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    SonataEternal's Avatar
    SonataEternal Posts: 7, Reputation: 1
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    #1

    Feb 1, 2010, 06:26 PM
    Obsessive, Clingy Cat
    I have had my cat for two years. Most of his antics used to be cute. Now, he has gotten significantly worse. When my husband and I got him he had (and still has) an obsessive-compulsive problem with licking and nursing to the point where he will leave a coat of slimy spit on your neck if you let him. He gets in and out of our lap excessively... up to 14 times in under an hour no matter how many times we push him off. He only wants attention when we are doing something. If we just sit there, he leaves us alone. When we push him off, he runs over to the scratching post and claws at it (he used to tear up the carpet by the front door until we moved the post), or howls at the door several times after yelling him to shut up, or an aerial assault to chase him away. He has had hairballs in the past, which I treat, and eaten earplugs (we don't live with the person who uses them anymore), now he only throws up when we don't come home on our lunch break (and NO, we should not be required to come home every four hours to give attention to the cat), or we shut him out of the bedroom because he wants to nurse on us all night or wake us up by climbing on us. I also found he uses the litter box constantly. As soon as we come home, or go in the kitchen, he goes into the litter box and poops or pees, stinking up the entire apartment, and goes straight to the food bowl and eats... he usually does this every time we go in the kitchen after we've been at work all day. The night before last, we came home to yet more throw up on the floor (we are always buying carpet cleaner). He hasn't really eaten anything he's not supposed to, except maybe once when he wanted to get our attention. This time, however, he had cut open a whole, thick rubber band, and swallowed it lengthwise from the looks of it. I thought it was a tape worm until my husband looked at it, and he'd also ate a week's worth of food from his auto-feeder in a single day. I did not refill the auto-feeder this time, and he got mad today when I ignored his pleas for more food (he typically stops eating and wants a refill when the last bit is in the bowl). He has had problems with eating in the past, and I try to give him wet food in place of dry sometimes, but he acts addicted to it when he gets one can and will ignore his dry food and beg for food. One time, my husband fed the cat and left early for work while I was sleeping, and I got up not knowing. The cat begged for more, and I, thinking he'd not eaten, gave him more. This also happened later in the day on my husband's lunch break, and when I came home from work, because both times, he pretended to be starving and neither of us knew the cat had already been fed. He ate four times that day for a total of two and a half cans of food (one from the previous night). He goes into the bathroom when I accidentally leave it open and bangs on the cabinets when he doesn't get his way. He has gotten so much worse, I want to get rid of him. I'm tired of cleaning barf, and him acting worse than a dog for attention. I will NOT get another cat because getting another cat has not solved the attention problem, and he does not like other cats anymore. I've tried every kind of behavioral correction in the book, and nothing has worked. Any suggestions before I give this monster to the pound?
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    SonataEternal Posts: 7, Reputation: 1
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    #2

    Feb 1, 2010, 06:29 PM

    I also forgot to say that when he got mad this morning after not refilling his food bowl to the brim, he went and started scratching at box of packaged maruchan noodles that I had left out.
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    #3

    Feb 1, 2010, 06:32 PM
    And he bites unprovoked when he wants to get off or when we don't pet him. He went behind my back and peed on my leather jacket a couple months ago, and then went behind my husband in the den when he was fixing the cpu and pushed him away, and peed on HIS leather jacket.
    Sariss's Avatar
    Sariss Posts: 1,471, Reputation: 244
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    #4

    Feb 1, 2010, 06:51 PM

    He sounds like he was weaned too early, and he is not enjoying the lack of attention he gets.
    Has anything changed since you got him that is making you not pay more attention to him than usual?
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    #5

    Feb 1, 2010, 09:12 PM
    Quote Originally Posted by Sariss View Post
    He sounds like he was weaned too early, and he is not enjoying the lack of attention he gets.
    Has anything changed since you got him that is making you not pay more attention to him than usual?
    I'm pretty certain he was weaned too early. I already know he's got severe anxiety issues, too. One thing is we are giving him less of the excessive attention he demands from us. He's always demanded attention, all the time, unless, of course, we weren't doing anything at all. I'm not exaggerating when I say if we just sat around the house doing nothing, he wouldn't care less. He only demands attention when we are doing something, as if we should only being doing something that involves him, or nothing at all. We had a lot of financial trouble and couldn't go out as much. Now, we don't come home as much, but we are still home a lot more than not. This cat typically gets more attention than even a normal cat or even a child would, and its still not enough. It only started making him mad when we stopped giving him constant attention.
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    #6

    Feb 1, 2010, 09:17 PM

    Most cats also learn from reward and punishment system, but even after you push him off or scold him when he does something bad, he will wait until you're not looking and thinks he won't get caught to do it again.
    Sariss's Avatar
    Sariss Posts: 1,471, Reputation: 244
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    #7

    Feb 2, 2010, 05:22 AM

    Haha I don't think any of my cats have learned from that type of system. :P
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    #8

    Feb 2, 2010, 11:27 AM

    Lol. Maybe I've just always had good luck with animals. I've had an affinity since I was little. I even had my first cat trained not to eat birds and he let a stray eat out of the same dish. When I was eleven I told him to let the bird go that he was carrying through the house, and he went to the balcony and set it down then walked back inside. The bird flew away after standing around in shock at its good fortune. Never had a problem cat before.
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    #9

    Feb 2, 2010, 11:29 AM
    I'm beginning to think my doting has finally caught up with me and this cat. :D

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