Hi Everyone!
My friend is moving and asked me to look after her cat for 2 weeks. Having had cats before I was all for it! My boyfriend and I regularly talked about getting our own kitten but due the small amount of space in our place and our 130 white shepherd we decided it wasn't a good idea for us currently. When we took the cat we figured this would be a good "trial run". My friend said the cat was okay with big dogs and is good other then the occasional mouse or bird which wouldn't be a problem since we wont be putting it outside.

Now that we have the cat, I am seriously considering telling her it needs to go some other place, it makes me feel guilty because I agreed to keep it here. The cat has not stopped howling and making noise since Saturday. It originally hid under my bed, I left it there knowing it was probably scared. It was there for a whole day and night screaming, I didn't get any sleep on Saturday night. When it did start coming out it tried to tear down my blinds in my room to sit on my non-existent window sill so I opened the blinds, as soon as I did that the cat decided the top of my brand new plasma tv looked like a much more suitable place! Almost knocking it over I gave up and took the cat out of my bedroom and closed the door. It sits at the closed door SCREAMING bloody murder, I gave it a place to go hide away from everything out in my living room but no it wants in MY room! The cat started hiding under my treadmill which is not a suitable place either so I took it out from there to and put it in the spot created for it. Then the cat starts ripping down my blinds in my living room and trying to get behind the TV in the living room now!

So I put all its water, food, litter and a nice comfy bed for it in my bed HUGE kennel. Put towels over it to make it seem more secure and locked it in there for the night hoping it would start feel safe and calm down, and I wouldn't have to worry about my TV or blinds being ripped apart or pushed over. Every time I got up to pee at night the cat was still howling, get up this morning and its still going! I don't know what else to do for it! I have given it love & cuddles, places to hide, food, water, toy **** I even made my friend leave a shirt so the cat could smell her and maybe keep it more calm. NOTHING WORKS! Nothing makes it stop crying! On top of that instead of sleeping in its nice comfy bed it lays in its litter box and is now dragging crap bacteria all over my house

Its driving my boyfriend and I insane! I feel bad for kitty, I really do! I understand he's in a strange place, with strange people, with a strange dog and everything in terrifying but its been days now. I thought he would have settled down a little by now but it doesn't seem to be happening.

Does anyone know what I can do for the cat short of getting it some kitty xanex or something lol

Ugh that sucks! You try to do your friend a favor and wind up having to deal with this.

If the cat is use to going outside, it might be upset that it can't. That's one thought I had. I wouldn't put it out though (I know you said you weren't going to).

How in the cat's face is your dog? If your dog is bothering the cat at all, can you try to keep them apart better?

There is a product called Feliway, it's happy cat pheromones. Supposed to calm them down and make them feel happy thoughts. I used it when I decided to adopt a new cat and while they were both still unhappy about the other cat, the hissing and active fighting the few times they saw each other at first toned down when I used the Feliway spray.

I would just lock it in your room, but make sure you spend some time in there too. Don't go searching for it, let it come to you if it wants to, you did a good job of trying to make it comfortable with the blanketed kennel. Maybe throw more blankets in there. My one cat is a scaredy cat and she loves to burrow in blankets, it makes her feel safe.

Oh and I missed the laying in the litter box part. I think that means it is BEYOND terrified. The same cat I just mentioned was SCARED TO DEATH the first few days after I moved. She'd hide in her litter box. The only thing that helped her was time. I think the litter box is their only safe place because I think they know they'll always have it and no one bothers them in there.

I would call my friend and tell she must come get the cat, I am sure it would be just as terrified someplace else, the cat needs to go home.

Well I was going to ask why she wasn't having you just visit it to feed and love it, but then I saw the top sentence again and saw she's moving (dur dur dur moment)

Sounds like the cat is just scared! Does your friend have a dog too? Even if the dog isn't bothering it, it might still be scared just to have some different animal in the house...I'm sure he can smell the dog wherever he goes which can be scary in itself for a cat.

Do you know if he's "drug free"? If not, get that cat some catnip pronto!! That might really mellow the cat down. (my cat is drug free, but I hear that it's harmless for cats)

It is used to dogs around but not one so big, however they are kept apart. My dog for the most part is actually not interested in the cat, when he see's it he turns away and carries on chewing his bone or sleeping. I think the cat may be bothered by the dogs presence in the house but there is not much I can do about that one.

I can't send the cat home yet (believe me, I want to!) since my friends doesn't have place to put it currently. I am trying to get her out here to see him but she keeps saying she is to busy (also slightly annoyed about that). I will try and get some cat nip though!

Yeah, they are like that. I think moving it anywhere else at this point (aside from home) would do more damage to the cat than anything.

All I can recommend is maybe if you have a bathroom or some other small room, put him in there with his box. The If he feels comfortable under the bed, probably just going to have to do with that. Sometimes just sitting on the floor talking for awhile to him might help

2 weeks will be over soon enough. Just make sure your friend knows how the cat was traumatized in case she ever needs to do something with it again.

You're doing a good thing.


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