Hi everyone,
I have a 2 year old, neutered and microchipped tabby domestic shorthair cat, who I got from an animal shelter one year ago. He is an indoor cat and I am a person who lives in a two bedroom flat with a lot of living room and dining room space.
When I first adopted the cat, I was informed that the cat was abandoned by the previous owner due to allergies. It was also mentioned in the description that he nibbles sometimes. I did not see that as a massive warning sign, as I understand that cats do play nibbles especially when they are young. He is also very energetic and playful, and I have bought him a lot of interactive toys to play with while I'm not at home, and have play sessions with him when I am in the flat with him.
After he arrived at my flat, he took about 2 weeks to settle into the new home and I provided a dedicated room for him as his own room, with his food, bed, toys and everything else he needs in there. He also has his own massive sofa to sleep on when he wants. After 2 weeks, he became used to the environment and started to come out into the living room area. He then started aggressively staring at me, then charging and targeting my calf, ankles and face, just wherever he can get his teeth onto, bite really hard to the point that it draws blood, completely unprovoked. I could be there typing away on my laptop, or walking pass, or sleeping in my own bed, and he would suddenly jump up and bite me e.g. at my chin. I eventually started being able to either dodge it or tell him off and just pretty much lived with it. Others who have visited me at my flat have also been attacked by my cat and pretty much leaving with bite wounds. My friends would joke about my cat being bitey a lot.
Things became worse when my girlfriend moved in. My girlfriend likes cats and has two cats of her own, so I presumed that my cat and her would get along. When she first started visiting, my cat would be friendly to her and sit on her lap, asking for cuddles, so my girlfriend relaxed. Then my cat would again charge at her and bite her really hard in her face (multiple times, leaving her with scars), calf, hands and her ankles. My girlfriend finds it quite upsetting especially because those kinds of behaviour came out of literally nowhere. She was really upset after once when she was sleeping in bed due to being unwell, then suddenly woke up in pain as the cat suddenly charged at her, held her face and bit really hard on her cheek, creating two wounds like she has been hole punched in the face. She was in pain, bleeding and asking that I do something about this situation. Despite this, my girlfriend has still been really loving towards my cat and gives him tonnes of cuddles when he asks for it, just with more caution.
I have had other cats before and have never encountered one like my current cat. I find it really confusing how he demands all the love and cuddles from both me and my partner all the time, would sleep on our chests when we are relaxing in bed, yet he would suddenly grab our faces and bite us to the point that we would scream in pain and bleed a lot. This behaviour has never really changed, has been there since the start, and has not improved with everything that we have tried (e.g. feliway plug in infusers, all the cat behaviour training advice from online and other cat owners, health check with vet was completely normal, cat has been neutered, punishing the cat by ignoring it rather than being physical or pulling away).
I find it really upsetting seeing my cat attacking myself and my partner as we both love him and it seems like he loves us too. But these bites are not just nibbles, but are really deep 'hole punches'. My girlfriend is usually allergic to cat proteins in their skin flakes, but would put up with it due to really loving cats. However, when she is bitten, her wounds really swell up and it really pains me to see more and more scars everywhere on herself and on me as well, as we say that we would give him more time to improve and for us to try different things (as listed above, in order to try to expend his energy + make him less aggressive).
We feel really sad about rehoming this cat because he has become a really important part of our lives. However, it is almost distressing living with him and fearing that we would be really randomly attacked and injured in different places without provoking the cat at all. We have managed to find this cat a new home, with an owner who has another cat who has recently lost a cat friend, who really resembles our cat's appearance. This lady is an experienced cat owner who works from home and could provide him with more company, especially with the other cat. She will be coming with her partner to pick our cat up tonight.
I honestly feel terrible about this decision but I do feel that I have exhausted any options that I can possibly think of. Our vet really cannot work out why he is demonstrating such behaviour and it does seem that even before we got him, his previous owner had similar experience and the fact that he stated 'nibble' on his description seems to me is an under statement. I feel that he might have a better quality of life and a better chance to maybe correct his behaviour with the company of another cat in the new owners home. I honestly feel really perplexed and really don't want to let him go. But my partner and I are getting really scared of him randomly charging and biting us to bleed.
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/jzhd68/decision_to_rehome_my_cat/
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