To My Siamese Cat Mothers

Is he a friendly sort of cat--i.e., will he warm up to visitors pretty quickly? If so, I wonder if you could get local cat people to help out with interacting with him, just visiting once a week to play with the cat and have coffee with you. Perhaps that sort of "therapy" would get him back to the point where he was on more of an even keel and could safely find a home where he could be the center of attention.

As you probably know, though, cat bites are dangerous, and this guy seems not to know how much damage he can do with his teeth. Make sure your volunteers are informed of this and know of his tendencies to bite, and under which circumstances. A cat's fangs can cause puncture wounds, which trap bacteria and are easily infected. You need to take precautions against this--if you get into a place where he can bite, you need to protect your hands; or just not get in range until you know his signals well enough so that you know he will not bite. Similarly, your volunteers have got to be experienced cat people who know how to do this sort of thing. If anyone gets a puncture wound of this sort, he needs to go to the ER right away to get the wound cleaned out properly.

I once tamed a hamster by wearing latex gloves and just letting him bite until he calmed down about having my hands in his cage. Maybe that would help with this cat, though obviously you would need heavy work gloves. The best option is probably wand toys or things dangled on strings. Do you have plenty of those?

I am in Ohio, unfortunately, and too far away to help, but I really hope you can find a way to get him a place where he gets the attention he needs. He's a beautiful cat, however neurotic and bratty he is, and Siamese really are a very social breed. If he hasn't been getting the interaction he needs, I guess his bad behaviors have been taking hold of him more.

Are there anxiety issues here? Have you tried Feliway, or perhaps kitty Prozac?

Ideally, you would teach him a way to get attention that does not involve biting. Is he one of the many Siamese who are naturally vocal? Maybe you could teach him to yell for attention instead of biting. Perhaps you could even teach him that biting does not get attention, and that yelling or jumping into a lap does.

I wish you luck with the rehab. I've done some similar things (Christy came to me so fearful she wouldn't eat, and Tiny was semiferal with a tendency to bite and general anxiety issues)... Tough, but so rewarding when you manage it. And you seem to have a good handle on his personality already, and that's most of the battle.

That's wonderful!! Maybe you could invite her over here to tell us how he's doing. Many of us have adopted hard-to-place or special-needs cats--mine both were--and we'd welcome anyone we can swap tips with.