Approximately a year and a half ago the family cat Isaboy had to be put down, it was the humane thing to do since he was suffering from cancer. It struck our family very hard and we all miss him very much. It affected my father the most since he was the closest. Knowing he wanted another cat, I got him an eight month old kitten in August of 2005 which he named Simba.
Simba and Isaboy aside from a similar look are almost complete opposites. Simba is small but aggressive, talkative and a bit on the dumb side. Isaboy was a large cat but the biggest chicken in the world yet was so smart and could understand so many things.
At first my dad didn’t like Simba as much since he was more independent however he grows on everyone and the family pretty much loves him. Unfortunately Simba has a very wild streak which is now threatening his own life because he’s uncontrollable. When provoked by other cats (or even just the smell of one), Simba goes completely berserk attacking everything and everyone.
On Sunday, Simba attacked my dad (for the second time I think) and his wounds are quite severe as you can see from the pictures.
Amazing isn’t it? If Simba cannot be tamed (after a year and a bit) of domestication, he cannot be kept. Just imagine if he were to attack my mom, sisters, relatives or other guests… What makes things worse is, Simba cannot be given away to another family because he may do the same to others. At the moment my parents are thinking about having Simba euthanized as they don’t see another solution. I called the Toronto Humane Society yesterday but you need an appointment to drop off unwanted animals and the wait list is 12-18 weeks. 🙁
Myself I have mixed emotions while I understand what my parents are saying, I looked after the cat for about a month before I gave it to my dad so I have an emotional bond with Simba. At the moment I’m weighing whether I should take him in after having Simba neutered and declawed. That should lessen the amount of damage he can do if he goes crazy again and since I live in a condo, there is less to provoke him. On the other hand I worry about what Simba can still do with his fangs if he goes nuts again, not to myself but to Maggie, my roommates or guests.
Maggie is pretty dead set against having an animal (she doesn’t want to get anything till we move to a house) but I’m a cat lover and I really like Simba. Heh aside from the craziness, he’s the type of cat I would like to have in the future. Well now I’m stuck, should I take a risk and give a crazy cat another chance or should I let him go? Gawd, I hate these type of decisions…
If he hasn’t been fixed or declawed, I wouldn’t worry about euthination quite yet. A lot of things can make a cat crazy, not the least of which is being taken from its mother before it’s ready. This was the case with my last cat, Basil, who was, psychotic and really fuckin’ smart. I couldn’t handle him and so I gave him to a nice family who had a big house for him to play in.
He was crazy for months until they got him fixed, then he calmed down considerably. After that though, he was still trouble ’cause he’d regularly destroy things with his claws and they had him declawed as well which depressed him a lot, but after a while he’s gotten used to it and he’s quite friendly and non-chaotic.
So yeah. Get him fixed and then gauge his behaviour. Don’t worry about anything too drastic ’till that happens.
That’s what the Humane Society told me as well but did you look at the damage Simba did to my dad’s hand? That’s pretty severe, that little kitty is fearless. My parents have had many cats (especially when they lived in HK) and they seem to think that Simba is abnormal, that fixing him wouldn’t sovle anything.
Oh and I just talked to my dad, Simba attacked him six times, not twice. 🙁 I’m trying to convince Maggie that we should take him in but it’s an uphill battle.
Yeah, that’s nuts. I’d see if you can get both the declawing and neutering done at the same time if I were you. I know it’s considered cruel to do that to a cat, but so is putting him to sleep. In the mean time, maybe see if there’s something you can feed him to calm him down — Basil had a special diet (possibly pills as well) for a while too.
Well I just finished talking to my dad, he’s going to try the neutering and declawing first. 🙂 I feel that’s the right move, hopefully that will calm down the kitty. In the mean time, I will see if there are other ways of taming aggressive cats.