So I have a three year old male cat named Salem. I got him earlier this year since my niece was moving in with me and I think forming a bond with an animal is important for kids and will teach her responsibility too. Salem was the sweetest cat I had ever met. He adores my niece and often sticks beside her on the couch for tv time, in her bed for storybook time before she goes to sleep, or just generally likes to play with her. He showed no aggressive behavior and he was mostly curious about my dog, but didn’t attack her… at first.
Salem has recently been turning into a nightmare. When we first got him, he’d meow all night and walk on top of you while you’d try to sleep (it pissed my fiancé off so much he actually wanted to sleep on the couch to get away from him) but after a week or so he adjusted to his new home. I’ve had some mild behavior issues- mostly he was just ornery but I’ve been told male cats can be that way. Nothing major. Now he’s just aggressive and destructive.
In some ways, he’s still so sweet and loving, but I’m at the point where I can’t take it. He breaks things in the night by knocking off everything on my kitchen cabinets. I had to stop buying pop cans because he would knock them down and stab the cans with his claws and teeth and then push them around the floor, making my kitchen so, so sticky. He’s a smart cat and he’s discovered how to open a lot of things. He opens my dresser drawers and will climb inside and knock things out when I sleep. I have a bathroom attached to my room and the sink and cabinet is outside the bathroom door, and he will just go to the cabinet and open and close it over and over again. Nonstop. I’ll call out his name and he’ll stop for a moment before meowing and continuing again. It’s very loud and impossible to sleep through. If I close him out of my room he just meows and claws on my door. He’s broken all my blinds and has started this habit of just scratching my walls. Not only is he damaging my apartment, but it’s the absolute worst sound, like nails on a chalkboard. He’s not allowed in the bathroom because he will just knock everything down and claw up my shower curtain. Yet, every time I go to use the bathroom, he zooms right in. If I manage to stop him, he will claw my carpet up and meow very loudly at the door. If he gets in, he destroys things. He recently destroyed one of my makeup palettes. I have a bag full of makeup in the main bathroom and he ran in, jumped on the counter and knocked it down. He also likes to knock anything on the counters to the floor and he likes to knock my kitchen trash can over (but only when it’s full). I can’t cook in peace because he will jump onto the counters or even the stove! Idk how, but he must have taught himself how to remove the lids off the pots and pans so I can’t even cover the food up. I realized this last night when I made soup and put the lid over the pan and a couple minutes later saw him on my stove and heard the sound of licking. Damn cat was eating the soup!He’s been destroying my furniture too. He claws my couch up, which I’m replacing my couch so I’m not too upset, but I still discourage it cause I don’t want him doing it to the new one. It makes me mad that he’s now doing it to my bed, which I cannot afford to replace. I tried spraying him with a water bottle. Sometimes he’ll move, but other times (especially if he’s trying to get our food) he’ll just sit there and let himself be sprayed.
My biggest issue though is how jealous he is and how he’s started attacking my dog. I have a chihuahua (Noey F12y/o), and in her former home she was around a cat and just didn’t interact with it. She was the one who seemed jealous of Salem at first, running over whenever I called his name or trying to hog all the attention when they joined me on the couch. At some points, Salem would try to play with her. He’d bat at her or lightly bite. Sometimes she’d ignore him, other times she’d do a low growl and he’d back off. Now, he’s just being mean to her. He chases her around the house and when she hides, he’ll stick his paw under the couch and swat at her, or mess with her when she’s in her kennel, which really makes me mad since that’s her safe space where she goes when she wants to be alone (Salem has a carrier of his own where he goes to relax). It’s gotten to the point where if I pet Noey near Salem, he’ll start swatting at her aggressively and will bite her really hard. I usually will make a loud noise and push him off her but my dog is now living in fear around him. If he comes within a few feet of her she’ll snarl and growl and bark (which is especially frustrating at night) and when she’s sleeping in my bed with me, he’ll run in, jump on her under the blanket or try clawing and kicking at her (he’ll lay on his side, stick his claws in, and kick with his back legs) and when I sit up or say his name, he’ll run off only to come back and do the same thing.
He bites me and scratches me up whenever I push him away from things like the blinds. I’m not aggressive, but I’m not going to let him continue to destroy my apartment, so I’ll slide him off the bed or chair he’s on to be able to reach the blinds. Sometimes he just bites and scratches for no reason. I was laying in bed texting my fiancé about how I have no clue what to do with this cat and Salem wrapped himself around my arm and bit and stuck his claws in me.
I don’t want to give this cat up. He’s been moved from shelter to shelter and my niece really loves him. He’s never intentionally hurt her (Altho she’s been scratched by accident while playing with him- she was waving some of his yarn in front of him for him to bat at and he nicked her hand) and he is really gentle with her. She can just carry him around the house or have him do the kitty dance (she’ll move his two front paws to make him “dance”) and he just sits there. If his aggressive behavior showed up after interactions with her, I’d assume maybe he was annoyed and didn’t like it, but there’s no correlation between it. I also keep my eyes out for signs that he’s angry or annoyed like his ears going back and I’ve informed my niece of these so we know when he just wants some space. I’m assuming he’s acting out because he’s bored. I’ve bought him probably 20+ toys though and he has a scratching post and high places he can climb up to (I don’t have the space or money to get him the cat tree I really want to get him, but I let him climb on top of some high empty cabinets in my room since I know cats like to be in tall places)
I just don’t know what to do with him. Like I said, he’s a sweetheart sometimes. I think he’s adorable. When I come home if I don’t pick him up, he’ll actually jump into my arms (or more like just jump in front of me and I catch him lol) and he’s very cuddly and sweet and can be very affectionate. He’s also the only cat I know that likes his tummy rubbed. He’ll just purr and will even stick his head up to lick my hand. At night, when he’s in bed with me and not being a jerk, he’ll lay next to my head and I’ll have my hand on him petting him and he’ll rest a paw on my face in return, like he’s petting me back (which I think is very sweet).
I love this cat, and I’m unsure if this past week has just been especially hard or if he’s getting worse. My niece has been really sick the past four days so I’ve been sleeping in 1-2 hour intervals since at night she wakes up and cries from her tummy ache or is puking in the bathroom. I’ve been especially frustrated because during these few hours of sleep I get throughout the day and night, Salem has been especially destructive. I had finally fallen asleep again after my niece woke up at 3 to puke and didn’t fall back asleep till after 4. It was around five and I was in bed exhausted and just as I started drifting away, I heard a loud crash and the sound of glass breaking. I got up and Salem was just sitting on a chair in the kitchen meowing after destroying some of my nice glasses. I’m sleep deprived and it doesn’t help that my only chances to sleep are filled with the shrieks of my dog when he attacks her, loud meowing, scratching, and just the damn opening and closing of wooden cabinets. Also, not as bad, but annoying. Salem likes to poop in his litter box and then knock it out and toss it across the living room floor. Pretty gross when every day I find another turd covered in litter next to my couch. Also, after refilling his litter, at least half of it will be on the floor next to the box since he just forms a giant pile there that I have to constantly vacuum up.
I just don’t know what to do with this cat. How do I train him if I’ve already tried spraying with water and making noises. I’ve put him in his carrier once cause I was doing a college exam during last semester and he kept knocking my laptop charger out of the wall and knocking stuff over that I had to constantly grab. Cause it was timed and recorded, I just grabbed Salem and put him in his carrier until I was done, but oh like I said, this cat is smart and he will squirm out of this carrier from the inside either through the Velcro top or by somehow finding a way to unzip just the tiniest bit in the side door and squirming his way through there. I don’t got a spare room to place him in that he won’t destroy things in. I just need some tips on how to train this cat to not be an ass.