Revised Post
Wanted: Cat Whisperer to Adopt 8 Year Old Feline
We have a solid black, female, indoor-outdoor cat, and we need to find a new home for her. We have been traveling a lot and will be even more so starting this summer, plus we have allergic roommates, so we need to find a new “forever home” for her.
She’s solid black, short hair and slightly petite. She really prefers a stable, boring household, where her humans are around consistently and ideally have a mostly regular schedule.
She’s nervous around most new humans, especially children, and gets bullied by other cats (I don’t think she speaks their dialect). She doesn’t like sudden movement or loud noises. We call her our PTSD kitty as she can go from seeming ok with things to very stressed out in a short period of time. She is sensitive to touch and gets overstimulated easily.
We’ve been working on her communication skills, and she’s now very good at letting people know she’s uncomfortable with a hiss or grumble/growl, and with her body language, like backing up or hunching down. Yes, she’s almost 8 and yet she’s still learning how to meow in a way that new folks don’t think she’s being grumpy; she never learned how to be a cat, really, so she’s mostly patterning how the humans talk to her and interact with her.
Once she knows she can trust the people around her, she’s actually very sweet and affectionate. Early on, I spent a lot of time just letting her get used to my voice (when she was about 1 year old); now she knows that we’ll respect her boundaries, so she comes over a lot for interaction. She likes to be near her humans, like in a nearby chair or at the foot of the bed. She greets us when we come home, follows us around the house, and even looks to get her head skritched throughout the day. She even likes to be petted head to tail occasionally.
She’s good at leading the humans to what she wants. We joke about her telling us that Timmy is stuck in a well; usually it’s something like her food being low/out or wanting to go outside. If she’s sitting near you, but gets up every time you move, she probably wants something. 🙂
We think her senses aren’t too keen. She seems to miss things visually – she sees movement, but gets things wrong otherwise (mistaking a bag for another cat, things like that). She’s also got teeth that are slowly falling out. She has a food allergy (wheat it looks like) and had bladder stones, so she’s on a hypoallergenic diet that involves small dry pellets and wet food, neither of which seem to bother her teeth and gums.
She spends a lot of her day laying in the sun (morning to mid-afternoon). When the humans come home, she’ll get up to socialize, and go in and out (and in and out…) of the house for the rest of the evening.
Ideal cat for: stable household where she’s the only cat, with kind and patient adults (and possibly teens) who enjoy unusual cats, and are looking not for a lap cat but for a companion.
Original Post
I have a cat.
I didn’t intend to, but around 7 years ago, circumstances came together and she became mine (and then she accepted me as her human too). At the time, I was a single mom with roommates, and home a lot. Over time the kids grew up and moved out. Since then my roommates have helped out by feeding her and giving her attention when I’m out of the house for extended periods of time, like when I’m running and attending conventions, but it’s not the ideal situation for the cat.
I love cats. I grew up with cats; I believe there was one already at home when I came home from the hospital. I’ve raised kittens, watched them have kittens, and helped find homes for those kittens. I’ve been there when our cats have each been fixed, as well as the times when they left us for various reasons (traffic, feline leukemia). I’m pretty familiar with the life cycle of a cat.
Harley and her log. This is hers and she gets to scratch it anytime she likes.
The reason I’m telling you all this is because I want to find a better home for my cat. She’s not a happy friendly type, and that wouldn’t be a problem for me, but she really needs a stable, boring household, where her humans are around consistently, and I can’t provide that for her. That is to say, it’s not her, it’s me.
So if you know anyone who is interested in adopting a unique cat, get in touch and let’s talk.
Let me tell you a little bit about my cat.
She was born around June 2010. She’s a solid black, short hair female, and she is slightly petite. Based on her behavior and what I know of her past, I believe she (and possibly her siblings) was taken early from her mother. She still seems to be learning how to be a cat!
Here’s some of her history: Her original owners and I all moved in together in November 2010, but I was not involved with her rearing. They were not familiar with how to raise a kitten, and were aggressive and controlling to try to modify her behavior (which made her more difficult instead of placid). She remained also unfixed, so when they moved out in the summer of 2011 (and left her behind), she was borderline feral. I called around to shelters, but they knew the reality that she was unadoptable. Eventually I took ownership of her, got her fixed, and started working with her.
What, you were working on this?
Her Personality
We call her our PTSD kitty as she can go from seeming calm to very stressed out in a short period of time. I believe she is sensitive to touch and gets overstimulated easily. She doesn’t like sudden movement or loud noises.
Harley found the one spot on the bed that was different and claimed it.
When I first started working with her, she was all teeth and claws. Billy and I have been working with her to “use her words” and as of the Spring of 2018 she’s very good at letting people know she’s uncomfortable with a hiss or grumble/growl, and with her body language, like backing up or hunching down. She’s still learning how to meow in a way that new folks don’t think she’s being grumpy, but she’s really mostly patterning how the humans talk to her. She responds to gentle interaction, but it has to be consistent.
She definitely likes stability and regular routines. She likes to be near her humans, like in a nearby chair or at the foot of the bed, but not touching. (Exception: sometimes overnight or in the morning, she’ll lay against my feet or legs, but rarely close enough to be touched by hands.)
Shh, don’t say anything or she’ll notice the human next to her!
I’ve also started calling her an “aggressive defender”. She won’t take the initiative in an encounter*, with another cat for instance, but will immediately go on an obvious and vocal defensive. This encourages other cats to take it that she wants a fight, but she really is asking them to back off. Her personal bubble is very big when she’s scared, and she’s easily scared.
*She does like to hunt mice and small rabbits.
She likes to sit on high places. She also likes caves, but only when there are multiple exits (at least in her mind). She does have an affection for boxes on their side (sometimes she’s almost like a normal cat). She also likes lying in the sun, and will even show her belly if she’s feeling secure (but don’t touch it – that’s a trap).
Harley being cute in the sun. Don’t touch that belly; it’s a trap!
She’s also good at leading the humans to what she wants. We joke about her telling us that Timmy is stuck in a well; usually it’s something like her food being low/out or wanting to go outside. If she’s sitting near you, but gets up every time you move, she probably wants something. 🙂
Her health.
We think her senses aren’t too keen. She seems to miss things visually – she sees movement, but gets things wrong otherwise (mistaking a bag for another cat, things like that). She’s also got teeth that are slowly falling out, and the vet wanted to take some of them out. Instead we’re going with the reality that she’s an indoor outdoor cat and unlikely to have a long life, so we’ll give her the best we can until then. The vet also figured out that she has a food allergy (wheat it looks like) and had bladder stones, so she’s on a special diet that involves small dry pellets and wet food, neither of which seem to bother her teeth and gums.
She also will sometimes go to jump up somewhere and really miss it, mainly just sliding down the front of whatever it was.
She spends a lot of her day laying in the sun (morning to mid-afternoon). She’ll go most of the day not eating, which worries me a little; I’m trying to get her to eat more by putting fresh wet food in front of her where she is rather than at her food place, and that seems to be encouraging her to eat more. She gets nervous eating if there’s activity nearby.
You thought these were your socks, but the cat has different ownership ideas.
Conclusion
She’s actually quite affectionate in her own way, being near her people, greeting them when they come home, following them around the house, and even looking to be picked up by Billy and get her head skritched by me when we first come home. (Billy has worked on a lot of positive reinforcement regarding being picked up.)
She’s a sweetie – in her own way – and we hope to find her a new home soon so she can start to settle in. If you know a “cat whisperer” who is looking to be a one-cat household, please let me know. Thank you!