- Joined
- Jul 13, 2014
- Messages
- 25
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- 1
So my cat Venus has been a lovely addition to my family. She's probably around a year and a half old now, so still plenty of spunk left in her. However, recently, her spunk has just been... Too much. I notice she's been exhibiting a lot of attention-seeking behavior, like counter surfing (which I don't particularly mind... Until it's on the kitchen sink while I'm wielding a very hot curling iron), excessive vocalizing, not allowing me to walk without her excitedly walking right in front of me, and making me nearly fall over her, as well as crawling all over me at night when I'm trying to sleep.
I will add to this by saying that I do work full time - as I commute by bus, I am usually gone from around 7:30 am - 5:30 pm, Monday through Friday. I live in a modest, not-too-small not-too-big 650 square foot apartment with two windows to look out (one big on in the living room and one in the bedroom), though sadly no balcony. I also am a full-time student, although that's not as much of a huge deal as I do indeed do my schooling online, so I am home for that.
So. I really need your help calming my very lovely cat that is driving me bananas and just won't leave me alone. I want to add that I have a play routine with her - she gets three twenty minute play sessions a day, one right before work, right after work, and right before bed. Each session is followed up by a portion of her meal, as I feed her a can of wet food a day, to encourage napping and to try and imitate natural hunting behavior. (It only works some of the time.) So despite her hour of play a day, she still is very loud and needy of me, and it's becoming very hard to be woken up in the middle of the night. I tend not to be able to fall back asleep, and it's hard to work being so sleep deprived.
I want to throw in there that while I would very much love a companion for my cat for when I am gone, at the moment, it's not feasible. Venus was found to have an infection in her bladder that has so far taken two rounds of antibiotics almost one after another to placate. (Hopefully it stays away this time.) This has costed me around $500 and has put me in a bit of a financial rut, which is especially hard as I didn't expect to have to spend so much money on a cat I've only had for two months. The vet scared me the last time I brought her in for a shot saying that if this doesn't work, and her straining to urinate comes back again, she might have stress-induced cystitis. The idea of this scares me, as I cannot afford more money and I am afraid that what is causing her stress is being by herself. (This isn't a diagnosis as she actually did have a bacterial infection in her bladder and urinary tract, but the fact that she said it could be a possibly still scares me nonetheless.)
To bring this back to the beginning, because of the $500 I spent, I can't afford the pet deposit for a second cat at the moment. I also don't want to add another cat into the mix before I can get a bigger variety of "things" (cat trees, litter boxes, toys, scratch posts, etc) that can be scared between two cats, which, again, is inhibited by my cat's vet expenses... So I am mostly wanting to focus on just her for the moment before I can regain my financial footing and think about a companion pet.
What have you done for only cats who are home alone to help ease them while you're gone for the day?
I will add to this by saying that I do work full time - as I commute by bus, I am usually gone from around 7:30 am - 5:30 pm, Monday through Friday. I live in a modest, not-too-small not-too-big 650 square foot apartment with two windows to look out (one big on in the living room and one in the bedroom), though sadly no balcony. I also am a full-time student, although that's not as much of a huge deal as I do indeed do my schooling online, so I am home for that.
So. I really need your help calming my very lovely cat that is driving me bananas and just won't leave me alone. I want to add that I have a play routine with her - she gets three twenty minute play sessions a day, one right before work, right after work, and right before bed. Each session is followed up by a portion of her meal, as I feed her a can of wet food a day, to encourage napping and to try and imitate natural hunting behavior. (It only works some of the time.) So despite her hour of play a day, she still is very loud and needy of me, and it's becoming very hard to be woken up in the middle of the night. I tend not to be able to fall back asleep, and it's hard to work being so sleep deprived.
I want to throw in there that while I would very much love a companion for my cat for when I am gone, at the moment, it's not feasible. Venus was found to have an infection in her bladder that has so far taken two rounds of antibiotics almost one after another to placate. (Hopefully it stays away this time.) This has costed me around $500 and has put me in a bit of a financial rut, which is especially hard as I didn't expect to have to spend so much money on a cat I've only had for two months. The vet scared me the last time I brought her in for a shot saying that if this doesn't work, and her straining to urinate comes back again, she might have stress-induced cystitis. The idea of this scares me, as I cannot afford more money and I am afraid that what is causing her stress is being by herself. (This isn't a diagnosis as she actually did have a bacterial infection in her bladder and urinary tract, but the fact that she said it could be a possibly still scares me nonetheless.)
To bring this back to the beginning, because of the $500 I spent, I can't afford the pet deposit for a second cat at the moment. I also don't want to add another cat into the mix before I can get a bigger variety of "things" (cat trees, litter boxes, toys, scratch posts, etc) that can be scared between two cats, which, again, is inhibited by my cat's vet expenses... So I am mostly wanting to focus on just her for the moment before I can regain my financial footing and think about a companion pet.
What have you done for only cats who are home alone to help ease them while you're gone for the day?
