Lonely? (More than one?)

Hello all,

I am the over-obsessed mum to Delilah, a three-year old pastel tortie shorthair. My partner and I adopted her from the pound (wanted to go to the place with the most desperate kitties) about two months ago, maybe a little more.

She's wonderful, her only behavioral problem is constant meowing, all day and all night. Her water bowl is full, her food is full, her box is clean, she's been played with, cuddled, she had a vet visit about a month ago, she's spayed, and still she meows.

It's not a really serious issue for her (we made a vow to keep her no matter what) but for the sake of our own sanity, I've been asking around as to what the heck might be the matter.

Most people have said she's probably lonely. We're students who work, and therefore can't be home all day - though she gets our full attention when we are.

It does seem like she's lonely, but my prior experience growing up with a cat is that they do not like each other. So the idea of having multiple cats is rather new to me. Are cats really that social? Does Lilah need a friend? How do you do it? Are there litterbox wars? What about food?

You're probably right. There's no guarantee getting another cat would stop her meowing. Maybe she's just a very vocal cat. And cats can be social with each other....good friends....if they're introduced to each other right. There's a good article in the TCS library; here's a link to it:

http://www.thecatsite.com/Behavior/4...cing-Cats.html

and there's plenty more articles online if you want to do some more studying. Just google "introducing new cat" Your best chance of having a happy cat family is to plan ahead a prepare for the new arrival well before they come, so you know exactly what you're going to do, and why.

Good luck, and may the best cat find you!!

Well, no fudging, there can be problems and it is not a guarenteed success.

Talk to the shelter you got her from and see if they can tell you anything about her - if she is used to other cats, did she have a buddy in the shelter (if so, try to adopt that one!) that sort of thing.

As Coaster said, she may just be vocal - but I think even if she's vocal she is probably lonely.

About litterbox wars and the like, you will find tons of advice on this forum.

Good luck and please let us know what you decide.

My question is this, how much do you talk to the cat?

every cat i have had, has turned into a talker. I even get blamed for turning my SO cat into a talker.. According to her (broni) her cat, never talked , never said so much as a meow until i came along. Now we have two cats that walk around talking all the time. Well hers talks mine yells at me(and only me).

I would guess also that if they learn they get a response from talking they will do so more.

I think you're right. I've read about this in behavior books. The theory is that cats do most of their vocalizing for humans. So if people talk to their cats, the cats learn to "talk" back. And I suppose cats learn from each other, too, so if a new cat comes in to a household with a vocal cat, it's more likely to be vocal also.

Rocket is a talker. Twinkee almost never meowed when he came here. Now he's starting to do it, too. I'm going to end up with a house full of meowing cats.