New Cat Owner and I need some help
So--this is a bit complicated so I apologize if this ends up being super lengthy.
My uncle, with whom I was very close (he lived with my family for the first 10 years of my life and helped raise me) recently passed away very unexpectedly (this was two weeks ago).
He lived alone and his only companion was a 9 year old cat named Casey. He's a domestic short hair. My uncle passed at home and Casey was with him for a day before my uncle's remains were discovered by the police.
I'm not a cat person at all. I've only ever had dogs (and my SO brought his bird, a green-cheek conure named Wesley, with him when we moved in together). But I also could not stand the idea of my uncle's cat sitting in a shelter for god knows how long, especially after the Rescue people told me that they'd have a hard time adopting him out due to his age and they also told me Casey was really depressed over the loss of my uncle.
Anyway--my SO and I brought Casey home last Tuesday. I thought he would be very nervous and skittish--I did a lot of reading and spoke to several cat owner friends of mine who said he'd likely not want to leave a single room after he got to our condo. He actually came out of his crate immediately and seemed to love our home right away, which made us both very happy.
We live in a 1 bedroom + den condo. The only rooms with doors are our bedroom and the bathroom.
So we decided right off the bat to not let Casey into our bedroom. This was for a few reasons:
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During the day (when we are at work), for the safety of both our animals, we keep the bird (Wesley) in our bedroom and I don't want Casey to think of that as his space.
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We have a double bed to share and there's simply not enough room for a cat to be on there without seriously disrupting our sleep. Every time he has snuck into the bedroom he has jumped right to the bed so I know he will do that when we're trying to sleep.
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This is more of a time sensitive issue but right now, I have in my possession a lot of old photographs and home movies that I have been in charge of sorting through for my uncle's funeral--after the funeral I'm going to be keeping everything for a while to scan photos/transfer stuff to VHS. Casey has shown a bit of destructive behaviour so far and I know sometimes cats will spray in new areas and I simply CANNOT risk him damaging any of these items. As our bedroom is the only room with doors, it's the only safe place for those items right now.
On Saturday night and again last night (Sunday) Casey sat outside our bedroom door and meowed/yowled for ages. Saturday night was maybe for an hour or so and last night was WAY worse. He starts in the middle of the night--after we're already asleep and the place is dead quiet.
I don't know what to do. Letting him into our bedroom is 100% not an option. Will this stop? Any tips for helping it stop? I want him to stay with us but I can't live like this forever.
I don't think it's a medical issue (as it only happens at night) but he does have a vet appointment on Thursday evening. He has plenty of food and water and 2 litter boxes that we clean twice a day.
I've tried getting him to play before bed but he's super lethargic and not interested (I've been told he is considered a "senior" cat at this age so playtime isn't really a thing).
Please help. I'd appreciate any advice. I really want to make this work.
Submitted October 16, 2017 at 08:10AM by notthe1_88
via reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/cat/comments/76qprv/new_cat_owner_and_i_need_some_help/?utm_source=ifttt
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