Well first off – Hello everybody! I am new here and hoping somebody can give me some advice. Sorry this is so long!
Here goes.
I have two kitties – Libbi (who is an 11 y/o female) and Spooky-Joe (who is a 1 y/o male). Both of them are fixed.
Libbi is very aloof and distrusts every human on the planet that isnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t me, and growls and/or hisses at every cat sheâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s ever met even way past the introduction period. She spends most of her time hiding in a closet (formerly under a bed at my old house), refuses to play with toys, runs away when you try to pet her, and only comes out to eat at night when everybody is settled in and not moving much. She comes to see me every night at bedtime for a treat and a couple pets (on her terms) but other than that she wants no human interaction whatsoever. We have no idea why she is this way, as I have had her since she was 7 weeks old and she has never been abused or treated like anything but a complete princess. Go figure. However this is not my issue.
Spooky-Joe showed up and adopted me last December. He literally just walked up to me in the front yard one day and jumped in my lap, then snuck into the house behind me (I didnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t coax him in or anything) when I went inside. I found out later that he was an unwanted kitten and left to roam our neighborhood for the first 7 months of his life because nobody else wanted him. From day one he made himself at home and was only curious about outside for a couple weeks. He always met me at the door and followed me around the house and snuggled up at night, etc.
When Spooky showed up, I was living with my parents and their two adult males Romeo (9) and Onyx (5), so when Spooky joined the family Onyx and Spooky bonded almost immediately and spent their days together grooming and playing with and chasing each other and fighting over toys, etc. Every evening they would each go to their respective human for playtime and snuggling and life was happy. Sometimes one of the boys would chase Libbi around because she was so anti-social, but usually if she stayed under the bed as usual they left her alone.
About 3 months ago I moved out of my parentsâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji] house and in with a roommate, bringing Libbi and Spooky with me. Of course as always Libbi wants nothing to do with Spooky, and since then his behavior has consistently gone downhill. At first he was just more clingy towards me and wanted to be with me or playing with me ALL the time I was home. Then it started that when I wasnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t home, he was all over my roommate in the same way. If we were both not home, he was very vocal about how unhappy he was to be left alone once we returned. My roommate works from home, so he is only very rarely left alone at all, and then usually only for a couple hours if that.
Then he started seeking Libbi out and starting fights with her, increasing in frequency from once a week or so to now 2 or 3 times a day. He has always been a very quiet kitty but now he walks around meowing (he used to do this when he was looking for me and couldnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t find me) and will come to me when I call him but looks at me and meows while I am petting him. He still plays with his toys, etc. but only for short periods of time where before he would be amused by one thing for hours. He has not been outside since I got him in December and now over the past couple of weeks he has started darting out the door every time it is opened. He will even wait by the door when he hears your keys and run off into the yard. He doesnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t run away and comes back eventually, but he doesnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t need to be outside at all. (My parents had him front declawed).
His behavior isnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t so much destructive as he just seems less happy. And I definitely donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t want him going outside! And heâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s my best buddy and I canâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t be having him unhappy. I got some of those Feliway plugins but they havenâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t seemed to help. I took him to the vet and they couldnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t find anything physically wrong with him. They suggested he might be lonely since Libbi refuses to be a companion cat to him and he was used to his best friend Onyx. Libbi is not as happy because she canâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t venture out of her “room†as much with him coming after her all the time.
So I guess my question is what should I do? My parents offered to take him from me so he could be with Onyx but I would miss him terribly, and heâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s so bonded to me we think that would be just as detrimental to him to be without me as it is to be without Onyx. I have had difficulty finding much information on behavior/signs of loneliness in cats so I thought I would post to see if anybody else has had a similar problem and has any suggestions? I am not at all against adopting a new friend for him that is what I need to do to see him happy again. I just donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t want him to be even more miserable if he has to share his human too.
Help?
Oh here are pictures of them. Libbi is the black and white one, Spooky is the solid black one.
Here goes.
I have two kitties – Libbi (who is an 11 y/o female) and Spooky-Joe (who is a 1 y/o male). Both of them are fixed.
Libbi is very aloof and distrusts every human on the planet that isnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t me, and growls and/or hisses at every cat sheâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s ever met even way past the introduction period. She spends most of her time hiding in a closet (formerly under a bed at my old house), refuses to play with toys, runs away when you try to pet her, and only comes out to eat at night when everybody is settled in and not moving much. She comes to see me every night at bedtime for a treat and a couple pets (on her terms) but other than that she wants no human interaction whatsoever. We have no idea why she is this way, as I have had her since she was 7 weeks old and she has never been abused or treated like anything but a complete princess. Go figure. However this is not my issue.
Spooky-Joe showed up and adopted me last December. He literally just walked up to me in the front yard one day and jumped in my lap, then snuck into the house behind me (I didnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t coax him in or anything) when I went inside. I found out later that he was an unwanted kitten and left to roam our neighborhood for the first 7 months of his life because nobody else wanted him. From day one he made himself at home and was only curious about outside for a couple weeks. He always met me at the door and followed me around the house and snuggled up at night, etc.
When Spooky showed up, I was living with my parents and their two adult males Romeo (9) and Onyx (5), so when Spooky joined the family Onyx and Spooky bonded almost immediately and spent their days together grooming and playing with and chasing each other and fighting over toys, etc. Every evening they would each go to their respective human for playtime and snuggling and life was happy. Sometimes one of the boys would chase Libbi around because she was so anti-social, but usually if she stayed under the bed as usual they left her alone.
About 3 months ago I moved out of my parentsâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji] house and in with a roommate, bringing Libbi and Spooky with me. Of course as always Libbi wants nothing to do with Spooky, and since then his behavior has consistently gone downhill. At first he was just more clingy towards me and wanted to be with me or playing with me ALL the time I was home. Then it started that when I wasnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t home, he was all over my roommate in the same way. If we were both not home, he was very vocal about how unhappy he was to be left alone once we returned. My roommate works from home, so he is only very rarely left alone at all, and then usually only for a couple hours if that.
Then he started seeking Libbi out and starting fights with her, increasing in frequency from once a week or so to now 2 or 3 times a day. He has always been a very quiet kitty but now he walks around meowing (he used to do this when he was looking for me and couldnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t find me) and will come to me when I call him but looks at me and meows while I am petting him. He still plays with his toys, etc. but only for short periods of time where before he would be amused by one thing for hours. He has not been outside since I got him in December and now over the past couple of weeks he has started darting out the door every time it is opened. He will even wait by the door when he hears your keys and run off into the yard. He doesnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t run away and comes back eventually, but he doesnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t need to be outside at all. (My parents had him front declawed).
His behavior isnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t so much destructive as he just seems less happy. And I definitely donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t want him going outside! And heâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s my best buddy and I canâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t be having him unhappy. I got some of those Feliway plugins but they havenâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t seemed to help. I took him to the vet and they couldnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t find anything physically wrong with him. They suggested he might be lonely since Libbi refuses to be a companion cat to him and he was used to his best friend Onyx. Libbi is not as happy because she canâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t venture out of her “room†as much with him coming after her all the time.
So I guess my question is what should I do? My parents offered to take him from me so he could be with Onyx but I would miss him terribly, and heâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s so bonded to me we think that would be just as detrimental to him to be without me as it is to be without Onyx. I have had difficulty finding much information on behavior/signs of loneliness in cats so I thought I would post to see if anybody else has had a similar problem and has any suggestions? I am not at all against adopting a new friend for him that is what I need to do to see him happy again. I just donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t want him to be even more miserable if he has to share his human too.
Help?
Oh here are pictures of them. Libbi is the black and white one, Spooky is the solid black one.