Tuesday, September 23, 2008

The earsplitting howls of a persistant Siamese cat...

have become non-stop in our home. I've created a monster. Since coming to live with me he has become completely obsessed with hanging out on the lanai. He loves it. He gets to see all the comings and goings of our yard. He ferociously protects the pool area from Florida's constant invaders: lizards and palmetto bugs (aka roaches). He leaves their carcasses for us right outside the sliders. "Thanks, buddy, I'll...um...eat them later, k? Glad you like us, and want to contribute to the household, though. Good job..." and though I'd rather not have to clean up this carnage, I get what he's trying to do and I understand it. No problems there really. This is not the monster part.



Nermal...he is Siamese if you don't please.


The issue we're having is that he wants to go out when he wants to go out. How does he let us know? With the most awful yowls, howls, and outright yells. Bedtime at 11pm? Too bad for you because this Siamese isn't quite done for the night. And he hollers, loudly, and lets you know he's ready to go back out. Now. Right now. Have you ever heard a Siamese's yowls? It's insane how loud he can get. I've tried it all. Shooing him. No-no-ing him. Chasing him. Snuggling him. Petting him. Spritzing him. Trying to reason with him. Threatening him. Nothing is working, and it's getting worse. We've gone from letting him out somewhere between 6:30 to 9 am, depending on the time of year, when we wake up, to getting woken up by 5:30 am the latest with his yowls demanding his immediate release to the lanai. When you only got him to chill around 1am, and by 4am he's waking up the household, it can feel pretty hopeless. Ignoring him does absolutely no good. Not only do I have an exhausted teen who needs her sleep, but if we try to ignore him, he just won't give up. He just won't. He doesn't get it. He doesn't care to get it. We're at the point where he's not even giving us the 5 hours of sleep he had been for a while. It's getting worse and I don't know how to fix it.


I love him. I'm glad I was able to give him a home. But I've created a monster. And I don't know how to fix it. I'll live with it, please don't get me wrong. I've made a commitment to this cat, and I'm going to fufill it no matter how big the bags under my eyes get. But I sure as heck would like to go back to the days of when going out was a bonus and happened on my terms - or atleast once I was up! LOL - but I don't see any signs of that at this point.

Oh, and we can't just leave him out for the night because he hollers to come in whenever he feels like it, too, lol. Sounds like an older woman being strangled on my lanai, and when it's still dark out it's so scary, I swear the neighbors are going to call the cops one of these days. I'll just point at the cat and say "There's your man, officer. Throw the book at him. No, wait, don't bother...he'll just howl louder."

2 comments:

Mafe Molinari said...

Hi Natalie,
I found this article about howling cats, I hope is helpful!
Hugs
Maria.
http://www.best-cat-art.com/crying-cat.html

Natalia said...

Hi Maria! I told you I'd post my response here so I wouldn't clutter up your post and then forgot. Typical, lol. Thanks so much for the link, I spent some time reading. I know I need to ignore him. In fact during the day I try but at night or really really early AM - he's got me between a rock and a hard place, ugh. I've been keeping a closer eye on his eating & bathroom breaks (sorry, don't mean to be gross) just to make sure it's not anything health wise. I definitely seems to be all related to coming in and out at his whim. He's my first Siamese, and I gotta tell you - he is not easy. But every time you're about to have a stroke from frustration he does something completely adorable and wipes the slate clean again. See why I didn't want to put all this on your beautiful post? Thanks again! Definitely, definitely helpful! and so very nice! :)