Cat owners - especially if you have really annoying, bratty, needy cats...

Anyone have a really needy, annoying cat?

My cat cannot stand when he doesn't get attention, and he pees on things when he is annoyed with us. Right now he is walking around the house and driving me insane with his incessant meowing.

But, I am really worried about how he willl be when the baby comes. I am afraid he is going to pee on the baby's stuff. I also feel that everytime we wake up for the baby, he thinks he is going to be fed. He is abig fat spoiled cat, and wants to be fed all the time.

We were keeping the litter box in the basement until we realized he was peeing on our boxes and in our laundry basket - which really, really
P!SSED me off (no pun intended...) we moved the litter to the bathroom downstairs so we can keep the basement door closed...

but what am I going to do about the baby's stuff? I am going to have to strategically place it in areas he can't get to - and thats going to be a real pain in the as$ with everything else we will have to do...

anyone else have this problem? I have had my cat for over 11 years, and he has always been a real cranky little brat, but I swear I'm afraid I am going to throw him out the window if he pees on anything else, or doesn't shut the hell up with all of his meowing....

Re: Cat owners - especially if you have really annoying, bratty, needy cats...

plus, DH told me now that Stormy is getting the boot if he does one thing wrong after the baby is born... Yes the cat annoys me and p!sses me off - but I love him too....

Where are all the cat mommies????

Re: Cat owners - especially if you have really annoying, bratty, needy cats...

I have a mean old cranky cat too....but he is anti-social, so I'm not too worried about him with the baby.
The other cat we have is younger and super-sweet....and also very curious. I'm worried that she'll be in the baby's face. That would be a problem because she's skittish and tends to jump easily, which sometimes leads to scratching.

DH says all the time that we have to get rid of the cats when the baby comes....but I'd rather lock them in the basement and let them out only when the baby is sleeping with the door closed.

Re: Cat owners - especially if you have really annoying, bratty, needy cats...

Could it also be the move and the change in his surroundings?

Late summer of 05 we sold DH's first house, moved in with IL's for 4 months while we renovated our current house and then moved in.

Well, DH's cat started to freak when we were reorganizing house #1 and moving things out just to get it ready to show. She started marking a bit. We sprayed some natural sprays we got at the pet store but nothing worked. We were at our wits end because all we needed was a potential buyer to smell cat pee so we brought her to the vet as we knew life was not going to change for several months.

Some might want to flame me for this but the sale of an over 400K dollar house was at stake so the vet prescribed Prozac. He says when all else fails some pets just are overly nervous and they need it. We kept her on it all throughout the showing, the move to the IL's and then to our new home and gradually weaned her off. She's fine now.

Can you contact our vet and see what they say? The one on Larkfield by Walgreens is very good.

Re: Cat owners - especially if you have really annoying, bratty, needy cats...

The thing is - I have had my cat for over 11 years, and I have moved sooo many times, that he knows the deal, but I'm sure it throws him off...

I cant imagine getting a pill in him - its so difficult - he is quite the fighter....

I love him so much, but he is defintiely my problem child. I've had him since I was a 21 year old party-kid, and never disciplined him, and then moved around all over the place, so he has had an unstable kittenhood... I feel so guilty because his behavior problems are probably all my fault (and the ironic thing is - I'm a behaviorist - thats my job... go figure! )

Maybe I'll talk to my vet and see what she has to say....

Re: Cat owners - especially if you have really annoying, bratty, needy cats...

Re: Cat owners - especially if you have really annoying, bratty, needy cats...

One thing I found with my emotionally needy cats is that once I came home with the baby...they would rather DIE and eat DOG FOOD than to go near to a rea live human baby. Even now, the kid is mobile and like a real live human person....they still run away from him, but I was really pleasantly surprised at how they reacted.

But still, if something happened and they got out of line with my boy...they would be out the door living in the garage!!!

Re: Cat owners - especially if you have really annoying, bratty, needy cats...

Re: Cat owners - especially if you have really annoying, bratty, needy cats...

I'm a cat mommy and I'm hoping we will just figure it out, lock him out of the baby's room and hope that he wants nothing to do with the baby! Hes not really needy, but super affectionate so I could see him crawling up on the baby just to lay with him/her.

I love the cat to death and so does DH, but the baby will come first if we have any huge problems.

Re: Cat owners - especially if you have really annoying, bratty, needy cats...

We are also concerned about our cat. Right now we live in a one bedroom apt and is always up in our grill. As much as we love him he can be the biggest jerk at times. He makes so much noise in the middle of the night...knocking things down and meowing. He also likes to sleep on us, which worries me a lot.

We really do not know what we are going to do yet. We were thinking of putting him in the bathroom overnight with food, water and liter of course) to prevent him from waking up the baby. But i feel bad doing that but we might not have any other option

Re: Cat owners - especially if you have really annoying, bratty, needy cats...

My cat is VERY needy - she's been a spoiled only "Child" for almost 2 years now, and we've had her since she was a few months old...

She HAS to be near us all the time, and she has to explore EVERYTHING...she loves to sleep in tight spaces.

She's also very cranky with people other than my DH and I and my parents (they've babysat a few times).

I'm mostly worried that she won't stay out of the crib and the babies things. But I am just going to have to keep the door shut, and if the baby is sleeping, the monitor on me at all times....I haven't figured out what we're going to do while the baby is in the bassinette, as the cat has to sleep in our room as well...but we'll all figure it out I'm sure.

Re: Cat owners - especially if you have really annoying, bratty, needy cats...

Can you try to separate the baby stuff (like a closed hamper) that the cat cannot get into. Or leave it in the nursery until you are ready to do the wash.