Cooperation

A problem a friend was having today made me think of a common problem many people have when dealing with behavior problems with any pet, not just felines. The problem of cooperation and blame.

Really? You're going to blame me?

It's easy to blame the cat for the behavior problem. She peed on the carpet. He scratched the couch. She pooped outside the box.

He sacrificed the kids to Satan.

But in almost all cases, the pet does not hold all of the blame. As owners, we also need to cooperate for effective means of changing such behavior. Everyone in the household needs to come up with a plan for modification of bad behavior and stick to it. If everyone isn't on board, those plans won't work.

The cat did you a favor. Those kids were monsters.

The problem for my friend is actually pretty simple to solve. Her cat does what I call "revenge peeing." This means she pees to show her displeasure with whatever situation is going on that she doesn't like.

We really need to talk about the color of this room.

Revenge Peeing isn't always the easiest to solve, but the real problem for my friend isn't that, it's that her other housemates aren't cooperating to solve the problem. Peeing on her items is one problem to solve, but she also pees on her housemate's bed. All they need to do is shut the door when they aren't in the room, but in their minds it's the cat who needs to change, not them.

Just be prepared for the nose under the door.

The cat's problem needs to be solved, no doubt. But part of solving it is to keep a door shut. It'll save the bed from being peed on and a mattress from being ruined. Most times solving behavior problems requires a change on the human's part too. This includes every human in the house, not just the owner.

I'm watching you human.

Part of a behaviorist's job is to come up with a plan for the members of the household to follow to help modify the cat's behavior. Before you give up on solving a problem, it's important to make sure everyone is cooperating to help change bad behavior. If they aren't going to, you might need to consult a human behaviorist.

It's called "kicking them out."

Rebecca is a feline behaviorist with the Finicky Feline in Portland, OR. She can be contacted for all your feline problems at bravemer@gmail.com.

Little Es

WARNING: You are about to see lots of pictures of very cute kittens. Please don't hyperventilate and pass out. You've been warned.

Dawn is a sadist.

I get the foster emails from CAT every day as a digest, and she'd posted about a single orphan that needed a home. I don't get the digest until very late at night, but I let her know I'd be able to take the little orphan if it was still available. The next day she texts me to say he's taken, but there are three almost at-weights available. Being the sucker I am, I say okay, because they're older and almost at surgery weight.

When I get there, this is what I find.

"Punk Face"

"Curly Butt"

"Ew"

Dawn knows how I feel about Siamese, yet she failed to tell me one of them was exactly that. Fortunately, Curly Butt totally makes up for it. I have no idea who is who in terms of their shelter appointed names, but the above is what I have dubbed them. And Curly Butt is by far the cutest kitten I've ever had. Well, maybe except for Noodle.

This is why his name is Curly Butt

This is Noodle

I took about 200 pictures to get about ten good ones. These guys do not hold still for one second, especially Punk Face. However, when I gave them wet food you'd think they hadn't eaten in a year, which is pretty impressive considering they've only been alive for eight weeks.

"Hey, I'm sleepin here!"

I'll probably only get a couple of weeks with them, which is probably plenty anyway. But for now I'm already dreading the day when I'll have to take Curly Butt back to the shelter for his surgery. Sixth cat anyone?

Cue my dad's scream heard from afar

For now, though, here's some more pics for your fix.

She'll never get adopted.

Happy Tails!