You are here

Home › Blogs › Robin Olson's blog

Quiz Results: Redirected Aggression

Sun, 2011-06-05 09:03 — Robin Olson

Looks like I have a number of smart cat-behaviorists reading my posts. Great! Though tempting as it was for some of you to say the Owner needs to be euthanized, the truth is, most people don't feel they need to understand how a cat thinks to live with their cat. Their thinking is that a cat should behave in a way that doesn't cause any problems in the home. Problems arise and cats get surrendered or put down.

Last week, two, four year old cats who were inappropriately urinating in the home were euthanized-even though the owner KNEW one of them had crystals in his urine and needed a diet change and medication-which the owner didn't want to bother dealing with. Of the couple that had the cats, the husband was chosen to “get the deed done” even though he said he wouldn't have done it if his wife hadn't insisted. She didn't care that curing the cat would have stopped the problem. The cat was in pain and acting out and it caused both cats to pee, so now the cats are dead because none of the local rescues could take the cats off their hands.

It's very difficult to convince owners that it can be better and in this case, I expected a lot of resistance.

This was my reply:

“I saw your post about the siblings not liking each other any more. This can happen if they see another cat OUTSIDE their home. I had this happen with a Mother/Daughter. They were SO angry they tried to hurt each other badly. They had to be separated and I had to work with them for awhile, but they are FINE now..been years.

Steps:

1. SEPARATE cats. Put one in a room, the other can have the run of the house. Let them cool off for a bit. If money is not an issue, ideally they would get Feliway Spray, spray it on a sock or towel and wipe one cat with it, then wipe the other cat with it. Then let them smell each other while they remain separated by the door. Only open it a tiny bit.

OR SEPARATE the cats. Then they can take a sock or washcloth and gently rub the face ONLY of one cat, then wipe the face of the other cat with the same cloth JUST ON THE FACE. That is where the relaxed/good scent glands are located. GIve it some time. SLOWLY re-introduce the cats to each other by just opening the door a tiny bit so they can see and smell each other. Give the cats a treat on either side of the door so they associate each other with GOOD things, not bad.

What likely happened is that it was re-directed aggression-so something upset ONE or both of them, then they reacted by being aggressive with each other, since their object of aggression is not available to them.”

2. Tell them to GO SLOW and NOT RUSH putting them back together. They may relapse so do the SAME THING again..they WILL get over this, but give them time and LOTS of LOVE. NO YELLING AT THEM. Expect the cats may hiss at each other when the door is opened..if they do ,then close the door and give it more time. Do the face rubbing trick, give treats..just keep at it. It may take a few days. If so, then switch the cats so the one in the room, gets the run of the house and vice versa.

Let me know how it goes.

It took a week before I heard a reply. Yesterday I got my answer:

“Your email did the trick. The owner took your advice and things are improving for the cats as well as the humans. She told my friend it was your email that made the difference so I wanted to make sure that you knew how valuable your time and efforts were. I truly believed you saved those kitties lives...”

Cricket.jpg
©2004 Robin A.F. Olson. One of my first foster cats is telling me something. Can you guess what it is?

This time it worked. I'm glad the family took the time to follow the rules and give their cats time to cool off from whatever caused them to start fighting in the first place.

I'd love it, for those of you who are just learning how your cat communicates, to keep in mind that the cat is your guide. Go at their pace and take even the smallest positive change with the satisfaction that you're going in the right direction. It's very frustrating what cats can come up with that are normal to them and very annoying to us-this is written just moments after catching one of my cats peeing on my Grandmother's cedar chest. Will I put this cat down? No. I might fantasize about it, but in the end I will still try to find a way to understand what's going on with her and find a solution that works using a cat's lexicon, not my own.

CICH Content Categories: 
Behavior Problems

Comments

Sun, 2011-06-05 10:46 — Stephanie (not verified)

Robin! I loved this post! I would love to see a regular feature on common cat behavioral problems, or just interesting things that you've learned.

Sun, 2011-06-05 14:07 — Janiss (not verified)

Sparkle gave you four paws up, Robin! What Stephanie said about having a regular feature on cat behavior issues.

Sun, 2011-06-05 19:58 — Catnonymouse (not verified)

Absolutely! I agree with Stephanie, would love to see more of this kind of thing. One of the main reasons for cats being surrendered to shelters is inappropriately urinating in the house. Vicki Halls' 'Cat Detective' is a great book on peculiar behavior in cats (as are her others) and I was astounded ! at what some people would put up with to keep their cats so there is the other side of that.
Now we have a phantom cat who urinates on the lounge! I always have plastic and towelling and sheeting on there to stop it going through now but nobody ever sees her do it. (We know who it is, just been treated for infection again) but those UTI's are notoriously difficult to eradicate).

Sun, 2011-06-05 22:33 — Robin Olson

I was wondering if I should do more posts about this sort of thing. It's ironic because I have problems here I can't get to the bottom of, even though I know a lot!!!! I will certainly do more posts about behavior issues and I'm always available if someone is stuck and needs to talk about this sort of thing. If I can't help, I know a few other folks that might be able to jump in, too.

Best to all of you and thank you for reading my blog and for the feedback!
:-)

Mon, 2011-06-06 12:20 — Catnonymouse (not verified)

Well, I was typing my reply and it went away. Hope this isn’t a dupe.
I have a cat that pees outside the box. She has been doing it since I got her as a kitten. I cant figure out why sometimes she pees in the box and at other times outside the box.
I have tried several things. I have tried to re-train her to use the box by keeping her in a spare bedroom. She was OK for a couple days, then started peeing on the bed in there.
I have added more litterboxes (I have a total of 10..a few in the garage where she likes to hang out..no cars, just cat stuff)..I have tried different litters and the new Zero Odor litter spay. And the stuff that smells like catnip that you put in litter. I have one litterbox with just a towel and one that is totally empty. She has used both of those a few times. (those aren’t counted in the 10 count!)
I scoop 3 times a day and wash them out every other week.
I have tried Feliway and rescue remedy and other flower essence for peeing outside the box.
I play with her and give her lots of love..
After several months of peeing all over my house and causing me so much stress I couldn’t eat, my vet put her on Prozac. I read Prozac helps 95% of cats that pee outside the box. She stills pees outside the box (but not as much as before)..I feel so lucky to have a cat that falls into that 5%.
I have also fantasized about some awful things, but would never do it.
I thought maybe re-homing her would help. I thought maybe she would do best as a single cat (I have 5 others). There are a million cats out there that need homes..nobody wanted to adopt her. Then after several months of being on the rescue group’s website where I adopted her, someone wanted to meet her. I panicked and said she was no longer available for adoption. She was my kitty and always will be.
I have learned to put up with the peeing..I have spent a ton of money on Zero Odor and on my water bill washing throws that I now have on all of my furniture. Maybe one day she will stop..I hope so.

Tue, 2011-06-07 08:55 — Margaret (not verified)

Just wanted to say Pee Pee Head that maybe the problem is the other five cats (or more specifically one or two of them).
It is not uncommon at all for groups of cats to have a leader! We have some dominant cats and some very timid cats. In the catrun one of the cats has peed and pood on the roof of the shed, in beds, on carpet and anywhere she can go so long as she doesn't have to go into the area of Queen Abigail. At dinner time, the aforesaid Queen hogs the food. We have gotten around these little skirmishes but the obvious solution is not to have the Queen cavorting with the commoners. Segregation is the key and we are working on that.
You may not even see this behavior happening but keep your powers of observation sharpened up just to make sure this isn't it.

Thu, 2011-06-09 03:59 — Margaret (not verified)

I'm so sorry but it looks like she's saying 'I aint gonna eat that crap!'

Well, all jokes aside, her ears are flat, she's in a corner and scared and telling you to back off, interested in your answer Robin.

Add new comment

CICH @ Google+
Robin @