Cat help.... please!? :(

[LuzyC 0]

Awww..so very cute!!

How about make my ''girls'' here meet your ''boys'' there? ..just to play around..lol!

[Mary Lou 682]

Awwwww Feather, they are adorable!!!!!!

Sorry i haven't any kitty advice, but good luck in figuring this out

[totes 0]

Okay, so... I've done a ton of Googling to find advice on this, and am trying everything I can from what I've read... but as there are so many cat-loving VJers out there, I thought it couldn't hurt to ask here too, and see if anyone might have some tips or suggestions from personal experience.

We adopted two cats on Monday (yay!), and they are utterly fantastic, adorable, loving little purry things. Both boys (neutered, obviously... and they're not brothers but they think they are, 'cos they were hand-reared together by a volunteer from the shelter from two days old), and they're 10/11 months old now. One seems to have settled in perfectly, pretty much from the minute we got them home... while the other is taking a bit longer. Which is fine, and totally understandable... the only problem is that he has a tendency to meow in a blood-curdling fashion when the mood takes him, and the mood quite often takes him at 2am/4am/etc - and I'm really scared that it will disturb the neighbours (we live in an aparment, and this meowing is LOUD!) and they'll complain, or that my husband will get so sick of the yelling cat and lack of sleep that he'll say we can't keep him anymore.

Everything I've read so far basically says to ignore meowing that's being done for attention (and I'm certain that's what this is - well, that and the fact that the place is still unfamiliar to him, of course - because he does it when he happens to find himself alone somewhere in the flat, and will stop immediately and go back to being perfectly happy if one of us goes to 'find' him, or on the occasions when it occurs to him to come and 'find' us himself - he'll run meowing into the room and then be just fine when he gets to us), and to use earplugs if necessary at night. So, I've been ignoring it when he does it during the day, and it does seem to be working to an extent... each day it will happen less and less as the day goes on, and the length of time that he's meowing before he either comes to find me, or just gives up yelling, is getting less and less each time too. So that's good...

When he starts with the blood-curdling caterwauling at night, though, I'm SO worried the neighbours can hear... and as for the 'ignore the meowing to teach the cat that it won't get him attention' lesson... well, he will shut up after a bit if ignored (again, he either gets sick of waiting for us to come to him and runs in to us, having surely known full well where we were all along, or he just gets bored and stops meowing after a while), but more often than not my husband will call out to him, tell him to shut up, or get up and find him to shush him. So I'm not sure how that's helping to reinforce the 'lesson'...!

His other 'favourite' time for a big meow-fest seems to be first thing in the morning, while my husband's getting ready for work, and until maybe half an hour after he's gone, at which point he'll finally stop it for a bit (I don't mean he meows CONSTANTLY for that time, but he will stop only to start again a couple of minutes later, no matter how much ignoring he gets!)... and please don't think I want him to be quiet all the time and never make a sound (his 'brother' is pretty talkative when he wants to be, and will give a little meowy running commentary as he explores the apartment), it's just that we'd like to find a way to stop him doing the howling & caterwauling thing - he honestly sounds like we're doing something dreadful to him, when all he's really meowing about is the fact that one of us has dared to walk out of the living room and go into the bathroom or something!

Other than the problem with his overactive vocal cords, he's an absolutely perfect, amazingly lovely little cat.... I am SO glad we chose these two, and am generally in love with them. But... after all that super-long rambling... does anyone have ANY suggestions as to what else we might be able to try apart from ignoring him when he starts up with the wailing (and of course giving him plenty of attention whenever he's being quiet - I'm not suggesting I ignore him all day and night, far from it - I'm feeling bad 'cos he's getting more attention than his 'brother', just because he's being the 'problem child' right now!).... sorry for the long post, but I'd love to hear anything anyone can suggest - or just any reassurance that he WILL give it a rest eventually!

Right... I'm off to play with my lovely furry (quiet!) cats for a bit!

I have two cats.... one i bottled nursed from a couple days old and the other i adopted when he was 10 weeks old. The difference in the two are unbelievable! The one that was nursed is much, much more attached to me and requires much more attention. Remember these kitties did not learn kitty manners the way most kitties do. Give him/her some time so take longer to adjust. On the flip side of that my cat that is not so needy had an unbelievable time adjusting to a move whereas my "needy" cat did just fine. Just love those kitties, they will be fine.

[totes 0]

The Solution in Pictures:

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This post is absolutely BS! If you are inclined to give this type of response, why bother? I don't find it funny AT ALL! If this is NOT your topic then by all means move on but do not post such ridiculous BS, it only shows your ignorance not to mention makes me at least wonder what kind of person you are!!!

[Dr_LHA 3]

This post is absolutely BS! If you are inclined to give this type of response, why bother? I don't find it funny AT ALL! If this is NOT your topic then by all means move on but do not post such ridiculous BS, it only shows your ignorance not to mention makes me at least wonder what kind of person you are!!!

Grow up and get a sense of humour why don't you? Jeez.

[mybackpages 0]

sooooooo.....how was the meowing last night???????????

[featherB 1]

sooooooo.....how was the meowing last night???????????

I can hardly believe it, but.... THERE WAS NO MEOWING!! AT ALL!!

He spent the whole night sleeping at the bottom of the bed, by my feet... I don't think he moved at all. His orange brother decided the very first night they got here that he was going to sleep beside my husband at night - he's definitely staked out his spot on the bed, he goes to the exact same place every night, which is fine, 'cos he doesn't even move from it all night.

Anyway... I turned over and looked at the clock at 6:52 this morning, and in doing so woke up the meower (yeah, they do have names, honest! )... he jumped off the bed and went wandering. I was bracing myself for a chorus of yowling, but he gave one meow from the kitchen or somewhere, then came back onto the bed and sat there quietly 'til the alarm went off... cue much purring and rubbing of furry cat tummies! Soooo much nicer than spending the whole night listening to all that howling!

He has been exercising his lungs this morning though, on and off, but after he was so good last night, I really don't mind! I won't hold my breath that he's going to be like that every night, but... last night was a very very good start!! Thank you, everyone!

Awww..so very cute!!

How about make my ''girls'' here meet your ''boys'' there? ..just to play around..lol!

I'm sure they would love it!! How are your lovely girls doing, anyway?

[*julez* 124]

This post is absolutely BS! If you are inclined to give this type of response, why bother? I don't find it funny AT ALL! If this is NOT your topic then by all means move on but do not post such ridiculous BS, it only shows your ignorance not to mention makes me at least wonder what kind of person you are!!!

Grow up and get a sense of humour why don't you? Jeez.

FWIW DrLHA, I literally did laugh out loud at your solution.

Tony and Tess - you need to spend some more time in OT getting to know the twisted sense of humor some of us have before you go flying off the handle. The good doc was really only kidding!

FeatherB - your kitties are adorable. Not sure what to tell you about the howling. I'm still tring to figure out how to get my silly cat from knocking on the bedroom door all night - if he's in the room, he wants out, if he's out, he wants in. Drives me mad! And leaving the door open is not an option since keeping the dog in with me is the only way to keep HER quiet! I need to hire a door man!!!! Oh for the love of animals!!!

[Kajikit 65]

He's probably meowing like that because he's not quite sure of himself in his new home yet... he wants to make sure that you're still there and you haven't vanished while his back was turned! He should settle down pretty quickly once he gets his routines in order and figures out what time you go to sleep and get up etc. Cats are creatures of habit and they like things to be predictable, and they can feel rather 'at sea' when placed in a new environment, no matter how sweet and loving they are.

One of our cats is a meower - she has a particular very loud meow that says 'look what a brave huntress I am' for when she 'catches' her favourite toy mousey... and sometimes when she's at the other end of the apartment she'll lose track of us and she'll stand there and go MEOW! (meaning, 'where are you all?!')... or else she might say 'meow!' ('come here and play with me!' to the other cats) and lastly there's the 'hey, it's time to FEED ME!' meow that she saves up for the hour or so before dinnertime every night... her sister doesn't meow at all!

[broma25 2]

Feather

He looks like my cat and he is a meower....not in the night but he does seem to be vocal for no reason, maybe yours is just the same.

Good news on the peaceful night though.

[caybee 21]

Glad to hear you had a meowless night!

There is that quick "brrrt!" sound a mother cat makes to have her kittens follow her, or to reassure them that she is there. I've done that before when a cat needed reassurance, although I've never had a cat that yowled for attention quite like that.

I hope you're through the worst of it.

[Mags 112]

The Solution in Pictures:

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Dr LHA ~

featherB ~ I'm late to the party as usual and your problem seems to have rectified itself. I'll just add though that your cats are gorgeous!

Edited August 11, 2007 by Mags

[Kathryn41 3,205]

I'm late as well - we were away for a few days. I think you have pretty well received the information you required. My first thought was that the meowing might be hearing related but from how you describe the 'meower's other listening behaviour that doesn't seem to be the case.

I suspect that the fact he was bottle raised and does have a strong 'human' connection has something to do with it. I have 2 adult males that I bottle raised with their sister from 10 days old (they were orphaned when a dog killed their mother). All of mine are talkers but Bear is also a 'meower'. Every now and then he will go off 'caterwauling' and I will go to check that he is ok. Once he sees me he comes racing over as if to say 'Where WERE you??" and is all cuddly. Usually, when he starts calling like that I just have to call back to him and he is 'reassured'.

Your kitten is in a new home and feeling insecure. He needs/wants more human interaction than a non-bottle raised cat would expect, so when he is stressed or insecure or lonely you may find that he will resort to his 'calling'. As he gets more comfortable, confident and secure with your presence and his new home you will probably find the behaviour lessening substantially.

Bear usually reverts back if we have been away for a few days. Even though we have a cat sitter come in twice a day and he has the companionship of 4 other cats, still, he needs that reassurance that his 'home' is safe and the changes that he didn't like (us being away and someone else feeding them) are back to normal. Definitely don't ignore your kitty when he calls - reassure him even if only by calling to him and letting him know where you are. He should be fine - and you will probably find yourself doing what we do here - holding 'meowing' conversations with each other - all 6 of us!

Good luck with you kitties - and remember, bottle fed babies often don't have the same cat psychology as kittens raised and socialized by their mothers so you may find things that come up that are not addressed in the normal cat psychology books.

Edited August 12, 2007 by Kathryn41