a slicker. Like these:



this:


or this:


Or there are even arches that have brushes in them allowing the cat to groom itself. Which might be a good alternative for a cat who fears the brush
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3261+1992+17651&pcatid=17651

I forgot that one of my cats would meow for no reason when I first got him. Once he started to do it when I was in the bathtub so instead of getting out and seeing what he wanted, I just meowed back. He meowed again, but this time with a question mark after it. I continued to meow to him, just as he did to me. He seemed to love it and it became our first real bonding experience. He even jumped up on the tub surround and walked around it, head-butting me the whole time. He seemed to appreciate that I was listening to him and trying to communicate with him. Years later, he has turned into a quiet guy who occasionally makes sounds like Hmmph but hardly ever meows.
You might want to try it -- can't hurt.

If your cat is anything like mine, let him on the furniture without comment and shoo him from the places you'd prefer he go.

Then, being a cat, he will never even think about your furniture. Just the "forbidden" places.

If I show Evita the brush she'll run like the dickens. BUT if I get her motor purring and all happy happy, then I sneak the brush on her and she'll just love it.

ONCE....a long time ago :rofl:

He might have been terrorized by dogs in his old place, but it was still his place. It will take a while for him to acclimate to his new surroundings. He'll adjust. It just may take longer than you'd like.

Brushing is tricky. I have a cat I have never been able to brush, ever. Another loves it, another tolerates it. Do it in small doses until he gets used to it, then reward him with a treat afterward.

I have no clue as to what to do to keep cats off furniture. My cats have favorite spots on the floor and we have a kitty condo with several levels that they like but they still sleep on the furniture. :shrug:

Mz Pip
:dem:

1. Some cats talk a lot more than others. If his food and water dishes are full and his litter box is clean, maybe he just wants a little conversation or attention. Talk back to him when he meows and see if that helps. If you've only had him for 3 days, he may also be a little unsure of a new situation, especially if he had company at his last residence.

2. If he acts afraid of the brush, you may have to give him a little more time to get used to being handled by you to build up his confidence. Lay it down and let him check it out, maybe even leave it laying out for a few days until it's a familiar object to him. I'd try to brush him a little bit when he's in a relaxed mood. If you could manage to brush him without him seeing the brush at first it might help.

3. I have no advice on keeping him off the furniture other than spraying him with a squirt bottle. I've never had any luck keeping a cat off of anything that they really wanted to lay on.

Give him a little time to settle in. If he's a grown cat it will probably take longer than if he was a kitten. I hope it works out well for all of you. Good luck!

1. At this point, I'd assume he's just out of sorts from the move. He's probably also a little lonely, since he was used to being around many other animals. Attention and time should take care of it, though my oldest cat, Riley, will meow with insistence randomly and I haven't figured out exactly what his issue is.

2. I have one that hates being brushed too. I just wait until he's sleeping and then wake him by gently petting, but switch to the brush before he's completely awake. He still hates it, but it's one of those things that needs to be done. I've started giving him a small treat after I'm done brushing. That hasn't helped yet, but I think it might eventually.

3. When I was growing up, we had many cats which were not allowed on the furniture. It takes a LOT of training, but our cats would not get up on any furniture and were even taught to stay out of an open bedroom. Water bottles and a very strong, loud NO work, but only if you are absolutely religious about doing it every single time the cat's on the furniture. Personally, I don't have the patience, so my cats all have their own cat beds and the couches have the previously mentioned microfiber blankets on them.

Regarding #3, cats on furniture:

There is a school of thought (that I subscribe to myself) that says that cats as a species are psychologically predisposed to sitting and laying above ground level. If you forbid a cat from doing this, you are interfering with something that they need in their lives to be mentally healthy, and this may lead to other problems such as inappropriate urination or fighting. For instance, some cat behaviorists have noted that multi-cat shelters and households with many perches above floor level seem to have fewer intercat behavioral issues than those where cats have to interact and lay on the floor.

So, by forbidding the cat access to furniture (assuming it is even possible to do that), you may be setting yourself up for bigger behavioral issues down the line because the cat is not getting what he needs psychologically.

Also, cats are not like dogs. They can't be ordered around, and they aren't happy being treated like substandard members of the household. They're more like lower social status roommates, or children - you can still be in charge, but you have to treat them with a certain amount of respect or you'll have behavioral problems with them. If you wouldn't forbid your small child access to the couch, you probably shouldn't do it to your cat either. And believe me, the cat always wins in the end if it wants something, even if it's just by sheer attrition over time or the fact that it can do much worse things to you than you can do to it.

If you absolutely must not have the cat or its hair on your furniture, I suggest getting a large cat condo tree, one well over 5 feet tall and sturdy. You can buy them on EBay for around $100-150 including shipping. Put it in a well-traveled room in front of a window. Your cat will likely prefer this object in the right spot in the house to any other human furniture.

If you have trouble with scratching on couches, get the cat a cardboard scratchy box for $5 at IKEA or PetCo. All of my beasts vastly preferred these to furniture once they got the hang of using them. Or use SoftPaws. But don't declaw -it's cruel!

Good luck with your new acquisition!