My cats do pretty much the same things. For the scratching, we put double sided sticky tape on their favored areas on the furniture. We also have cardboard scratchers. My cats also like scratching wood so we brought in a round piece of wood with bark on it, leveled the top and bottom and we put our plants on it. The cats love it, and all you have to do is just vacuum up the bark. They also like something we never expected - you know those thick rubber mats that fit together like puzzle pieces that hairstylists sometimes have under their chairs? We have 2 squares in front of our back door as a doormat. The cats LOVE to scratch it! They are completely uninterested in carpet or sisal scratchers so we had to improvise.
As far as the water cups go, my oldest cat is fascinated with water and would consistently knock over my husband's bedside water glass. Get one of those covered cups with the straw sticking out of it, or one that has a nozzle on top, like you get at a sporting goods store. If they can't see the water in the cup, they won't be interested in it. My cat also loves to knock over his water bowl. I got one of those no-spill bowls that they make for dogs. You can find them at any pet store. And just don't leave cups with liquid in them lying around to tempt her.
For the jumping on the counter - try leaving sheets of aluminum foil out. They hate the way it feels under their feet.
As far as the blinds go, there may not be much you can do about that. Try spraying Bitter Apple on them. Or just bite the bullet and keep them raised as high as possible. If that doesn't work, just don't get expensive blinds. My cats don't play with them, but they do push them out of the way so they can look out the window. Are you sure that maybe she isn't just doing that?
The poop - yes, I can relate. My male RARELY covers his poop and stinks up the whole place.He's really a prima donna when it comes to the litter box so we try and make sure that the litter box is meticulous at all times. That seems to help a little. Or you can just follow her in there and cover it for her - we have to do that sometimes too.
Finally, getting a kitten for him to play with really worked for us. He was playing aggressively with us, attacking our feet constantly, biting us, etc. When we got our female kitten a few months ago, most of that behavior stopped because he wasn't so bored all the time. Now they play with each other and keep each other occupied.
We also leave toys all over the place. There's a lot of household stuff that you can give them to play with too. My cats love plastic drinking straws, the empty cardboard toilet paper roll, and paper grocery bags. And the laser toy is a massive hit in my house - we are changing the batteries constantly. We have more than one pointer and with multiple red dots flying all over the place, my two kitties are usually exhausted after those play sessions.
She sounds like a normal kitty. To me, it sounds like she's just bored. Think of it this way - she's like a 2 year old child. You just gotta find what will keep her occupied so she doesn't get into as much mischief. All cats are different, just try and find what she likes. She's not trying to annoy you - she's just being a cat.
Hope everything works out.
Posted 4 months ago by Beth_in_NJ #
