I have been researching for info on cats like mine and have started joined various forums instead since information on this subject is scarce, at least information to the degree that I need it. So here is Cleo's story.
I got Cleo just this last summer. I think she is around 7 yrs old, give or take a little. She is a long haired, declawed cat.(I did NOT declaw her.) Her past is very troubled in nelgectful. Her first home that I know of, perhaps not her FIRST home, was VERY abusive and neglectful. Cleo has serious allergic reactions to fleas, and these people did not do anything to treat this. They simply threw her outside when she got fleas, probably because she is quite neurotic, loud, and unstable once she starts itching from flea bites. This is totally unacceptable, because Cleo's fleas jsut got worse outside, and she was declawed. Its a wonder no dogs killed her. So, she lost all her hair and lost weight, as she will still do to some degree the minute fleas start bothering her. My friend lived across the stree from these people, and her and her mom called humane officers on the people who owner Cleo, and these people ended up fighting with my friends mom and actually throwing Cleo across the street at them. They took Cleo in.
My friend's mom keeps way too many cats. She takes good care of all of them, but there is just too many. Cleo made number 13. And all the other cats wouldnot accept her, and beat up on her. THerefor, she was kept in one room most of the time alone. She became ill-socialized and even more neurotic. This went on for almost 2 years, then I offered to take Cleo becuase my friend's mom was at her wits end, and I felt bad for Cleo being locked up all the time. Plus there was quite a bit of yelling and fighitng going on among the people at this house, and this atmosphere made Cleo even more paranoid and frightful.
So my boyfriend and I took her in as we got a new apartment. Needless to say, Cleo was paranoid and skittish, but took to us immedieately. She has always LOVED people to no avail, and is very clingy. But she was always, well, really weird to say the least. Understandably so.
We worked with her, and even brought a very friendly stray cat into the house who was VERY patient and friendly with Cleo. This helped her fear and hatred of other cats A LOT. Unfortunately that stray got sick and we had to have the poor thing put down. But I think the experience did Cleo a lot of good.
So the problems:
1. Classic urinary problems. No she isn't sick in any way. She sometimes pees on rugs and blankets, honestly, to spite us. If you sit with her, petting her, then get up to do something else, she starts meowing in a way that you would think she was being killed, then squats on the nearest rug and proceeds to pee. We catch her in the act a lot, and take her to the litter box (which she usually always uses) and she KNOWS shes not supposed to do it. She cringes and runs the minute we walk near her if she has peed on a rug recently. If we cant find her, she is hiding because she undoubtably has peed on a rug. Every time. She was bad about this, then we retrained her and she stopped alltogether. But just this morning, she pulled the "Im pissed at you because you walked away from petting me" stunt. I had to get up for class, and she went nuts screaming and meowing then peed on a rug. I caught her. Perhaps she get so upset that you are leaving her that she loses control of her bladder. Perhaps sshe is angry, I don't know.
2. Seperation anxiety: Sometimes, what she will do is cry and cry when my boyfriend or I walk into the room. She will stare at us and meow sorrowfully, and we will talk to her and pat our legs and sit down for her, but she will still just sit where ever she is and meow at us. We have stopped going to her when she does this, because I think this simply reinforces this spoiled behavoir. My friends mother always does whatever her cats want, I mean WHATEVER they want, and I know a lot of this behavoir in Cleo came from this kind of environment. So now we ignore her when she does this, and do not show her affection until she comes to us physically, and she is starting to slowly but surely change.
She is incredibly clingy to people, and must be the center of attention at ALL TIMES or she gets angry and aggitated. If you are reading a book and push her out from in front of your face, she will sometimes even growl. Some of this is normal cat behavoir I know, but trust me, it is very intense in Cleo. Almost unbearable at times. (and I have endless patience with animals.)
3. Total confusion and paranoia: this is understanable in Cleo considering her past. But she sometimes takes it to the point of health problems. She gets SO incredibly paranoid sometimes, especially when an ithcing attach comes on, that she drives herself crazy mentally. Half the itme she seems not to even know where she is. We can try to calm her as much as we like with words, carresses, and calming areas, but to no avail. Sometimes she hides in a corner for DAYS, and loses a lot of weight. Sometimes I take her out and try to break the behavoir, but now I feel best just to let her alone alltogether besides some kind pats and words.
She may rush aronud the apartment for no reason, as if she is being chased, and she may leap without looking first and basically just act crazy.
Now if an itching fit comes on sooner than we expected (we keep her on monthyl flea meds) all of the above behavoirs, and then some, are intensified and rampant. And sometimes for no apparent reason at all the above behavoirs are intensified and rampant. It is pretty random, to our eyes anyway. Our household is always calm, we never fight, and there is no loud traffic or any other intrusive noise.. We as people are very stable and loving. We are clean and there are not fleas everywhere, I suppose a few that we bring in ourselves get to Cleo. (We hike and camp a lot lol)
Right now Cleo is coming out of an itching fit, as the frontline takes around 24 hours to kick in. Just this morning she freaked out and peed on a rug as I explained above. We are hoping that as winter goes on, the fleas will not be a problem again for her until spring. Seasonal changed also affect her negatively. I am also trying to find salmon oil to put into her food to keep her skin from getting so dry.
SHe has been vet checked and is otherwise healthy. I want to find somebody else who has experienced such a cat, because believe me, in all the cats I have had through out my life, never have I experienced such a cat as Cleo. Of course we want to work with her, and I strongly disagree with putting an animal down for behavoiral issues, unless its making them truly suffer.
So sorry this is such a long post, but it all needs to be said to understand Cleo. Thanks for reading!
I got Cleo just this last summer. I think she is around 7 yrs old, give or take a little. She is a long haired, declawed cat.(I did NOT declaw her.) Her past is very troubled in nelgectful. Her first home that I know of, perhaps not her FIRST home, was VERY abusive and neglectful. Cleo has serious allergic reactions to fleas, and these people did not do anything to treat this. They simply threw her outside when she got fleas, probably because she is quite neurotic, loud, and unstable once she starts itching from flea bites. This is totally unacceptable, because Cleo's fleas jsut got worse outside, and she was declawed. Its a wonder no dogs killed her. So, she lost all her hair and lost weight, as she will still do to some degree the minute fleas start bothering her. My friend lived across the stree from these people, and her and her mom called humane officers on the people who owner Cleo, and these people ended up fighting with my friends mom and actually throwing Cleo across the street at them. They took Cleo in.
My friend's mom keeps way too many cats. She takes good care of all of them, but there is just too many. Cleo made number 13. And all the other cats wouldnot accept her, and beat up on her. THerefor, she was kept in one room most of the time alone. She became ill-socialized and even more neurotic. This went on for almost 2 years, then I offered to take Cleo becuase my friend's mom was at her wits end, and I felt bad for Cleo being locked up all the time. Plus there was quite a bit of yelling and fighitng going on among the people at this house, and this atmosphere made Cleo even more paranoid and frightful.
So my boyfriend and I took her in as we got a new apartment. Needless to say, Cleo was paranoid and skittish, but took to us immedieately. She has always LOVED people to no avail, and is very clingy. But she was always, well, really weird to say the least. Understandably so.
We worked with her, and even brought a very friendly stray cat into the house who was VERY patient and friendly with Cleo. This helped her fear and hatred of other cats A LOT. Unfortunately that stray got sick and we had to have the poor thing put down. But I think the experience did Cleo a lot of good.
So the problems:
1. Classic urinary problems. No she isn't sick in any way. She sometimes pees on rugs and blankets, honestly, to spite us. If you sit with her, petting her, then get up to do something else, she starts meowing in a way that you would think she was being killed, then squats on the nearest rug and proceeds to pee. We catch her in the act a lot, and take her to the litter box (which she usually always uses) and she KNOWS shes not supposed to do it. She cringes and runs the minute we walk near her if she has peed on a rug recently. If we cant find her, she is hiding because she undoubtably has peed on a rug. Every time. She was bad about this, then we retrained her and she stopped alltogether. But just this morning, she pulled the "Im pissed at you because you walked away from petting me" stunt. I had to get up for class, and she went nuts screaming and meowing then peed on a rug. I caught her. Perhaps she get so upset that you are leaving her that she loses control of her bladder. Perhaps sshe is angry, I don't know.
2. Seperation anxiety: Sometimes, what she will do is cry and cry when my boyfriend or I walk into the room. She will stare at us and meow sorrowfully, and we will talk to her and pat our legs and sit down for her, but she will still just sit where ever she is and meow at us. We have stopped going to her when she does this, because I think this simply reinforces this spoiled behavoir. My friends mother always does whatever her cats want, I mean WHATEVER they want, and I know a lot of this behavoir in Cleo came from this kind of environment. So now we ignore her when she does this, and do not show her affection until she comes to us physically, and she is starting to slowly but surely change.
She is incredibly clingy to people, and must be the center of attention at ALL TIMES or she gets angry and aggitated. If you are reading a book and push her out from in front of your face, she will sometimes even growl. Some of this is normal cat behavoir I know, but trust me, it is very intense in Cleo. Almost unbearable at times. (and I have endless patience with animals.)
3. Total confusion and paranoia: this is understanable in Cleo considering her past. But she sometimes takes it to the point of health problems. She gets SO incredibly paranoid sometimes, especially when an ithcing attach comes on, that she drives herself crazy mentally. Half the itme she seems not to even know where she is. We can try to calm her as much as we like with words, carresses, and calming areas, but to no avail. Sometimes she hides in a corner for DAYS, and loses a lot of weight. Sometimes I take her out and try to break the behavoir, but now I feel best just to let her alone alltogether besides some kind pats and words.
She may rush aronud the apartment for no reason, as if she is being chased, and she may leap without looking first and basically just act crazy.
Now if an itching fit comes on sooner than we expected (we keep her on monthyl flea meds) all of the above behavoirs, and then some, are intensified and rampant. And sometimes for no apparent reason at all the above behavoirs are intensified and rampant. It is pretty random, to our eyes anyway. Our household is always calm, we never fight, and there is no loud traffic or any other intrusive noise.. We as people are very stable and loving. We are clean and there are not fleas everywhere, I suppose a few that we bring in ourselves get to Cleo. (We hike and camp a lot lol)
Right now Cleo is coming out of an itching fit, as the frontline takes around 24 hours to kick in. Just this morning she freaked out and peed on a rug as I explained above. We are hoping that as winter goes on, the fleas will not be a problem again for her until spring. Seasonal changed also affect her negatively. I am also trying to find salmon oil to put into her food to keep her skin from getting so dry.
SHe has been vet checked and is otherwise healthy. I want to find somebody else who has experienced such a cat, because believe me, in all the cats I have had through out my life, never have I experienced such a cat as Cleo. Of course we want to work with her, and I strongly disagree with putting an animal down for behavoiral issues, unless its making them truly suffer.
So sorry this is such a long post, but it all needs to be said to understand Cleo. Thanks for reading!
