Hi everyone. I'm really hoping that y'all can help me because I am absolutely at wit's end.
Background info: I adopted my cat from my county shelter. According to them, she's kind of had a rough life where she and her sister were strays, then picked up by the shelter for TNR, adopted out as a pair, surrendered as a pair, then they were adopted out as a pair again, and then only my cat was returned to the shelter due to litter box issues. Turns out there were crystals in her urine, and so they fixed her up, she's on prescription food forever, and I came along and adopted her. I've had her for 2 years now.
Things were fine the first 18 months, there were no problems with her at all! But things started to go south when she had to go on a diet due to her weight. One night, as my boyfriend and I got settled in bed, she hopped onto the bed and just peed on it pretty unceremoniously. I still have very little understanding why, because nothing had changed much during the day - our routine was normal, she was acting normal, and everything was gravy.
I thought it was just a weird one time thing and then everything went back to normal until she did it again the next month. After that she started doing it every two weeks until, maybe a month ago, it started happening every week and I made the executive decision that she wasn't allowed in our bedroom at night anymore. She has absolutely never peed on our bed or anywhere in our bedroom during the day - JUST when we've settled in and are about to fall asleep. This is still true. We now leave the door open for her during the day, but once bedtime rolls around, we keep her out.
On top of that, ever since COVID-19 and quarantine started, I've had to work remotely. Normally I would work from my desk, but for the past two months of working remotely anytime I sit at my desk in my desk chair, she comes over and sits and stares at me, and then at some point she will, without fail, bite my feet or ankle. I Googled and most articles said that she needs more playtime. The thing is, I actively try to play with her everyday using the giant bunch of toys I have for her but she either is completely uninterested or when she's intrigued, she only plays for maybe a minute before walking away, like she's given up trying to get the feather or whatever it is I'm dangling in front of her. Regardless, trying to coax her to play has not worked and she still bites at my feet whenever I'm sitting at my desk.
So I thought okay, I have a laptop and although I'm not supposed to, I'll just work from the couch. This generally has been working recently because she'll usually lay on the floor and sleep, but the past couple of weeks she's been coming on to the couch circling around my legs, and then biting them even though they're stationery. She's also peed outside of the litter box three days in a row leading up to today, and the final straw for me today was when I was sitting up on the couch doing work, and she came up and pawed at me for attention. I know she likes head scratches so I reached out to give her one but the moment my fingers touched her head, she bit my wrist full on, drawing blood and leaving two long, angry red scratches on my wrist. And then she pooped out of her litter box for good measure.
I feel like I've googled every variation I could for what I'm experiencing but all the advice is the same. I've tried to introduce new toys, long dangly things and springs and catnip and toys that make bird sounds, all to absolutely no avail. I routinely scoop her litter box every morning and night and I only have one cat so I highly doubt it's a messy litter box issue. And the reason I mentioned the diet is because this really all happened when she was put on a diet, and she's very much food motivated. I thought the desk thing was happening because her feeding area used to be right next to my desk, but we moved it thinking that she was bothering me because I'm closest to where her food is, but that obviously isn't the case. Her behavior and aggression almost always pops up around her mealtimes, save for the random peeing.
I'm just really trying to get a gauge of what the heck is happening because I'm seriously at a loss. My job performance is suffering because I can't concentrate on my work because I am constantly tip-toeing around my cat. I've actually been breaking work protocol by having work on my laptop because the computer they gave me specifically is at my desk and I'm supposed to be always logged on to our VPN but I cannot get through even a 30 minute meeting without my cat coming to bother and bite me. The wrist bite from today seriously makes me want to give up but I also don't want to give up, but I'm running out of ideas and options.
As an aside, I won't be able to take her to the vet as soon as I would like as my vet just opened back up and they're booked through August already, although I managed to get an appointment on the 6th. And I purchased a Feliway diffuser, I'm just waiting for it to be delivered and I'm hoping it works. These are the only things I've read that I haven't tried yet. But any insights at all would be most welcome, and any questions y'all have I'm more than happy to answer. Thanks in advance.
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/hfevdh/cat_wont_stop_biting_me_among_other_things/
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