Dd1's twatting kitten is at it again.....it is determined to wreck my house.

[ShinyAndNew]

It is now sending cat litter flying all over my freshly swept floor. Deliberately.

It has also scratched the new dining chairs and tables. And the sofa. And claws the rug and randomly attacks people.

I have had just about enough of it. DH hates it and wants rid. He has even offered to let me have a dog if I get rid of the kitten. But it is dd1's kitten and she adores it.

How much can we cope with though? It is wrecking the house and making everyone's life a misery.

Any advice would be welcome. Or if anyone knows when it is likely to calm down

Does the kitten have a scratching post? If it won't use one there are pieces of material you can buy to attach to the places it scratches. My cat is a stubborn thing, she won't use her scratching post and wrecked my sofa (really tore it up). She has calmed down now though, she's an indoor cat but has loads of toys. They all calm down to some degree.

She has an old bit of cxarpet to scratch. the scratching of the sofa/chairs/tables is not sharpening her claws. It is jumping madly about the house using it's claws to anchor it's landing.

She has toys, but loses them all. Dd1 is always giving it bottle tops and bits of rolled up tin foil to chase though.

our cat was like that till we let her out to burn off her energy

I don't know if I dare let her out. We live near a park and there are no busy roads in the immediate vacinity, but she escaped a couple of weeks ago and was stolen rescued, while sitting under my window by some one who was reluctant to give her back. Dd1 was devastated. We had to get the police involved in the end.

What age was yours when you let her out? I have an older cat who was allowed out at the same age as the kitten is now. But that incident has put me off.

She clearly wants to go out and is always attmpting to escape and looking for ways to get out of the yard.

i let her out at 6 months once she had recovered from getting neutered.

I am shocked at having to get the police involved to get your cat back, thats terrible!

If she is desperate to go out I would let her - at this age kittens seem to have a huge excess of energy they need to burn off . Is there any way you can let her out for a supervised hour or so a day - ask your DD1 to take the kitten outside to play, or watch her from a window, that way someone will be there to ensure she is safe and stays within the limits of your garden.

Ensure she has a collar, with a tag with your name and phone number on it so that nobody will be mistaken in thinking she is a stray, and if she isn't already microchipped I would consider having that done just in case she does wander - it can cost as little as £10 at your vet's surgery.

I find once a cat has been out and has a taste for the outdoors, as your has, they are desperate to go outside, and won't stop trying. Cats are outdoor creatures, and really it seems cruel to keep her inside if she so wants to go out. She will likely be safer if she is supervised outside, at least for the first few days or weeks, than she will be if she escapes without anybody noticing.

She goes into the yard and tries her best to get out, but the walls are too high. It's a largish yard, but we don't have a garden.

A cat of this age is desperate to get out and about, to run and climb, etc. I know ours at the same age used to climb bookcases etc., and she used to scratch the sofa to get our attention! The sofa was swathed in pet blankets and throws to put off this behaviour. The scratch post is strategically placed so that it is between the patio window and the sofa so that she scratches it first on coming in, and is praised for doing so. This means she has no need to scratch the sofa in order to scent-mark it. If your dining set is wooden, you can repair the scratches. As a temporary measure, wrap the table and chair legs in whatever you can to protect them.

Look at devising things for the kitten to climb on etc, in the yard while you keep an eye on her. You could take her out on a kitten harness and lead, around your local area, to get her used to the outside, and make a mental map of where her home is.

We discovered that cat toys, unless they are moving, are not interesting. So you will have to 'play' with her to help wear her out and lessen her frustration. Ours went through a phase of retrieving toy mice that we threw for her, and dropping them at our feet to throw again! We used to throw the mouse either up the stairs or down, which is more tiring for a kitten. Wand toys for her to pounce on as you wave it are still good, trail them along the ground and behind a door or other hiding place so that she can stalk it and pounce. Toys which move one way then the other get interest more than ones that move up and down. And sliding a soft cat toy across a smooth hard floor makes them go really fast! Table tennis balls are also good, if a bit noisy!

It does get better, they are just like exuberant toddlers to start with, then they calm down after about a year!

They can be expensive and take up a lot of room, but you could try buying a large cat tree with plenty of places for cat to climb on to help her enjoy the indoors. Or perhaps devise some sort of climbing area in your yard if you don't have any trees etc to climb.

Are you on good terms with your neighbours, and do any of them have gardens? If you judge them to be cat friendly you could have a chat with them and ask if they'd mind the cat playing in their garden, then you could devise a ramp to the wall or something so that she can get into their garden. Don't know if that would be at all feasable, but if possible I would try and find somewhere with trees for cat to climb and grass/bushes to hide in for cat to play in - now it's autumn and the leaves are falling there will be so much for your cat to chase outside and she'll tire herself out, becoming much calmer when she's inside.

err she's a kitten, what did you expect?

How's the kitten doing, shiny?

I hope the comment about dh letting you get a dog if you get rid of the kitten was a joke, btw!

Is this the same kitten who got lost? [confused emoticon]