>>He, henceforth Gawain, is the most adorable creature we've ever known, but his behavour his horrible.

>>He doesn't bother begging or even acting sneaky about taking people's food: he just walks up and starts eating it off the plate. He even drinks cereal... He's so long that it's extremely difficult to keep out of his reach and enjoy your food at the same time, too, but it's equally difficult to hold him back and finish eating at the same time. :/

>>

>>Gawain also believes that everything belongs on the floor. You can't try to keep the apartment clean and neat, because he will destroy all that work within a few minutes. He even goes to the length of regathering papers and bags, making nests, and sleeping on them. He lives with my girlfriend in a studio, and she's an English Comp. teaching assistant, so he's usually able to find lots and lots of papers to make nests out of. She's pretty much given up on trying to clean up after him, too.

>>If you try to hide small objects from him, like the multisided dice we use for table top role playing games, he'll dig them out and lose them. I'm worried that he might try to swallow one, and Risu is annoyed that she only has 2 d6s left out of all her dice.

>>

>>Gawain also believes that his food tastes better if he knocks it all over the floor and eats it there. I have no idea why he does this, but we're tired of finding bits of kitty chow on our foot soles. Not to mention water... -.-;

>>He will literally pick up mouthfuls of food, spit them back on the floor, and then eat it.

>>

>>Finally, we can't seem to figure out how to curb his urinary 'problems'. We feed him dry cat food, since its all we can afford, but we always supply plenty of water. Sometimes we wonder if he's drinking all his water, preparing for what he does next.

>>If he's in some way, shape, or form upset with us, it appears he takes his anger out by urinating on clothing where one of us will see him do it. It's clear he knows he shouldn't do this, because he'll run away from whomever saw him do it. However, he'll be real lovey and sweet to the other, as if we can't just tell each other what he just did. -.-; We've been punishing and admonishing him by being stern and raising our voices, clapping our hands, otherwise making loud, unpleasant sounds, misting him with water, and finally, closing him in the bathroom with his litterbox for a while. He really dislikes the latter on some occasions. On others, he just plays with the bottle of body wash that he can reach. :/

>>

>>The only ill behaviour we were able to curb was his biting problems. Despite what my mum suggested, which was getting him more cat toys to chew on, we got him some of those rawhide sticks for dogs. He recieved two upon returning home from the store, and all we can find now is half of one... ^.^; However, he hasn't done much chewing on us lately, so we're very happy about that. Do cats teeth, or something? I realise that they would lose their milk teeth as kittens, but he's far too old for that. I normally don't mind being chewed on by cats, but he's 2 cats long and 1/2 a cat wide, built with 20 lbs 'of american pride' (kenyan arrow.... :P), with teeth that must be at least half an inch long, so it really hurts... Especially since he acts like he wants to devour human flesh in ernest. o.o;

>>

>>We'd really appreciate any suggestions on getting Gawain to behave at least a little bit better. I don't have to live with him (yet), since I'm still on campus, but my girlfriend is being driven to her last nerve and keeps grumbling about letting friends who fall in love with him keep him. ^.^;; But... Gawain's my beloved 'son', so... yeah. It's so hard to stay mad at him, even when he nearly destroyed our favourite coats (they were vintage military great coats... thankfully, they're fluid proof, and industrial strength Febreeze did the rest...)... with those giant eyes filled with love... ^.^;;;



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Wow, he's a handful. I can only address the urination problem. Please take him to the vet, if you haven't already, and see if he has a urinary tract infection. That will definitely lead to him urinating outside the litter box, as it's painful, and the box is associated with the pain.



If he has crystals in his urine, the best way to eliminate them in the long run is change his diet to mostly or all wet food that is low in magnesium.



Please consult your vet, and good luck!



Nancy
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Nancy E. Wigal

Arlington, VA

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