Welcome to Paws and Effect, a pet expert advice column penned by longtime Rover contributor and award-winning pet writer, Jen Reeder. From navigating squishy social scenarios and murky ethical territory to burning behavioral or moral questions about cats and dogs, Jen uses her years of experience and hard-earned instincts to find real solutions for real pet people. Got a question for Jen? Email: pawsandeffect@rover.com
Hey Jen,
My cat, Percy, 15, has always been a problem child. I love him to death, but he’s aggressive toward other cats and can bite without warning. He has been medicated for anxiety for years (he used to take Fluoxetine and currently takes Gabapentin daily). As difficult as he can be, age (and perhaps his meds) seem to have calmed him down over the years.
My other cat, his longtime housemate, passed last year. Now he’s a single cat, which I think is what’s best for him, because they never got along. I have two other pets, a corn snake and a leopard gecko, who he ignores completely.
Lately, Percy has been trying to wake me up early in the morning for apparently no reason other than he just wants me to be awake. I do my best to ignore him, but he tries to knock glass picture frames off the wall or act as if he’s going to jump on top of a tall standing mirror that would definitely break if he succeeded. I don’t want him to break anything or hurt himself, so I wind up getting up, which feels like I am reinforcing this behavior. At this point he’ll meow happily and follow me back to bed and settle in to cuddle. What can I do to prevent him from doing this?
Signed, My kitty is an anarchist
Dear My Kitty,
First of all, it makes me so happy that despite Percy’s quirks, you’ve stuck with him for 15 years. Behavioral issues like these are a common cause for pet relinquishment—and sadly, animal shelters are overflowing again, according to the national database, Shelter Animals Count. You’re a superhero (and super patient!) as far as I’m concerned!
But to get you some real help—and hopefully more sleep—I reached out to cat behaviorist and Rover Cat Expert, Mikel Delgado, PhD, for her thoughts.
Since Percy is an older cat, Dr. Delgado suggests you start by taking him to the veterinarian for an exam and bloodwork to make sure he’s not experiencing any pain-related medical issues, or any health issues like feline hyperthyroidism.
“Hyperthyroid can make cats more active, more vocal, and more hungry,” she explained. “So maybe he’s waking up the person for food in the morning.”
When you’re visiting with your veterinarian, she suggests also asking if you can give Percy his medications at bedtime, since they can have a relaxing effect.
In addition to a full medical screening, she hopes you’ll keep in mind that Percy may have been affected by losing his cat buddy. Even if it seemed like they didn’t get along, the cat provided Percy with mental stimulation and companionship that’s now missing—even if it was as simple as having another cat to chase around the house.
Increasing enrichment activities like offering puzzle feeders, cat grass, toys, and interactive play could help with boredom (and hopefully help him sleep at night). Feed him his dinner before bed, and maybe also set up an auto feeder to give him a bit of food in the middle of the night so he gets sleepy—and on your sleep schedule.
“We really need to focus on getting Percy to settle at night instead of just trying to outsmart him or wait for him to stop if you just lay in bed, hoping that he’ll give up,” she advised.
In the meantime, she suggests childproofing your home so that Percy doesn’t break things and hurt himself. You should probably put away the standing mirror for the immediate future, secure frames onto the wall with museum putty, and brace other freestanding furniture.
Your situation is one Dr. Delgado sees a lot, but there’s hope on the horizon. Her own cats Coriander, Ruby, and Professor Scribbles sleep through the night—and Percy can, too!
Another pro tip, adds our expert: Don’t feed your pets breakfast first thing in the morning. Otherwise, they might wake you up for food. Instead, set a morning feeding time for after everyone’s been awake for a while.
As it happens, My Kitty, you are not alone in your challenges with Percy. Another reader wrote in with a related question, so I’ll address it now to help you both:
My indoor 5-year-old cat wreaks havoc in my apartment, from countertop hopping to scratching the sofa to batting books off bookshelves.
Recently, she knocked over and broke our flat-screen TV while we weren’t home and could have been seriously hurt.
I’ve tried every humane deterrent, from aluminum foil on my countertops and using citrus scents to squirting her with water or straight-up ignoring her—nothing works.
I work from home and have noticed the behavior happens throughout the day, but especially around her dinner time, as well as when my partner and I sit down for dinner. I’m not sure if it’s tied to food or if she’s just bored and wants attention.
I don’t know what to do and I’m getting frustrated. Her antics are becoming a safety hazard for us all. How can I correct this behavior?
Signed, My cat is kind of a jerk
Good news, My Cat: Working at home offers a prime opportunity to offer enrichment activities instead of these deterrents, which amount to punishment, Dr. Delgado says.
“They’re putting foil on the countertops and squirting them with unpleasant things, and they’re saying nothing works, and that’s because those types of interventions don’t work very well,” she explained. “And often if they do work, it’s at the cost of making our cat not like you very much.”
Instead, she suggests you learn about clicker training and positive reinforcement training and start training your cat to do some behaviors you like.
For example, when you’re sitting down to dinner, you could train your cat to sit quietly on a mat for treats—they can’t sit on the mat and knock things over simultaneously, right?
She also recommends childproofing your home, offering mental stimulation, and making the environment more cat-friendly. Do you have multiple scratching posts, for instance?
To delve deeper into how to “catify” your home, I contacted another rock star from the cat world: Kate Benjamin. She’s co-author of the bestselling books “Catification” and “Catify to Satisfy” (which she wrote with Animal Planet star and cat expert Jackson Galaxy), as well as the founder of Hauspanther, a company that helps people and organizations design cat-friendly spaces.
She also lives with a dozen beloved cats, so she knows a thing or two about making a living space ideal for both people and pets!
“Let’s not just focus on deterrence,” she advises. “Jackson always says, ‘If you give them the ‘no,’ you have to give them the ‘yes.’ This means maybe one of those shelves that the cat is already climbing on—just clear it off, add a non-slip surface, and move some furniture around so it’s easy for the cat to get on and off the shelf without hurting themselves or taking an extra big leap.”
Then look around your apartment and see if there are other ways to create a “superhighway” where your cat can walk all the way around a room without touching the floor; even shelves that are just 18-24 inches off the ground will work. Create “rest stops”—small perches, like a bed in a sunny window.
“It doesn’t all have to be attached to wall, especially if we’re talking about a rental,” she noted. “You can either buy cat furniture with little hideaways, or you can repurpose some piece of human furniture to make it more interesting for the cat.”
For example, Benjamin suggested if you have a two-level coffee table, consider clearing off the bottom level and adding some carpet tiles. Or place a cat bed in the nook under a side table. Boxes even work in a pinch.
“Hideaways give cats a chance to feel safe and protected,” she said.
To give your cat an alternative to scratching your sofa, invest in scratchers. Benjamin says you’ll need to do some detective work: does your cat prefer scratching posts made with carpet, cardboard, or wood? What about a vertical, horizontal, or incline orientation? And where are you putting it in your home?
“You want to put it near the places that are most ‘socially significant’—the areas that have your scent on them,” she says.
If you’re allowed to hang things on your walls, Benjamin highly recommends wall-mounted scratchers since they can be hung at any height—and there’s nothing to trip over. In the same vein, you can also add a wall-mounted feeding dish on your cat’s superhighway for extra enrichment.
So, My Kitty and My Cat— there’s hope! The best part is that you both clearly love your pets, so with a little patience and maybe a few new routines, you’ll be residing more peacefully together in no time.
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