gosh I did not know your devil cat had done any of that stuff....sorry but that is not a reason to give up on pets....unless you have some other pets to take care of....pets are great for our mental health unless they have issues like yours did....hugs bill

Animals get scared and have. behavioral and adjustment issues just like people do. Maybe he was locked in a cold, dark.place alone by a previous owner and that is why he was worse at night. Sometimes leaving a light on or a night light can help calm them some. It takes time, patience and reassuring for animals to realize we aren't going to do what others have done.

Taking care of a pet can be very demanding and when you work sometimes there just isn't enough of you to go around.

I had to give a cat away once, but I could not and wouldn't bring it to a shelter. I was lucky enough that my best friend was a cat lover. I knew he was going to a great home. My friend and the cat became inseparable. Thank gods that arrangement worked out.

Nope, I did it all by the "make the kitty the most comfy" hand book. And I got her when he was only 3 mo old, and she'd been at the shelter since she was 1 mo old, so no being beaten, or left in scary places.

Never left her in the dark, lights were on, soft music played all night, my bedroom door always open, she could come get on the bed if she wanted.

Every night she snuggled on the couch with me while we watched TV.

She acted perfectly normal for the first 4 weeks, and then turned into a completely different cat. Nothing changed...nothing here ever changes, by choice.

I put a lot of work into this cat and a lot of money.

I know cats, I've had cats all my life, just the last 2 years was the first time I didn't have a cat. There was something WRONG with this cat.

So I wasn't the big bad meany who took the poor lil kitty back to the shelter. I wasn't going to keep letting her destroy my home...it wasn't real fun waking up to cat crap smeared intentionally all over my belongings first thing in the morning....

And yes bill, that was enough to make me swear off pets and go back to plants...plants don't crap on my stuff on purpose!

My cat Cleo used to have a lot of behavioral problems. She used to bite, scratch, and tear people up. My mother almost got rid of her once, but I prevented that from happening. I have even bin bitten by her before she finally calmed down in her golden years. We had to have her de-clawed which I know is cruel, but it helped. This cat was so bad that we had a hard time finding vets to treat her. We finally found a vet that would treat her by giving us muscle relaxers to feed her before her appointments. It really does take a lot of time and effort to care for an animal unless you just let them run wild and don't care about them. I spent the last three years here caring for my cat day night. I was feeding her every 2 hours as she ate little bites of food at a time, giving her medication every 12 hours, and tending to her all of the time. If I was not here, she would have probably declined even faster.

Your little kitty probably needed some Prozac. My cat was likely partially wild, or abused before we found her alone in a field. She used to tear the shit out of the house. She never liked strangers. Up until the last six months of her life she would hiss, howl, and hide under the bed whenever a stranger would come into the house. She actually sat in her chair and wasn't even bothered at all when the MMJ delivery guy came into the house last month. She just kept on sleeping. In the past she would have ran and hid under the bed for a few hours. I never gave up on this cat, but it was difficult to care for her. She was never a lap cat or a people cat until my other cat Cali was put down n 2008. Any how, I hope they find that cat another home.

OldCPer, I apologize if I sounded like you did something wrong. That was not my intent.

@Jeremy: She had to go to the Vet twice in the 8 weeks I had her. We discussed de-clawing, but it's barbaric and I'd never do that to a cat. I'd also never put a cat on psych meds, I don't believe in that. It's an animal, a pet, not a human or a baby...

I was using water spritz bottle training per the Vet's instructions and she did fine with that during the day and evening, she learned pretty quick actually....she just went batshit crazy every night! lol I'm only gone for about 4 hours a day, Mon. - Thurs., so she really was taken exceptional care of and barely out of my sight.

@itsjustme: sorry I was snappy, I really did want it to work out, and I did everything I could to be able to keep her. I have an Immune System disorder and MRSA, I couldn't have cat feces in random places, it was unsafe for me to be cleaning it up, or missing it and coming in to contact with it. She used her litter box for normal potty time, but would literally "slime" things with poo like she was marking her territory...

It just didn't work out, such is life.

One of the cats I have now, he's 16 years old. We got him when he was 3, from Canada. Beautiful all white cat. He was actually found outside living in my cousin's tomato garden. Loves the outside. Well, we didn't want an outside cat, so we could put him on a leash and walk him outside. He went from a Dr. Jeckle to Mr. Hide. His eyes went wild, he didn't recognize us, and I can't count how many times we had to go to the ER for being bitten and torn up while we were with him outside.

We had to stop bringing him outside. I will say this. If he acted like that inside, and was destructive like that inside, just bringing him to a shelter would not have been an option. I think we would have had to put him down.

@OldCPer, Only you know what that cat was like. You made the best decision for you. I wasn't trying to make you feel bad, and no one else should either. I'm just sorry it didn't work out the way you wanted it to.

well atleast you can say that you didn't kill the little devil :)

so going to grow some good old fashioned Pot Plants? LOL ducking and running....LOL hehehe

@YvetteK: Thank you, that was nice and I appreciate it. Sorry you had a weird cat, but glad he's lasted so long with you.

@Anette: Yep, I was very proud of myself for bringing him back to the shelter alive...lol...by the last weekend I wasn't sure which one of us was going to do the other in.

@billw: I'm too old for that stuff..never messed with it before and sure ain't gonna start at near 50!!