Adoptable? – or not? – part 2: the behaviour problems

Behaviour-problem cats are usually the chronic pee-ers, and the biters. In both cases, we don’t always know whether the behaviour is the result of some sort of stress in the original home or the sanctuary environment, or whether it’s a well-established habit.  The No 5 Road Shelter has passed on to us several cats who have been surrendered for peeing, and who have subsequently been adopted as an only-cat, with no sign of the behaviour problem in question – sometimes all it takes is guaranteeing the cat a status as the one-and-only in a home.

Sometimes the elimination problem has a clear origin – declawed cats are frequent culprits. Thank goodness, declawing is increasingly something that vets are unwilling to do – it can be a traumatic and pain-filled experience for a cat. Even after the paws are “healed”, the cat often suffers discomfort in the litter-box, and proceeds to eliminate on a softer surface. And the owner, who has declawed the cat to protect the furniture, then surrenders the cat – also to protect the furniture.

Deety - DW

Deety is one of our declawed cats. We’ve not got him as a problem eliminator, though; he has his own corner, from which he rarely moves, and his own litterbox. Instead, he is a problem biter. His very strong declawed paws are expert in catching on to his victim and pulling them in for a good chomp – and there’s nothing wrong with his teeth!

Puffin - MW

I don’t know whether Puffin was actually surrendered for biting, but while in a cage at the No 5 Road shelter, he bit a visitor who brought their face too close to his space. Puffin is another loner in the front courtyard, but doesn’t actively seek human attention. He’s so beautiful, though, that we have to warn visitors to limit their petting, and to act with caution. Another cat we all step warily around is Baby (he’s safely locked away when we have visitors). Most of the time he’s quite shy, and wary around other cats – but there’s some little switch in his brain which occasionally drives him to bite – and when Baby bites, he bites HARD!

Baby - MW

With some cats the elimination problem is a physiological one – and the Manx cats are prime examples of this. In extreme Manx syndrome, the shortness of the tail is linked to lack of control over sphincter muscles – and consequently cats like Sweet Pea have no sense of when they’re “going”. We just mop up after her, wherever she wanders. Sweet Pea adores being cuddled on someone’s lap, but you need a thick towel to protect yourself!  She’s not an adoptable prospect – and in a kill shelter she’d last no time at all – but this truly is sanctuary for her.

Sweet Pea - MW

There are an enormous number of litter-boxes in the Sanctuary, with various materials including clumping litter, sawdust and woodchips – and there are still cats that choose to do their business right in the middle of the courtyard, or against a closet door.  With some of them it is habit – they just don’t want to take the time to find a box.  With others, it’s a way of dealing with the plethora of cat-smells in the place – it’s part of territorial marking. Very often these problem cats struggle at the Sanctuary because of the presence of other cats – see The Garbo Cats – who knows if they might be adoptable candidates for someone who’s prepared to be patient, and willing to guarantee no further cats?  Other cats are part of the standard warning to visitors – “don’t put anything down; it’ll get peed on!”

Jake - PH

And this is the King of Pee – the cuddliest cat in the front courtyard. He’s happy, he’s sociable, he’s in good health – he’s just got that annoying little habit of anointing everything!
But we love you anyway, Jake!

Blogger: Brigid Coult

Photos by Phaedra Hardman, Debbie Wolanski & Michele Wright

Five from Five Road: 3 - Sparkie

This is the third  in a series of stories about five cats who were recently transferred to the Cat Sanctuary from the Richmond City Shelter because they were considered unadoptable.   (See Lucky and Chester)

In Sparkie’s case, it was because he pees outside the litter box.  In his defence, it’s likely the stress of unhappy changes in his life that brought on this bad habit, since it seems all was as it should be in his previous home.  Sparkie had lived for  all of his eleven  years in a happy home but, sadly and unavoidably, everything changed this past year.  His owner had to move to a care home and leave her beloved Sparkie behind.  The family  tried to find him a new home, but without success. Eventually, they had no other option but to surrender him.  Fortunately for Sparkie, the surrender was to RAPS – not every shelter is willing or able to take in an older cat.  Sparkie started out at the City Shelter but, when his less-than-desirable litter box habits were discovered, he was deemed unadoptable and transferred to the Cat Sanctuary.

 
It was immediately apparent at the Sanctuary that Sparkie was a sweet and gentle cat, although he was, of course, more than a little overwhelmed at first.  He would burrow under the bedding in his cage to sleep, as if hoping that this new scary stuff  would all go away and he’d be back in his former happy home when he woke up.   Fortunately, he quickly learned that, despite having to share his surroundings with lots of other cats, being at the Sanctuary wasn’t all that bad.  There’s lots of loving from lots of people and he gets to go outside now – pretty exciting for a cat that was formerly strictly an indoor guy!   He seems quite content and no longer hides under bedding. However, he  does have a rather strange relationship with warm and fuzzy blankets!  Brigid calls him “a dedicated kneader “ of anything soft.  She says that, when he gets going, he really puts his back into it and even talks while he’s doing it.  Although it’s pretty funny to see, she doesn’t think it’s suitable for family viewing.   Hmmmm - did he always exhibit this quirky behaviour or did he learn it from Deety, the master of the art of X-rated blanket kneading? 

Whatever strange behaviour he may exhibit with fuzzy blankets, Sparkie is a little gem and very much loved again!

Blog by Marianne Moore
Pictures by Marianne Moore and Michele Wright

Deety's constitutional

Anyone who's visited the doublewide at the cat sanctuary will have come across Deety -- he can always be found on his shelf in the laundry room.

Once in a very rare while Deety will come down to the floor (lured down by a laser pointer, perhaps), but he soon becomes agitated and needs to be helped back up to his shelf.

He doesn't like to be picked up, so the help involves moving this set up steps over to his shelf so he can climb up on his own. This he's quite happy to do, and he knows the routine so well that he doesn't even wait for the steps to be set down on the floor properly before he's scooting up them to the safety of his tiny kingdom.

More than a few of us who've witnessed Deety's regular refusal to move from his place (and his seeming inability to jump back up to it on his own in the event he does come down) have wondered how it is that his muscles don't atrophy to the point that he couldn't leave his perch if he wanted to.

It turns out that med staff member Catherine regularly takes Deety for some exercise. She brings him all the way to the end of the path by the sanctuary's back fence, has him come back to the doublewide on his own steam, then repeats the process. She stays close by him throughout the walk to make sure other cats don't bother him. Carol tells me Deety was declawed on all four paws at a young age, so it's no wonder he's not so comfortable around other cats. Fortunately, he's got RAPS staff to keep him safe... and to make sure he gets at least a little exercise to keep him healthy.

Update: Deety

There's not much new to report about Deety since I posted about him back in November of 2009. Oddly, that very fact is what inspired me to write about him again. Some cats make themselves memorable by the way they've developed and changed over time, while others can be just as memorable for the extent to which they remain exactly the same.

Deety still lives comfortably in his little one-shelf kingdom, where he alternately snoozes, stares at passers-by with his big round eyes, and is occasionally makes love to his fleecy gingerbread-man toy.

He's also as undecided as ever whether he wants to be stroked by his human minders or simply bite us. Since came to us declawed, though, it's hard to get too mad at him for compensating by using a surprisingly strong grip with those clawless paws to pull an unwary hand or arm within range of his fully functional fangs.

I asked once whether he ever comes down from that counter of his and was told that he does occasionally jump down, but very soon wants back up again. This would be simple enough except that he won't allow anyone to lift him up and either can't or just won't jump back up by himself. The solution has been to push a low set of carpeted steps that some of the cats like to sit on in front of the cupboard below his perch and wait for him to ascend.

As much as character as ever. And long may he continue!

Deety

Some cats are roamers who like to expand their area of operation into the largest perimeter they can patrol. Others are content with a smaller space just so long as it is completely, utterly, and quite uncontestably theirs.

This is Deety's space:

And he's more than content with it.

So rarely does he move from this shelf that Vincent has given him the nickname of "Furniture Cat." There's even a sign posted on the wall above him to prevent well-meaning volunteers from moving his bed elsewhere. Conventional cat care wisdom says that cats would rather not have their bed, food and litter box in such close proximity, but Deety likes his little home just the way it is.

He also likes his soft toy, a white fleece gingerbread man of the type one often sees in the dog toy section of pet supply stores. Correction, loves his toy. Sometimes he loves it with an intensity and vigor that may make visitors with small children wish to cover questioning eyes...

As Barbara writes on her Flickr page where she features many RAPS cats, "Deety is a funny little boy... and a character to be sure." That he is.