Desperately seeking home for my tortie

I am desperately seeking a good home for my tortie. She is beautiful with medium length hair and sheds only a little. She is spayed and declawed. She is healthy and current on all of her shots. She needs a home without children. Unfortunatley, she doesn't like my daughter or her friends. She is the sweetest cat in the world with me. She's like a puppy - greets me at the door, follows me around the house, sits in my lap and is just as sweet as can be. It's really hard to get rid of her, but I can't have her biting my daughter. I really want her to go to a good home. If there is anyone out there who has experience with torties and their "tortie-tude" who would be willing to take her, that would be wonderful. She has never been exposed to other cats, but I know she doesn't like dogs. We are in Minnesota, but if there is anyone anywhere near here, I would be willing to drive her to a good home. Please email [email protected]
Thanks, Melissa

I would include a photo of your kitty as well as more details about her personality and background. How old is she? Was she raised by a reputable breeder? Where did you get her? Did you rescue her from some situation? I would also change the wording from "get rid of" since it sounds so awful. I'd suggest something more positive like Need to rehome my cat. Torties are wonderful cats and you should point that out. Also, make sure you charge an adoption fee. "Free to a Good Home" is a really bad idea since it suggests you place no value on the cat and if invotes bouchers (people who sell animals to labs) and other undesirables. Your declawed cat would be much valued in a lab since she is so defenseless!

Did this behaviour occur after her declaw surgery?

But you might give this poor girl a chance. It is not at all uncommon for declawed cats - a horrible procedure that is against the law in most civilized countries but I bet your vet did not tell you that, sigh - to becime biters because they are so traumatized by the surgery that they bite instead. Your daughter and friends may play rougher than is safe for your kitty and she prob retaliates and this can only bite now. I am so sorry to hear about this . It is unfortunate you did not know about the unwanted and adverse effects of declawing.

I had a friend who had her cat declawed and he bacame a biter too. They learned to adjust to his behaviour since they realized their mistake and felt they needed to help this kitty they had hurt. I had not seen this friend for a year or so so was not able to tell her beforhand about the side effects of declawing. (Many cats dumped at shelters for so called "behaviour" issues are declawed, sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhh) The worst part of it for this cat was that while he was much loved, he managed to get outside - in the city of Halifax, NS - and without claws - was unable to do as he had before and climb a tree and a large dog mauled him to death. She arrived home to find her son utterly devistated since he so loved the cat!

But I digress. I just hate to see cats loose their home after being declawed. How old is your daughter? You might be able to teach she and her friends to better relate to a declawed kitty and thus avoid having to part with her.

Boo is 2 years old. I got her about 6 months ago from a family that said they were allergic to her. Now I think she was maybe biting their kids. She was already spayed and declawed so I don't know how she acted before. My daughter is 11 years old and has never been rough with her. She doesn't bite when the kids are playing with her (they won't play with her -they just try to stay out of her way). She bites them on the calf when they are just standing around talking or walking through the house. She comes up behind them out of the blue, bites them then runs away. Charging an adoption fee is a good idea. I never thought about the lab thing. I definitely do not want that to happen to her. I will work on getting a picture of her posted and will work on rewording my post.
Thanks, Melissa

Several months ago another member suggested a book called Outwitting Cats by Wendy Christensen. There is a section in the book on biting cats. When your cat bites does she break skin??? Do you have more than one cat that she could be having a conflict with??
While you might think your daughter isn't "rough" with her an action she is doing could be distressful to the cat. How long have these actions been going on in the house. Who does she "bite" in the house? Have you purchased Feliway?? This product can calm cats down.
I would try these things first before you remove the cat from your household.

I will look for that book. In answer to your questions, yes she does break the skin when she bites. The bites are completely unprovoked. If the kids are standing around talking or playing video games she will come out of nowhere, bite them and run. We don't have any other pets so they can't be bothering her. We have tried Feliway, but the thing is we spray it by whoever is over (the bottle said not to spray it on the cat), but because she comes up so fast and bites I don't think she really has a chance to breathe it in. The vet said we could put her on Valium, but I don't know if she should just be kept drugged up all of the time.

Get the Feliway dissuser plug-in, get a few of them throughout your house, they work well.

Before you send her away, try having people yelp or shout "ouch" when she bites. Often they bite because they are playing and don't know it is too hard, and by yelping, you tell her she is hurting you. Also, if she bites your daughter when she talks to friends or plays video games, it is possible that she has an aversion to noise. Kids and noise go together, i know, i'm one of them.
But please, try these things before you find her a new home. Hope i was helpful,
Joecool

Ps. the biting and running is a classic "ambush" game. Again, maybe she does not know she is hurting your daughter, and needs to be informed. Declawing is definitely really bad though, but the description makes it sound like a "game", or at least one to the cat.

This may sound like adding to the problem, but have you considered getting her a feline companion? Dushka started ambushing and biting for no reason when she was about a year old, and then when I got Ellie it stopped overnight, as all her desire to play and even any aggression, was centred on the new cat. Now none of mine bite at all.

Thaks for all of the helpful suggestions. We will work on it. My daughter's gone for the week, so the cat's been fine. We will definitely try some of the strategies when she gets home.
Thanks,
Melissa

I'm in Colorado, visiting my sister. (Going back to Chicago today ). Yesterday, we visited my cousin. Her cat and dog (chiuhahua) played just like that. They were adopted at the same time, and are 3 days apart in age. They would sneak up behind each other and bite their ankles, which started a great running and chasing game.

I think that cat loves your daughter, and is trying to join the play when visitors come over. Please make a separate post on the behavior board, and you will get many good suggestions on how you and your daughter can engage this cat in play that won't hurt. Maybe she can throw crinkle balls around the kitchen for kitty to chase, or have a small stuffed animal for kitty to attack, instead of her ankles.

I do not believe in keeping animals that harm kids, but in this case your daughter will learn a much better lesson by learning to work with this cat, and teach her to play nicely. Let her know that declawed cats are more prone to biting, so the previous owner caused part of this problem. Get her that book about cats, so she can learn more about her cat. (If she isn't a strong reader, you can help read it to her.)

In a month, if this problem behavior is corrected, and you keep your kitty, everyone will be so much happier than if she is given up. Best of luck to you. Thank you for trying!

my next door neighbour had a tortie who would do the exact same thing to me when i was about 11! i would be walking down the garden and she would run past and seem to bite me mid-flight (she didnt even seem to stop as she bit me! lol)

she didnt target any adults though and was rescued from a house with children so maybe she thought she was playing with me? i can empathise with your daughter though as i didnt find it at all fun!

a tip i read in a magazine said to use orange or lemon essence on the areas the cat bites to detter it or to wear oranage peel in your socks! lol

like the others have said it sounds like either the cat feels threatened by the group of kids or is trying to play with them. my cat Maverick used to do the same to my brother who was 13 at the time. he hated her until i taught him how to play with her and she realised it was more fun to play than to bite, scratch and ambush.

teens and pre-teens (or so i was told..) seem kitten-like to playful cats so they seek them to play with, though if they havent been properly socialised their play can hurt (this is what a cat owning friend told me to explain why Mav attacked only my brother).

either that or maybe Boo is jealous of your daughter?

Wear pants in the house so the teeth dont piece the skin. she will prob stop eventually. Limit the times your child can have hre friends over and suggest they go to the other childs house. I wouldnt give up a beloved animal without at least making an attempt to work around the problem.

Thanks to everyone for their helpful suggestions. I just thought I'd let you know how Boo is doing now. I did get the Feliway diffuser which seemed to calm her down a little bit. I couldn't find anyone to take her who I thought would be appropriate and I couldn't just drop her at the Humane Society. I decided to just do the best I could to keep her away from the kids. Anyway, a couple weeks ago she had some drainage from her ear so I took her into the vet and found she had an ear infection. The vet also looked in her mouth and found she had several infected teeth and some pretty severe gum disease. She has been to the vet (a different one) at least 6 times in the past couple months for exam, shots, etc. No one ever noticed this before. The vet who found the mouth problems said that this was probably very painful for her and cats do act aggressive when they are in pain. She said that this infection had most likely been brewing for months and was probably what was making her crabby, since the first months I had her she did not act like this. She suggested a deep cleaning and possible extractions under anesthetic. She had that procedure a couple weeks ago and ended up having 3 extractions of teeth they said were severely infected. Since the surgery she has been very loving and snuggly. She's been sleeping on my daughter's stomach every night and is always rubbing up against her. I am hoping that this positive change in behavior will continue as we keep up on her dental problems. I am glad we have found the probable cause of the problem, but I am pretty upset that with all of her recent trips to the vet they did not notice this problem brewing.

i'm so glad the storu has a happy ending and i hope things continue to work out for the both of you.

write a letter to your vet telling them how dissapointed you are that this problem wasnt discovered sooner. vets are only human and make mistakes, but its a good idea to make them aware of any misconduct or that you are unhappy with their services.

I'm so glad to hear that things have worked out with you and your kitty. I'm sure that now there will be peace and contentment in your home.

Great to hear!!!

I'm so glad you stuck by Boo and sorted out her problems

well done!

It's so nice to hear a story with a happy ending. What you've done for Boo will surely be rewarded.