Why would anyone abandon their cat?

Animal rights organizations throughout the world know only too well how often adult cats are relinquished to cat shelters or just abandoned, and how difficult it is to have them adopted. As a consequence, quite healthy and friendly cats are bound to spend the rest of their lives in a cage or, in some cases, even be euthanized.
Among the reasons given for giving up their cat, most people would say they found out they, or some other member of the household, are allergic to cat fur, or they are moving to some place where they cannot take their pet with them. But we know that the underlying truth is that more than half of the people who surrender their pets to shelters, also report behaviour or old age related issues. An estimated 4 million cats are euthanized in animal shelters every year in the world, while countless others become feral after being abandoned, doomed to die in car accidents, due to infections or – not being really prepared to fend for themselves, as a consequence of starvation and hardships.
Education, information, a basic knowledge of a cat’s needs, besides some true compassion, are paramount to the dedicated human who honestly wants to understand what adopting a cat involves, especially over time, and to dramatically reduce these impressing figures.
Some people make the assumption that cats, compared to dogs, are less demanding, that they can spend long hours, or even days alone, they do not need regular visits to the vet, and cannot be educated. All these and other prejudices can lead us to adopt a kitten, only to find out, soon after, that they do need and deserve our care and attention.
Other people are not prepared to the inevitable changing of needs of a cat that is getting old or falls ill, they do not imagine that it is necessary to neuter them before they reach sexual maturity, or they do not even know that it is important, whenever possible, to learn beforehand something about our future pet’s personality, his “playfulness, sociability, inquisitiveness and lifestyle” to facilitate the best human/pet match.
A basic knowledge of why cats behave the way they do will allow us to prevent wrong expectations, disappointment, punishment and, eventually, abandonment.
Many good books and a lot of information on the internet are now available to the dedicated human who honestly wishes the best for their pet.

Let’s consider here some unwanted behavior that can be pretty normal for a cat.
As crepuscular creatures, they might be pretty active at night, and ask for our attention at the “wrong” time, meowing, scratching or jumping on the bed when we are trying to sleep; this is especially true if the cat spends long hours alone and gets bored during the day, if the cat is deprived of the necessary attention and stimuli, or if he is not allowed outdoors. The environment must be enriched with games and puzzles, we should spend some quality time with him regularly; cats are creatures of habit and appreciate predictability.
Giving food to appease him is not a good idea, he might easily develop a dependence to it, or become overweight, in this case the remedy would be worse than the initial problem.

Scratching hard vertical surfaces is another perfectly natural behavior for a cat who marks his presence with visual and olfactory signs. As a territorial animal, in the wild he would do it on trees and bushes, at home he chooses our furniture, especially if it is located along a passageway or if the house is too crowded. With some patience we can divert his focus to a vertical scratching post, while making sure he is not acting out his anxiety.
The arrival of a newborn baby can sometimes be the cause for relinquishing a pet cat, either because the parents might be afraid the cat could harm the baby in some ways, which is highly improbable given the right precautions, or maybe because they are not prepared to help the cat accept the new member of the family. Cats can be very jealous – especially some oriental breeds, but they are also flexible and can easily adapt to changes within the household, if we are willing to invest some energy and patience into getting them used to the new situation. Obviously the same goes when the new member is another cat or a dog, whilst it is not good for the poor predator to force him to live with
potential preys, such as birds, rabbits and so on.
If our cat is lucky enough to reach senior age, more regular visits to the vet will become necessary; old age doesn’t help aches and pains, and even his character will change making him either a bit cantankerous or clingy; all his senses become weaker and he moves slowly, to the point that we might need to place his litter tray close to where he spends most of his time. Do we consider this possibility when we fall in love with the adorable little kitten? We definitely should!
On the other hand, other unwanted behaviours should be seen as the symptoms of something wrong with our pet, and should be addressed as such consulting either a vet or a cat behaviourist.
If our cat is anxious he could be asking incessantly for food or attention, or disrupt the house when we are not at home. A distressed or anxious cat can be very difficult to manage, especially if he goes on meowing for hours on end. But before taking the final decision to get rid of him, we could (and should) try to find out what is bothering him so much; more often than not, little changes and adjustments can make miracles in improving the quality of our cat’s and our lives! It is worth mentioning that even if other unnatural behaviours might go unnoticed, simply because they are not a cause of annoyance to us, even in these cases we can infer that something is wrong with our cat, and he is suffering some form of physical or psychological pain.
Physical pain can also be the cause for aggression, directed either to people or to other cats.
But the most common reason by far for people giving up their cat is house soiling.
Unfortunately this very common and disturbing problem can make living with a cat very difficult if we are not prepared to understand what causes the problem and willing to find a solution.
Shouting at or even punishing the cat is useless, as it always is with cats, we must address the issue with competence, flexibility and compassion.
Once we have ruled out a medical condition (such as diabetes, kidney failure or diarrhea), house soiling is usually related to our cat’s refusal to use the litter tray.
So, before we give up the cat, why don’t we give up our prejudices and make an effort to find out what is wrong with the litter box? Even if we can’t discuss here all possible reasons for this misbehaviour, let me suggest a few clues: the litter box is located in the wrong place, your cat doesn’t like either the litter or the tray you are using, you don’t clean it often enough or you use the wrong detergent. Cats are very clean animals and they do not like to share too few litter trays with too many other cats (especially those who do not get along too well with each other).
If your cat suddenly develops an aversion to the litter tray, you must investigate if something scared the cat while he was using it: a sudden loud noise or a sharp pain maybe due to UTIs can make the cat afraid of using the litter tray for a long time, or even for good.
Spraying is another issue, and is always related to sexual behavior or territoriality.
Neutering the cat, especially at an early age, can prevent this unpleasant but rather natural habit. If the urge to spray vertical surfaces is due to territoriality, this means that probably there are too many cats in the household, especially if males. Cats are social solitary animals, which means they can adapt to share their territory with other cats, especially siblings, and yet they need to spend a lot of time undisturbed, resting or predation are a single cat business!
Last but not least, defecating around the house is probably the most disturbing of all the unwanted behaviours. Again, if this not due to some medical condition (diarrhea or senile dementia) leaving the stool around the house, on the bed or the stove, is an unmistakable message sent by the cat: “I am very, very upset.” Aggression is the condition always underlying this behavior. The cat is telling you that something is making him angry, he is stressed and that he does not live well. At this point you still have an option: give up the cat and make his life even more miserable, or try to find out what is disturbing to him so much and see if there is a solution to your common problem.
When considering all these and other unwanted behaviours, we must always bear in mind that the house cat is not a fully domesticated animal and he is not prepared from an evolutionary point of view to communicate his discomfort; it is up to us to make no mistakes and prevent or correct these behaviours by understanding his true nature and providing the right environment. Taking the right measures means paving the way for asatisfactory , long relationship with our pet.

Author: Samira Coccon

Samira Coccon is a Rome based cat behaviourist. She specialized in Feline Behaviour and Psychology in the UK. She can be contacted at: samiragatti@tiscali.it