Do You Need A Cat Behaviorist?

From time to time, our very sweet little girl kitty, Dixie, will awaken us either in the middle of the night or early in the morning with her loud howling! I have tried to play "armchair psychologist" to figure out her reason for doing this.

Now usually when we wake up and go see what the problem is, it turns out that she has brought her little pink blanket to us... it is a fleece blanket that I had tied a KNOT in when she was just a little kitten. I thought it would be a nice little "toy" for her. Turns out that she loves it and carries it around even today, five years later!

I think her howling is to let us know that she has brought her little "blankie" to us. She puts it in the middle of the hallway and proceeds to HOWL. Now if I get up, praise her for bringing her "baby" up to see Mommy, then she settles down and lays by her blankie and is quiet again. But, she has to make sure that someone has seen that she brought her blanket up to us.

I thought it was interesting behavior, and like I said before, trying to play "armchair psychologist" I think that she thinks this little blanket really IS her "baby." At least we call it that. I wonder sometimes if the howling is some kind of "missing her kitten days"... or perhaps it's even more complex than that.

I wonder if it could be that she somehow KNOWS that we had her "spayed" when she was young and she won't have kittens, so this replaces any kittens she might have had? Hard to say! Maybe it is a mournful howling that she won't be a mother, but has motherly instincts? Maybe I am reading too much into it, but I do think it's interesting behavior on her part.

I do know that I've looked into cat psychologists, and what I've found has been really fascinating! First of all, I had heard of "dog whisperer's" but never a "cat whisperer" until I found an internet site that has one!

For a fee, this cat whisperer will help you through your problem, no matter what it is...

Checking out this website made me think, what a fascinating occupation it must be to be an animal behaviorist! From what I have read, there are only about 50 of them (those who have actually gone to school beyond the usual four years of college and are now licensed to be animal behaviorists).

I wish I had found this out back when we first got our second cat, Misty... the two of them took at least four months to get USED to one another, and it took at least that long before they could be in the same room together without hissing and aggressive behavior! (The hissing was done by Dixie, and the aggressiveness came out in Misty).

But instead, we basically just "gave it time" (which is pretty much all our vet could tell us to do). Another thing we did was introduce them to one another through a crack in the door, let them "sniff" to get acquainted, and eventually they started to play underneath the door together. I called their little game "sassy paws." They would "smack" at one another playfully under the door, and lay there and try to see the other cat through the little crack at the bottom of the door.

I wonder if we had used a service like the cat behaviorist, if the transition of getting used to another cat would have been much easier on all of us, because to tell the truth, I was actually on the verge of taking Misty to a shelter because I thought that she couldn't get along with another cat!

How totally WRONG I turned out to be, these two are very good friends now, and have gotten very used to one another. They play together, chase each other around, which is very good for Dixie, since she has a bit of a "treat belly". Misty helps to keep her "young" and running, which is good! They even "groom" one another now. Usually it is Misty who licks the top of Dixie's head. It is SO cute to watch!

From reading up on this, it seems the most troubling behaviors that people seek help for are urinary issues, spraying, not using the litter box, and aggressive behavior towards other animals or people. There are cats who just don't like men for instance - it could be that men are perceived as a big "aggressor" where women are more nurturing? Again, that's just an armchair psychology thought.

But if you are having issues with your cat, instead of taking the cat to a shelter, where chances are they will end up being euthanized due to the huge number of cats in shelters, a better option may be to get some advice from a professional. Besides, it seems that most people who visit a shelter want a little kitten rather than an adult cat.

Perhaps a better solution really is to try using the services of a cat behaviorist? You can save yourself the heartbreak of feeling that you have to give your cat up for adoption, and in the process, you may end up pleasantly surprised with a cat whose behavior has totally turned around!

Now for us, our "problem" is so minor, I don't even consider it to be a real issue. Bringing her little blanket up to us and howling at night seems to be just a "personality quirk" in our kitty, Dixie, and we love her for it! Cats are really complex creatures and they DO have emotions similar to human emotions! They CAN feel things like jealousy, sadness, anger... but they don't know how to channel those feelings, they just act on them as they are "hard-wired" to do.

I have read some of the success stories about people who have consulted a cat behaviorist, and they are pretty amazing ~ they really do seem to get good results! So, if you have a cat behavioral problem that is really a disrupting concern in your life, try this instead! I think you'll be thankful that you did.