A little back story, my boyfriend and I have 4 animals together. 2 dogs and 2 cats (male and female). Both cats were previously his but I've lived with them for most of their life. The female cat is maybe 5 and her son is 4.
I absolutely adore our dogs, they aren't perfect but I have a really hard time with our cats. Especially lately now that my boyfriend is working long shifts and going back to school, leaving all the housework and pet clean up to me.. Very rarely are the cats not getting into things or breaking things. I've made sure to have a mass amount of toys on hand, we have scratching boards, little balls and mice, and little trees with bells on them... initially I just thought they were bored, now it's like they LOVE to mess with me.. I know that can't be true but I'm at a loss.
I've switched to plastic cups because they like to spend their time in the sink standing on the dishes, causing glasses/dishes/bowls to break. (I do dishes every day, sometimes twice a day so it's not like there's heaps of food in the sink tempting them.. I catch them chilling in the sink with zero dishes.) Wax has been splashed all over the walls of our new home from them knocking over wax warmers from constantly being on kitchen counters then scurrying off when we come into the room. I've bought beds and tried to lay out blankets on the couches to make comfortable spots for them but they want nothing to do with it. They'd rather lay wrapped up in wax warmer cords or my apple bowl on the kitchen table, full of apples.
Window screens have been ripped out, they are being held together by tape at this point. I've had to screw in child locks to my food cabinet doors and the trashcan cabinet door. (2 more cabinets need to be done now that the female has decided those cabinets are hers to be in, chewing on all the food boxes.) There have been multiple occasions I've come out in the morning to trash all over the kitchen or bread pulled out of the cabinet, shredded everywhere.
The male has some kind of issue where he can't digest sodium properly, so he's on a special food.. this also causes him to have crystals in his urinary tract that can be sometimes painful... he attributes the pain to the litter, causing him to urinate right outside the litterbox or around the litterbox. Then when that still hurts, next round he will use the litterbox like normal. Therefore every day I'm cleaning up urine off the floor. I've thrown out countless rugs from urine, lost another today. I've had to block off the carpeted areas of our home with a pet gate so he can't access the carpet. He has urinated in my carpeted closet 3 times and that smell will not come out. He has had a surgery to correct this and it failed.. it was never a "100% this is going to help" anyway but we spent thousands of dollars and gave it a shot. He also has anxiety, which we have medication for. But we basically have to hold him down and shove the pill down his throat... causing anxiety, flailing, and scratching so what's the point of that? He hides for hours afterwards.
Back to the gate, it keeps the male out but the female hurls herself over it scratching up the walls each time. This also causes the dogs to pretty much always be on edge hearing the gate move.
I feel like I just lose no matter what. Things just seem to be getting worse between everything I deal with on the daily, and I mean daily, with the cats.. the training and random accidents with our puppy, life. I'm honestly not sure where to turn or what to do anymore.. I feel like a bad pet parent, constantly frustrated, upset, and not really wanting to give them much love because every time I turn around something is broken, needs cleaned up, or is urinated on.. maybe I am the issue here and all this isn't that bad? Or worse, I'm causing it somehow?? Any advice is greatly appreciated, thank you in advance!
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/gqopou/help_struggling_with_my_2_cats_not_sure_where/
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