| Current mood: |  drained |
Cat Woes.
So last night was pretty traumatizing.
Patches was in full, eyes dilated, back arched, crazy cat hissing/screaming/attacking mode last night for 5 hours, from 9 til I went to bed at 2AM.
He was sleeping in the shower-bathroom (which is right outside my door) when I got out of the bathtub-bathroom (which is in my parents' room.) I walked into my room to put my dirty clothes out, and when I left and looked in the bathroom I said "Hey Petey pete" all sweetly.. and he just flipped out and starting growling/hissing advancing. I was chased down the hall to the front room.. where I jumped on the sofa and threw a pillow at him. That put made him run back down the hall towards my room, which gave me enough time to run in my mom+dad's other bedroom door, and shut it. (They have one door right across the hall from me, and one that leads into the front room.) The whole time I'm in the room, he's growling and hissing.
I cracked open the hall enterance, and I saw him back arched by my room enterance. I sprayed him like 4,000 times with my mom's hair-water bottle and he finally ran in my room, under the bed.. Still growling. I hurried up and shut my bedroom door, and figured maybe he just needed time to snap out of whatever mood he was in. I left him mostly alone for the next half hour, just standing by the door and calling his name every once in a while... which I was answered with more growling/warning meowing. I figured maybe he wanted wet food, because the last few times he's been like this.. I've given him wet food and although he was still cautious, he wasn't ATTACKING anymore.
So, I pushed some under the door, and he ate some of it.. and when I tried to open the door a few minutes later.. he was still in the same condition. Still full fledged charging the door to try and get to me mode. I was panicked and really shooken up. It scares me/breaks my heart when he's acting like this... and besides that, my phone, work clothes, shoes, were in the bedroom and I needed to get to them for work the next day. I opened the door and grabbed my phone off the desk, barely closing it before he got there, and just started bawling. I rotated between bawling and being severely pissed off for the rest of the night. I had an idea to try to get him in the bathroom.. so I opened a can of tuna and made a trail from the door to the shower (which is a walk in shower) with the plate at the end. I hid in my mom's room and waited, and he eventually went in the bathroom... I hurried up and closed the door with him in it. I'd call his name every now and then, which I got more growling and hissing as a response. It's about 10ish right now.
I kept him in there for about an hour or so, and then I got the idea that maybe he should just go outside for a little while.. I took a chance, and opened the door and he was hidden behind the toilet, not coming when I called but still with eyes dilated and that LOOK in his eyes, ears back. I closed it again, went to the front door and opened it.. then went to the bathroom door, cracked it, and ran into the kitchen... hidden with a pillow in hand so I could make a quick getaway if he came to me. I watched him come out the bathroom, eyes sweeping the area like he was looking for something to attack.. he went outside and I figured "Okay, maybe he's better?" so I grabbed a cigarette to go outside and smoke with him (like we usually do) Nope, whatever is in him that's wrong snaps again.. and he starts charging the door when he sees me coming outside.. so I close the door, and go smoke in the backyard.
It's around 11:30ish now, and I keep poking my head out the window, calling his name.. and i keep getting hiss/growl/meows as a response. I call my dad, leave a message to tell him to be careful coming home (He gets home at 1:30) because Patches has fucking snapped, or something. I poke my head outside around 12, and call his name and don't get a hiss for a reply. I figure that's a good sign.. so I risk walking out all the way.. Down the street, I hear a cat fight going on.. and I figure he was part of it... so I'm shining the flashlight down the street and I see another cat walking away. I'm half tempted to go closer, but I figure I don't want to be in the middle of the street with my psycho attack cat.. so i just go back inside. I poke my head out literally 2 minutes later and he's walking back.. tail still fully puffed, so I figured it was him (Guess he got his ass kicked!) I searched him the best I could with the flashlight, from inside a door, about 5 feet away from him for any signs of blood/anything. Didn't see anything, so I figured he was ok.
So from 12-1:30 when my dad gets home... he's by the front door, not letting me out.. probably wanting to come in.. but I'm not about to risk getting attacked by letting him in and getting chased into some room where he stands guard and I'm trapped in there.. so I left him outside. I kept opening the door and checking, and he was still hissing/growling/reowing whenever I did that.
My dad gets home, and while the cat didn't charge him.. he wasn't backing down either. My dad ended up coming in through the backdoor instead of having the cat attack him and him having to kick his head in self-defense... and when I last checked at 2AMish, he was still snapped. I can't find him outside this morning, so I don't know where he is or what's happened to him.
I varied between "god I wish he'd just die" rage last night to "I wish he'd just get better." bawling. I cannot keep him as a pet like this, regardless of what some of my friends think. It is not a matter of using positive reinforcement or training, or plastic bags/spray bottles to discipline him. He was NOT backing down, and nothing was changing his mind. This is not just an instance of an asshole cat. My cat's always been an asshole, taking a swipe at your legs and running away, or biting you for no reason. I've dealt with him as an asshole.
This is him as a crazed mother fucker. He should not be around ANY human like this. I don't have an extra bedroom with a door I can push cat food in. Or a full out riot suit to change his litter box in. He has to live with me, or moreorless, he has to die. He's not an adoptable cat. It is not acceptable, for even the most craziest of cat ladies, for a cat to be in full feral, rip your throat out, ATTACK mode at the drop of a hat, without provoking. If I had thrown something at him, and he retaliated.. for a half hour.. That'd be acceptable. This is just insane.
Besides, regardless of whether I can deal with him.. no one else in my family can run and jump on a sofa, or run AT ALL. If he is like this towards ANY of them.. They're gonna get hurt, maybe severely. I can't have that on my shoulders. AND my sister-in-law is having a baby in July. I can't risk him being a toddler, opening the door to my room and having my cat full fledged attack him.
If this was a human, attacking other humans with a full RAGE.. He'd be a: shot dead while he was trying to attack people or b: stuck in a full bind body straight jacket, and put in some rubber room. They don't have an equivalent for cats. It's called putting to sleep.
I don't have any other options. If I get him declawed, I can't ever put him outside when he gets like this. If I go to the vet to get anti-anxiety medicine... There's no way I can give it to him. If I leave him as an outside cat, I have to risk getting attacked leaving or entering my own house. What other choice do I have but to get him taken away? I don't see any other logical choices. Besides, isn't it better to have him put to sleep rather than have him get hit by a car, or shot at with b-bs/tortured by some stupid neighborhood kid, or kicked to death by some family who's cat/kids he's attacking? It's like the only way I could keep him is if I had a closet full of tranquilizer darts, and whenever he got like this.. I knocked him out, locked him in a cage until he got better. (and can you see him calming down while locked in a cage?)
and Kit, I know you disagree with me on this. I know you do. If I get him put to sleep, you'll probably never talk to me again, but god I think if you had seen him you'd at least understand a little.
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kristilynnv1) wrote,
