Please stop the Princess

*sigh*
We got her last year kind of...spur of the moment. Her previous owners are related to my BF. He found out that they weren't feeding her and the guy was throwing her into walls and just being horrible to her. So we went and picked her up that day, or would have but they kicked her outside and didn't let her in so by the time we got there she was gone.

plus, she's declawed so we were freaked. We ended up finding her the next day though.

She's always been a bit cranky. I tried winning hre over like I would ferals but she's just kind of "give me the food and go away". She likes my BF a whole lot, ates me. I think it's because she has a bad habit of gettng into the garbage can and gets all sorts of nasty stuff stuck to her so I end up bathing her and boy she HATES that. I'd rather bathe my two fully clawed male cats than her lol

here's my real issue, I'm fine with er not liking me and whatnot. Whatever makes her comfortable.

MY problem is that she seems to want to claim EVERYTHING as soon as I go to bed. I'll here her growling and then if i don't get up in .5secs and get her she starts SCREAMING. and if I don't get to her a that point she'll start to beat on my cats.

Which they were backing down but now I think they realized she doesn't have any claws because instead of running away, they pounce at her.

I thought it was play and sometimes when she doesn't start screaming her head off I'm sure it is.

I have water dishes and litterboxes all through out the house. I have tried feliway. I am soon going to try rescue remedies and something else to see if it helps.

Princess is about 11 yrs old. Spayed

my other cats
BeBe and Lil' Guy are about 3 yrs old and neutered (one is a couple months older).

Some nights, I have o get up 5 times to break up their fights. I work odd hrs. Some days, lke today, I only have 8hrs between shifts and that doesn't leave me a lot of sleep y'know?

Any thoughts on how to make the Princess happy?


oh and I"ve increased play time. I was hoping if I got all three tired it'd work and it helped some but not a lot.

Is there any way that princess can have some time to herself. It may seem cruel to keep her locked in a room, but some animals like peace & quiet. What I'm wondering is, have you tried putting her in a separate room with the door closed (probably would work best while you were sleeping). Maybe she is becoming overwhelmed with the boys. The other possibility is to do a slow reintroduction. This past spring something set off my 4 cats & I had to keep them separate for a week or so. Since then things have calmed down & now things are better.

If the other cats are being aggressive to her and she has no protection, then she shouldn't be with the other cats.

• Put her in a room where it is dark and quiet.
• Play soothing music softly in the background (harp music works wonders- this CD rocks for stressed kitties! http://harpist1.tripod.com/id32.html Create several cave-like dwellings in the room
• Just go in and sit with her. Don't make direct eye contact with her, read to her, tell her about your day but don't initiate contact. let her do this
• Make a vet visit for her. She is now a senior cat. Declawed cats sometimes have incredible arthritis when they grow older because of the removal of the claws it off sets their balance. If they can't compensate for it their joints pay for it in the end. It is a lot of pain and stress to put a cat through this surgery that is only for humans benefit, never for the cat.
  
• It may be that she can't be in a home with other cats. Do you know someone who is cat-less that might want her?

I feel badly for her. Sounds to me like she hasn't been given a fair shake in her life. Be patient with her, keep her away from the other cats and give that a go. Here at our home, we have several of our rooms that have screen doors on them. When there is a troubled cat, we put them into a room with the screen door and let them just adjust to the life here and the other cats. The screens are pet proof screening. It is a very effective way of helping a cat adjust, keeping him/her isolated without shutting him completely away from the house (as a closed door often does) Good luck!

We did try rehoming her but no one passed my application and a lot of them after doing a google search I found out rehomed like 23523532 pets in the last couple months so I didn't feel right giving her to them. So we pretty much gave up on it. Plus, she's 11 which I know isn't like old since cats can live up into their 20s but a lot of people see that as old and she's so cranky lol We call her the cranky old bitty. I thought my grandpa would like her but they didn't get on either so I ended up taking her back.

Anywho, I did try reintroducing her a couple months ago and that seemed to help. I can give that a shot and use the rescue remedy to see if it''ll help any.

And make a vet appointment, I didn't even think about her being in pain from being declawed. I know she dispises it when anyone touches her paws. I wish I could give her claws, she's so cute when she "claws" at the couch. We do love her, so I hope I didn't come off that way. She's our pretty pretty princess.

And with the other cats, I mean I see them grooming each other and sleeping by one another but it's usually in the kitchen by the litterbox in there and when she's on the cat tree by the hallway to the bedrooms. She'll sit up there growling when one the others trys walking by and if they insist on going she'll jump down and get into it with them.