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.

Compassion Fatigue

Compassion fatigue is something that has been covered many times, and those in the medical/veterinary/social services and many others where you help people in shitty situations know all about it. Unless you have experienced it, though, it's pretty hard to convey in words. 

It seems like a first world problem, but it's a real thing.

Goodness knows I've experienced it many times since I've been in shelter care and now vet medicine. There's always a litter of kittens you can't help, a pregnant mom that needs to be spayed, a dog hit by a car that you can't save. It's the nature of our business, but we do what needs to be done for the times when we can save the kittens/dog/see mom go to a good home.

Thanks to us she will never be a mother. She will only be adorable.

A few nights ago I had a very real case of compassion fatigue suddenly hit me. I picked up an overnight at the animal ER where I work, which is hard enough as it is. As sad as it sounds, often we will try (and fail) to maintain some distance emotionally from our patients. We still give them the best care possible, but if you fall in love you make bad decisions and get, of course, fatigued.

I had been up for 12 hours with a two hour nap already before I started my 10 hour night at 9pm. It had been a long weekend already and I was feeling it. The ER side of our hospital was fairly slow, thank goodness, but ICU was hopping. After 3am I was all alone, and had just gotten word that a dog who had had surgery earlier in the day was not doing well and needed to go back in. She was set up on one of our open "pods" and getting transfusions until our surgeon came. But it wasn't even her that set me off.

This is pretty much how I was feeling by then.

What set me off was a little pug named Lola. She was old, diabetic, and adorable. Her blood sugar was high so she hadn't eaten in a while, but it finally came down enough that I could feed her. I found myself focusing all my energy on her. We had to lay her on her side to draw blood, something pugs don't like because they can't breathe well. The last time we drew blood she got a runny nose and started sniffling and sneezing. I wiped her nose, rubbed her face and was allowed to finally give her food, which she happily ate.

She was not even close to the sickest animal in the ICU, but I could see that she didn't have much time left. Even with the diabetes under control, she was just old. I started to think about her owner, and how devastated I would be if this were my dog and she passed. She was adorable, sweet, and full of love even though she wasn't feeling well. Suddenly I wanted to cry, and go home.

Just so you don't get too sad, here's a horse with a cone on its head.

Fortunately the emergency surgery had to start and took my mind off Lola and on to other things. It was a pretty crazy, fast and hectic surgery and I had to concentrate on that. But once I got home, Lola was still on my mind. I don't know if she went home or is doing well, and honestly, I'm often afraid to find out. Lots of times we'll have long term or repeat patients that we get attached to, and it's pretty obvious how much it brings down the whole staff to learn they've passed. If we make jokes or act callous towards death it's because the reality of it would break our hearts, our minds, and make us numb.

It's important to appreciate the people in this industry, and think about the situations we have to go through and deal with daily. It's important for us to appreciate each other, something I think we often forget to do. And it's important for us to appreciate ourselves. 

Animals can't talk, but they thank us every day in their own ways. That's why we do this. 

HOW Many Kittens?

From Left: Monkie, Yuffie and Emmie

Out of all the silly, strange, or just misinformed things people believe about cats, this one even I thought was true until I started working at the shelter and reading behavior books. Here's the story:

A young couple comes in looking for a kitten. They want something calm but playful, snuggly and affectionate. Because doesn't everyone want a kitten like that? But they don't have a lot of time in the day- they both work full time and have busy lives, so they just want one kitten. After all, cats are independent, solitary creatures who are perfectly content by themselves.

Only they aren't.

Cats have earned themselves a reputation as being the "easier" pet because they don't require as much attention, care or time devoted to them. None of those things are true. Cats are highly social creatures that need companions and care just as much as any other pet to be well adjusted, healthy, and happy.

I inform this couple that if they don't have a lot of time to spend at home, they are better off with two kittens. Of course they look at me like I just spit flaming gas balls at them. Two kittens? We barely have time for one, they explain. So I go into my "Why two kittens are better than one" speech.

We'll still eat your shoelaces.

Kittens, like any other baby anything, are in full on learn mode. This means when they see something small on the floor, they eat it. When they see toilet paper, paper towels, or your homework, they assume it's a toy for them to shred and enjoy all over the floor. Clean laundry is their bed. Curtains are for climbing, legs are for climbing, and hands are for biting. How do they learn not to do all that? How do we?

From others. A kitten with a companion learns from the ear piercing squeal of its mate that he or she has had enough of that biting. They forgo the toilet paper and pounce on their friend. They decide running after a sibling is infinitely more fun than climbing your leg/curtains/couch. Does that mean they won't cause any trouble? Of course not. They're kittens.

It goes against our modern logic of "less is more". But a bored kitten is a destructive kitten, and two kittens together are %100 less likely to be bored while you are gone or busy.

The couple decides to get a single calico kitten. She's cute, friendly, and a total terror. She's a hand-biter and a wiggler. She'll shred your pants before you can get one foot inside. But she's cute, and she's friendly.

Two weeks later she's back. The return form states that she "kept them up all night yowling, was too active and wanted attention constantly." They didn't take another kitten, and as far as I know never came back for another cat. A day later she went to a home with her sister and joined an older brother and a doggie.

If you don't have time for two kittens you don't have time for one. That doesn't leave you cat-less though. There are hundreds of adult cats in our shelter alone that are still young and vital, but without those kitten destructive tendencies. So be sure to weigh all your options before adopting, and please, every now and then, listen to the professionals.

Or you might end up with this!

Foster in the New Year!

Cat Adoption Team

Buffy, my very first foster momma, and her babies.

It's almost 2011, and almost everyone else here has a blog of some kind, so it seemed appropriate to finally start my own. Here's a little about me- I work at the Cat Adoption Team in Sherwood, Oregon. It's a no-kill cat shelter, and I run the kitten foster department, started by my boss, which has one of the best foster programs in the states.

I'm originally an English major, but my passion for animals has always been with me, in fact, I volunteered at my first shelter when I was 12 years old. So working here is kind of a dream-come-true. Don't get me wrong, it's not without its ups and downs, but first and foremost I'm here for cats, and all is fine if I just remember that.

I'd like to use this blog to post about everything cat related- I'm studying to be a feline behaviorist as well, so I anticipate a mish-mosh of behavior tips and foster stories, and featuring some shelter cats too, in case you live in the area.

Have a behavior question? Ask me!

I hope everyone has a wonderful 2011.