Possessive Siamese cat...

[AwfulMaureen]

We adopted our Siamese boy two years ago and he's been great. Recently however, he's become more and more possessive of me. He's coming up for s 8 years old so not a young boy...he's had a check up at the vets and he's in good health.

He basically won't let anyone near me when he's sitting on me...and since he sits on me the MOMENT I sit down, this is awkward.

He particularly has a problem with my 5 year old DD and growls at her as soon as she comes in the room or near to me ..yowling, low warning growls. If she comes right up then he almost yells at her and then runs away....if DH sits by me on the sofa, then the cat smacks him with an open clawed paw which naturally offends DH.

The cat has never hit the DC....but he will almost bark at visiting children. He's extremely affectionate to me and expects to sleep curled up by my stomach under the duvet nightly...if DH gets in bed then he gets in between us!

Is there a way of making him learn to share and perhaps not sit on me EVERYTIME I sit down? If people visit and sit around my kitchen table, he takes a seat too and joins in the conversation...just peering over the top of the table!

[cozietoesie]

Some of that is to be expected (I've had them for many many years and they can be incredibly needy cats) but it does sound as if he's got the upper hand on you for everything and you need to re-establish some house rules, Siamese being very easy to train in my experience.

I would be chastising him firmly for bad behaviour and doing the 'Exclusion From The Presence' for continued infractions. What happens if you actually say NO to him? (And mean it.)

[cozietoesie]

PS - the fact that he's 8 doesn't mean that behaviour is ingrained. I acquired Seniorboy and his bad habits at 13 and it didn't take long to cure them.

[AwfulMaureen]

If I say no he does listen...for eg. he sometimes sits on the dining table when people are eating and I say "Off!" and he does....I might add "Sit on the chair over there" and he will.

[cozietoesie]

He's still pushing you, I'm afraid. (None of my boys would dare/have dared to go on a forbidden surface in the first place, whether or not they then obeyed an instruction to get off.)

I'd decide what your house rules are and start enforcing them rigorously. You don't need to have too many (I have 3 immutable ones) because something goes on in their mind which stretches the rule to include other 'similar' things without you having to tell them. (Eg one of my rules is 'no going on kitchen surfaces' but that seems to stretch to other surfaces as well - and I'm blowed if I can work out the common factor.)

You're going to have to be real firm. Siamese are strong characters and they all seem to do a neat line in manipulation - especially in the 'Oh woe is me, I'm so sad that I've been told off that I'll go away and pine to death' bit. Don't believe a word of it - just carry on with your ordinary business and they'll reappear, if only to see how you're taking their absence.

You can succeed with the right attitude.

[littleblueballoon]

I'd say joining you and your friends at the table and sleeping under the duvet is pretty normal Siamese cat behaviour. Mine does that too and I love it as part of his personality.

However I wouldn't accept the yowling at your DD and open claws to DH behaviour. Say no and mean it and move cat away from you.

[cozietoesie]

All my boys have always slept with me from Day 1 - and that's in bed and not on bed. (Except during heatwaves.) They need to commune with their Person.

For myself, I can't sleep properly now without a warm body stretched out beside me.

[Fluffycloudland77]

.

They certainly demand attention don't they?

[cozietoesie]

They certainly do - but I've had them for years and I'm completely used to it. In fact, non-Siamese sometimes worry me because they're so (comparatively) undemonstrative. I have to remind myself that this is normal.

(I actually used to take Darling Twoago on holiday with me. He would genuinely have stopped eating with separation.)

[AwfulMaureen]

I don't think I could have an ordinary cat now...he's spoiled me. I've never known a cat like him. I too love him sleeping in bed with me. He's very beautiful and his Grandparents were champions...his previous person became too ill to care for him so he came here.

He is a rotter at times though.

[furlinedsheepskinjacket]

you gotta love em


ours does the growling too and I have had a open mouth bite if I am getting on his nerves :)

all part of the siamesey charm