CatBanter - View Single Post

**Buddy's Mom** · September 20th 06, 10:08 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.health+behav

Just my opinion, but perhaps Crazy is doing this to awaken you. And,
it is working!

wrote:
I have two wonderful rescue cats whom I have lovingly dubbed "Crazy"
and "Lazy." Crazy was a stray that I took in after a co-worker found
him and offered him up. I've had him for almost a year now. He's been
to the vet, had his shots and, aside from being overweight (which is
being addressed with diet and play), is perfectly healthy.

But he's appropriately named, because he's driving me nuts.

I suppose it's because he was a stray and had to take measures to
ensure that his scent was covered in the "wild" suburban landscape, but
Crazy paws at the area around the litterbox. All around the litterbox,
which I keep in a spare shower stall (because there's absolutely
nowhere else to keep it). I'm talking standing up on his hind legs and
scraping (with his non-declawed front paws) at the tile until the noise
makes my teeth itch. Did I mention that this generally happens at
around 4 am? It's something akin to:

Crazy (around litterbox): "*SCRAPESCRAPESCRAPESCRAPE*"

Me: *waking up, angry, shouting groggily* "Quit that!"

Crazy (chastized): "Mew?"

*silence for half an hour, then repeat anew*

At this point, I would kill a man for a decent night's sleep. I
understand the logic behind it (burying his scent, survival mechanism,
etc.) but that doesn't mean that I like it or that I know how to stop
it. This cat does the same thing around his food dish (attempting to
"hide" his leftovers from predators or competitors), which doesn't
bother me so much because it's not as loud. As I said, moving the
litterbox isn't an option (when I lived in my last apartment, the
litter was in the laundry room and the pretty little freak scratched
the heck out of the washer/dryer with this pawing) and he's perfectly
healthy. My other cat doesn't do this, but she wasn't a stray (she was
rescued from a bad situation). It doesn't help matters that Crazy does
all of that pawing yet doesn't even bury his poop!

Any suggestions at all would be welcome by both me and my employer, who
doesn't believe "the cat kept me up all night" as an excuse for falling
asleep on the job.