Help with a very high energy cat?

I am near the end of my rope with how to deal with my tiny squirrely cat. Would love any advice from others who have navigated similar situations!

I adopted him about 2 years ago when he was a year old along with his best friend from the shelter. The shelter told me that someone else had tried to adopt him before but it didn't work out because he was too lonely without his best friend and yowled all day (they are very very pair bonded, I wouldn't separate them).

He is the neediest, most high energy cat I have ever met in my life. In his dream world he'd have a house full of kids to play with all day every day, but I work and live alone.

I put him on Prozac about a year ago and that's definitely helped, but he's still just a ball of energy. He walks around meowing LOUDLY constantly, especially at the front door of the apartment. He wants to play fetch for hours on end. He sometimes wakes me up multiple times at night (and I've tried ignoring him, but he'll bite my face and if I lock him out of the bedroom he'll scream, and I don't want my neighbors to complain).

As far as we can tell there's nothing medically wrong with him. He's so sweet and loves me so much, but he's just a ball of energy so much of the time and I don't even know what else to do with him at this point. And some idiot declawed him (which I know anecdotally can make cats big weirdos), so there's not even the eventual hope of him getting to be an outdoor cat if I had a yard.

I have tried calming treats (no effect), CBD oil, he has a cat tree, a wheel to run on (I know, it's ridiculous) and I try to play with him a lot-- but he's still kind of a mess. I have TONS of toys for him, including an automatic laser toy and one of those feather dusters that moves randomly under a tarp. I am paying a LOT of money next month to have an animal behaviorist come to my house and see if she can help.

I want to try everything possible before I consider rehoming him or return him to the shelter because now he'll be branded as even more special needs, I won't separate them and his friend is FIV+ so we're just a whole pile of issues over here.

I would love any advice from those who have been in similar situations!

submitted by /u/whoismcdrizzle
[link] [comments]

from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/ag9exm/help_with_a_very_high_energy_cat/