Do you own - or have you ever lived in the home of - a high maintenance cat?

You know the type of cat I mean: s/he has taken over your home and treats you like a maid or butler. Food, milk, water and affection must be readily available at all times and you are expected to let your high maintenance cat in or out whenever s/he wants.

Your high maintenance cat demands more and more and you get no thanks at all from her/him for your efforts in trying to keep her/him happy.

Please post here about your experiences of cats who own (or owned) you.

Sounds like my Wife.

My cat likes to think she's high maintenance, but if I can't be bothered she gets told to shove off, play them at their own game I say.

You can't do that - she's a cat.

my last cat was very high maintenance and the older she got the worse she got. Looked down her nose at me. Sat at doors for me to open them then when i let her out she decided she didnt want to go out afterall.

The best was when i fed her she'd eat the half nearest her then sit and look at me to turn the dish round - i think to save straining her neck.

and of a morning she'd not come and wake me up by jumping on the bed and licking me but sh'd sit at the bottomof the stairs and miaow until you responded.

i loved her to death but it was a bit of a relief when she died tbh cos she was such hard work (i hate myself for saying that)

I have had the same experience with mine - wants to be let out with the intention of immediately demanding to be let back in again.


How funny .

She possibly may have expected you to spoon-feed her so she didn't have to lower her head towards the dish with the meal in it.

One of my babies has cerebellar hypoplasia and he is deaf.

He is very demanding and very diva-ish but he is such a sweet boy that he is worth it all.

He walks around in circles howling until we put something in the middle of his 'circles' for him to walk around.

He He won't drink water if it has been out more than a couple of hours and if it isn't fresh enough for him he will tip the dish up so we have to put fresh water in.

He refuses to eat with the other cats and would much rather eat dog food.

He sits behind us on the sofa howling for cuddles then cleans frantically after he has been touched.

He doesn't like open spaces so we have to keep doors closed for the rooms he is in or he gets very upset.

As long as his needs are met he is a very hapy and contented boy

He is the most stunning cat (he is jet black with big orange eyes and a very long and muscular body) and has the sweetest nature and I can't imagine being without him. x

He sounds great - keep up the good work (emphasis on the word work).

I can be sat curled up in the sofa and my cat will just sit there and stare at me until I put my legs down and as soon as I have done that she will jump on the sofa and curl up on my lap.

Do you own the mother of our cat or one of her siblings. That sounds like our cat.

We leave cat food out for her the dry stuff (It has to be Royal Canin) any other type she sticks her nose up at it. She gets angry if she doesn't get her milk after putting tuna down for her. She claws the carpet and attacks you at times. She gets revengee on you by clawing your head as you walk up the banisters (if you forget and she remembers then ouch it hurts). She demands to be let in and out of the house and in to certain rooms. In the morning she wakes up and follows me into the bathroom and jumps on my lap (on the loo) regardless of the fact I don't want her there. If I prevent her I get clawed in knees. If she demands to sit on your lap on the sofa she will indicate she wants her fave cushion placed on your lap before jumping up and demanding to be petted. When she comes in from outside she will lay down and request you brush her. She will let you know she is cold and lets you know put the gas fire on so she can lie down on the rug.

She demands you clean her litter tray the instant after using it or she becomes agitated if you don't understand her. She got angry yesterday when my mother moved the blanket from her favourite sleeping place and she did not rest until she moved it back.

We love her to bits and we wouldn't be without her now.

Oh my god, I think that nearly every day about my cat

I do love her but I'm sitting here with a tension headache because she's been yowling at me for the best part of 20 minutes. She wants to play one of her favourite games of clambering to the back of the packed cupboard under the stairs then sitting there crying until I pull everything out till the living room is nearly full and she can walk straight out. She's outraged that I won't open the door. It's her thing. She loves to wedge herself into a small space, cry woefully until she feels she's had adequate sympathy, then just jump out with a chirrup and saunter off.

She's more vocal in this house than me and my son together. My neighbours hate her (and me by now) but there is no shutting her up or distracting her. I can only comfort myself with the fact that it won't be forever

"High maintenance cats"?
They are commonly known as "cats".

Yes.. one of mine has taken to sitting on the end of the sofa and staring at me... no response to any kind of coomunication from me. She stared at me for 45 minutes recently, proper freaked me out.

she is a bit of a princess though and would happily let me carry her around everywhere.. she does this little routine where she rushes up to me and the rubs around my ankles going "wah! wah! wah! wah!" ad infinitum... she is a real diva though because she does it to any human that enters the house

Everything has to be what my cat wants. If he's hungry he usually won't stop pestering unless I do. And woe betide if I'm asleep when it's breakfast. He'll shove open claws in my face to poke me awake failing that he'll poke the dog to get me up so I'll stop him.
And no way in hell would he not have access to the gardne when he wants. He'll be asleep when I go to shut the window but as soon as it is shut he wants out. Plus when he wants to be comfortable in bed with me he won't budge if I need to get up to go to the toilet. .

Mine try to be high maintenance, but luckily as I live in the country, when they get too annoying I can just boot them out and tell them to chase mice. This is a house of boisterous dogs and the cats have learned to be robust!

I don't know if I have made my cat the way she is, or if she has taught me to be the way I am. I didn't have any experience before she moved in with me so it has been trial and error.

The back door was changed to all glass just before she decided to move in. I can not now have a cat flap, so I have to leave the window open year round for her to come in and go out. She refuses to use a litter tray, so I can't shut her in (over night is fine) as she needs to get out to go. During this cold weather, every time I shut the window and put the heating on, little madam wanted to go out.

As soon as I get home from work, she demands play even though I just want to sit down for 10 minutes with a cuppa - I often have to try and get work related emails out as soon as I get home too, which can be difficult with claws in my legs.

I get shouted at if she is on my lap and I stroke her. I get shouted at if I don't stroke her. Sometimes I get bitten on the arm for nothing!

I made the mistake of trying to find out what she wants by saying "Show me". She has it all down to a fine art. Me trailing after her trying to work out if it is "open the back door and let me out" (yes the window is usually open), or "shut the window now I want to go to bed" (sitting at bottom of stairs looking up) or "food" (leads me to a bowl) or "play" (into the hallway and flop).

She has recently taken to sitting in the hallway and shouting. When I go out to find out the problem, I usually find a leg in the air and bum licking going on - but all she wants is my attention.

I have endured hours of being out in the garden in all weathers (she doesn't understand the change of seasons), playing chase the stick or being on lookout for other cats.

She steals most of the bed, or waits until I am almost comfortable and then chooses her spot carefully - the one where you end up somehow with a tiny bit of bed and a corner of the duvet. I can't move her as she does that paw over nose cute look.

BUT
She came into my life at a terrible time and more or less saved me (just as I saved her by allowing her to stay). She makes me laugh a lot and after nearly 5 years, allows me to pick her up and cuddle and kiss her till she purrs (little or no touching for the first few months). I couldn't be without my little mate, no matter how much of a madam she is.

Yes he crys and always demands attention.

That sounds like my Winnie. I did absolutely everything for her and got nothing in return.

Get a cat flap.

Can't say I have, all my cats were extremely low maintenance, we didn't even have a litter tray until he got old he used to do his business outside, I can't say the same for the dog though, the term "high maintenance" was invented for him. Walk, feed, poop, scoop, at least twice a day. Felt like a slave at times.

My high maintenance cat sits and knocks the cat flap to be let out!!!

:If that's true....brilliant

My Tabitha would happily use her cat flap when I wasn't around but she preferred me to open the door for her if I was. She'd sit by the door, inside, rattling the cat flap until I opened the door for her, then she'd happily run out. She was fairly high maintenance but I loved her. I've tried not to let my current cats acquire these bad habits.

All - or most - of the above. And if all else failed in the morning when I was in bed & she wanted breakfast (strategies included kneading the bedclothes and any bits of me that were visible, very loud purring, getting under the duvet from the bottom & toe biting, gripping my nose between her teeth, batting my face with her paws, sometimes with claws out.....) I swear she used to walk round the bed, stamping. Whatever she did, it was noisy - and this was on a carpet!