Kitty wars begin!

[sparkindarkness]

Dear Beloved may have to be throttled for doing something very very very stupid.

He has agreed for us to look after my brother’s cat for a week.

Doesn’t sound onerous? No, we are cat people. We love cats. We always have cats. Cats are amazing.

But Mia is a world away from our happy moggies. Mia is a pedigree Bengal. I don’t know if it is her inbreeding, but she is highly skittish, moody and changeable.

She is also appallingly behaved. She steals, she claws things, she’s careless with her claws when running around, playing or just laid down. She plays at inappropriate times (3:00am, for example), she yowls, she shreds things. She is a pest. None of my cats ever do these things. I think she’s just been overindulged because she is really beautiful (some pictures below, but they REALLY don’t do her justice).

So, either I retrain her in a week, or one of us may be dead... let the kitty wars begin!




The pictures really don't do her justice

Comments

[logophilos.livejournal.com]

Funnily enough I just encountered my first Bengal on the weekend - my god they're astonishingly lovely cats! They're allegedly bred for gentle temperament as well as stunning looks, but what you have seems to be a spoiled cat, and in a strange house too.

She might or might settle down, but a week's not really long enough. Suggest you invest in some Feliway room odoriser (expensive but effective). Should help a little.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Aren't they just? I was completely against them getting a pedigree then I saw her and just gasped "wow!"

She's gentle, not bad tempered or anything - she's just skittish and uses her claws carelessly. Definitely a spoiled cat (she's like that at my brother's house as well)

[jerril]

If you can survive the experience, I suggest clipping her claws aggressively short - obviously don't cut the vein or anything, but don't just take the tippy tips off unless you want to do it EVERY DAY. They'll probably need to be retrimmed two or three days before she's due to be handed back.

If it's not too late, get your brother to clip them for you just before dropping her off at your place.

If she's not good about keeping them in, at least that should keep down the collateral damage...

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Declawing and that ilk is illegal in the UK... not sure how clipping the claws would apply.

I think she just needs training. I think she is getting better, she just needs to know that her claws are there.

I'll put up with a few scrastches and just keep her away from the expensive stuff - difficult but needs must when teh kitty claws

[(Anonymous)]

You could try to go to a pet shop and see if they can get you something called Soft Paws. http://www.softpaws.com/about.html

And as for clipping the cat's nails, as long as you dont cut the veins or something it's no more inhuman than clipping your own nails.

[jerril]

Don't declaw egads no. It's just trimming your cats nails - which incidentally needs to be done for indoor cats who aren't wearing the claws down by climbing trees and catching rats and whatever. Cats can maintain them by using scratching posts and the like, but if this particular cat refuses to use appropriate surfaces, you'll have to do it yourself.

The problem of course with clipping the cats claws is that you always want to do it to a cat with sharp claws, not blunt claws... and the cats usually don't WANT any help taking care of the claws... so you by definition have an angry cat with a full set of sharp claws, vs a human with a set of fingernail clippers or a specialty claw clipper thingy. Not really a fair fight.

I try to catch my cat while she's in kitten mode sucking on someones fingers - she's usually so limp and stupid while that's going on that I can trim all four paws before she notices.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Our kittiers have scratching posts, thankfully

Yes, that sounds like a very unfair fight... eeeee. I need to be able to senmd kitties into torpor!

[seryan.livejournal.com]

You can also blunt the tips of the claws gently by using an emery board. I'm pretty sure it doesn't hurt them, since none of my cats ever objected, and one would even hunt out emery boards so he could file his claws himself.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Bengals are so pretty! I've been told they're intelligent, even for cats. Which really would jive with such behavior. I know what often happens when smart human children get indulged and not punished, after all... They become the worst brats ever, because they know they can get away with it.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

So very very very pretty. She's officially a "marbled" Bengal or something. The bottom 3 pictures are too dark, the top small one is closer to her actual colouring

She seems smart enough, she's learning. I think.

[jeffreycornish.livejournal.com]

In the grim future of Hello Kitty, there is only war

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

LOL, oh classic!

[klgaffney.livejournal.com]

aw, she's beautiful. and apparently, knows it.
and of course, y'know, she'll probably settle down by the END of the week. =)

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Extremely beautiful. The big pictures are too dark but they show her markings. The little picture shows her colour better

|Oh yes, last day she will be an ANGEL

[meridae.livejournal.com]

Eh, she's just a fancy tabby cat ::grins:: Put her food, water, litter box and nice comfy bedding in the bathroom and shut her at night so you get some sleep.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

but she;s a pretty pretty fancy tabby :)

I thought fo doingh that... but all my cats always sleep with me. So I shut her out I get combo yowling and GUILT fighting me

[pinkzhazha.livejournal.com]

what a pretty cat.
just stay calm around her and keep voices low and your bedroom door shut at night. feliway spray on her bedding may be best and remember it is just a week.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Isn';t she just.

At night she wants to sleep next to me. In fact, she';s a cover burrower *sigh*

[being-here.livejournal.com]

You know I have a great deal of respect for you. And you're a lawyer... and as my beloved says on his LJ profile 'Of course as a lawyer there is no possible other link that can be drawn with cats. Cats are cute, furry, have no conscience but do have sharp claws and teeth that they use whilst playing with their prey - see, no comparison at all.'

But...

You think you're going to retrain a cat? Especially a cat that beautiful?

Honey, by the end of the week there'll be a post stating what a playful, vocal, interactive cat she is. How you've discovered the joy of interrupted sleep. How your old cats seem dull in comparison... The whole issue of training with cats only works one way - and it isn't that cat's behaviour that changes ;p

[semiotic-pirate.livejournal.com]

hahahaha. too true. "you... are MY human." *rubs scent and fur all over your stuff, err, my stuff*

To sparky: you could try heavy doses of catnip... maybe it will mellow her out.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

I don't especially like the smell, but it's worth a try *mjst go shopping*

silly but loveable creatures

[semiotic-pirate.livejournal.com]

one of my cats confuses anything smelling of mint with catnip - there is actually a mint called catmint too... for a while I used a wonderful foot cream, I'd lather up my feet real good and then slip a pair of socks on; she would proceed to rub and drool and flop on my feet in ecstatic excitement. my other cat loves the smell, the nasty stinky smell, of valerian; so every night when I take some he rubs all over the opening of the bottle and tries to stuff his nose into the bottle. I'm just afraid of any affects otherwise I'd open a few and sprinkle it on the floor like catnip for him to roll in and eat.

those pictures also remind me of shreck 2, puss in boots with those big eyes. heh. just before he attacks the guards that is.

Re: silly but loveable creatures

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

cats are just so weird

Valerian is a sedative is I recall properly... here Mia, come take your knock out drops

BIIIIG eys - ATTACK!

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Lawyers are cats. It is known :)

I will win that war! *ignores the beautiful eyes staring at him*

oh dear....

[semiotic-pirate.livejournal.com]

lookit the BIG eyes! "I'm gonna mess you up" expression, like she's about to go tearing around the house not bothering to try and not knock things over off of shelves and whatnot. Have you tried wearing her out with a laser pointer?

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

BIIIIIIIIIIIG eyes. You cna see the mischief can't you?

#I try to wear her out. She has infinite energy but less thajn infinite concentration span *sigh*

[semiotic-pirate.livejournal.com]

can it be? a cat with ADHD?

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, maybe I can knock her out with that justification

[amynnah.livejournal.com]

Oh my God... she is beautiful, and I'm a bird person! :D

Just give her access to your WoW account with instructions not to shard your purples... she'll be fine.

You should put her up on WoW Kitties.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

so very very beautiful

Aie, do you know how lonmg it took me to get her to pose for those pictures?!

[stormcat.livejournal.com]

Wow. If I get another cat (not anytime soon) I might have to keep an eye out for a Bengal. Maybe a rescue...

Get a few of the cans of compressed air used for cleaning keyboards and such. I call it "canned hiss" and it works wonders for disciplining bratty cats, better than a squirt gun ever did. They seem to be impressed by people who can out-hiss them and it's pretty much cat-language for "Cut that OUT!" At the very least it'll establish you as a bigger cat who should be listened to and not pissed off on pain of Hiss.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Aren';t they just wonderfully lovely?

I can hiss! No cans needs *hisssssssss*

CAt: *ignores*

[stormcat.livejournal.com]

I can hiss too, but the can has the advantage of ruffling fur at a ten-foot distance. *evil grin*