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Cat Scratch Fever!
On Oct 31 2002, 7:01 pm, Melissa wrote:
I appreciate that this is going to sound totally nutty, but I can accept that. I also apologise for the length of my message, as it will take awhile to explain the situation. I have 3 cats. All adult females, all spayed. One is super, well behaved, nothing phases her. We won't talk about her anymore. The other 2, Aubrie and Rusty are the problems. Well, actually it's mostly Aubrie. When we first got Aubrie, she had an accident in the bathroom and has since been known to pee in there if the door is left open. So it stays closed and her out of it, unless we are in there with her. However, after we had Rusty about 3 months, she decided that she was going to scratch on the bathroom door atnight. We couldn't figure out why and tried to get her to stop, which essentially meant covering the door with tape sticky-side out and generally ignoring her when she did it (instead of yelling or getting out of bed which we also tried). She stopped after about 3 months (it was rough). That was this Spring. Also, Aubrie has an obsessive-compulsive mirror-scratching issue. If the mirror onourcloset door is left uncovered, she will sit and mindless scratch on it (I'd think she was after herself but she stares off sideways and her eyes get all glazed over), so I have a towel taped over it. Up until we got married a month ago, these issues (though not entirely solved) were dealt with. But we got married and took a two week honeymoonduringwhich time all doors were closed inourapartment and they were not allowed to go into the bedrooms or the bathroom. When we got back, everything seemed pretty normal until about a week ago. Aubrie started doing her mindless scratching on my wood dresser (solved by tucking a towel in the top drawyer to cover it) or on laundry baskets which we kept in the closet (door has to be open as she'll scratch on the mirror and I can only cover one door)--so we took the laundry baskets out of the room. Problem solved? Nope. Now shescratches mindlessly on theWALLin the middle of thenight. I think she's hungry (she's on a diet), but I will NOT give in and feed her as she will just get hungry again by the time I get up for work or learn that scratching gets me to feed her. So here comes the oppositecatproblem: if I close the door and lock all three cats out of the room, Aubrie can't wake me up by scratching on anything. However, Rusty will scratch on the door to come back in and be with us or just to get the door open (she has always hated closed doors!). So I can't lock them out and I can't leave them in... What do I do?? Declawing is NOT an option and otherwise all 3 are in perfectly great health. We have asked the vet about this and she recommended closing them all in another room, but that's not an option givenourapartment and the fact that the 3 cats are not the best of friends, and would probably kill each other if they were locked in the other bedroom! I've also tried the squirt gun method, but they come back in 10 minutes and do it again no matter what I do (yell, stomp near them, threaten to take them back to the shelter, squirt them, etc etc). So, any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated as I'm losing sleep and patience. We are not willing to give any of them up but I can't continue to be sleep-deprived because of my cats!! Thanks in advance, Melissa Hi Melissa, I realize that you posted the above nearly 5 years ago... I hope that you're still able to get email at the same address. I also hope that you solved the scratching problem with your kitty. We have to 2 cats... one docile & sweet & nothing bothers her (except her sister), the other cat is younger & pretty active. We are having the same scratching problem with the younger cat... she scratches on the walls in the bedroom, she scratches on the dresser & on the closet mirror which is on the outside door of the closet. It's always in the middle of the night... It's SO ANNOYING & is driving us crazy! We can't block her out of the bedroom.... b/c of the way the house is layed out. I don't know what to do already... okay we can cover up the mirror but we can't cover all of the walls! I can't impagine trying to put those softpaws on her, I doubt she'd let me. We have a hard enough time holding her down to clip her nails. It's a real ordeal & takes 2 of us... we do come away injured most times. If you solved your problem, can you please tell me what you did? I would appreciate any suggestions.... if anyone knows WHY cat's do this.. could you please clue me in? Sleepless, soon to be Catless in NY. Please send replies to me ...... not sure what my hotmail password is since I haven't used the account in quite awhile. |
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