If you're worried about legal liability, or investigating the situation to show that Neighbor provoked the cat, contact Adam Karp. He's pioneered a practice in animal law and may be able to help.

http://www.animal-lawyer.com/

I get what you mean when you say Lucille is an outdoor cat. Our cat is also impossible to keep inside. So, we harness trained her, and she only goes outside in our backyard - so she doesn't get around people. We keep an eye on her around friends, especially kids, when they come over, because she is prone to nip when people vex her. And all people vex her, all the time - she's a cat!

My mom was bitten by the neighbor's cat, and the neighbor handled it quite poorly. Neighbor said "oh, but she's a nice cat" and brushed it off as no big deal. It was a big deal. My mom had to go to the emergency room and get a shot.

Then, it happened again. Another bite, another trip to the hospital. This time, my mother confronted the neighbor more sternly. They've lived next door to one another and been on good relations since the 1970s, but the neighbor/cat owner just didn't get it. Cat owner still brushed it off as "no big deal."

Then, the cat bit another person. This person was not a friend and neighbor of 30-40 years but more of an interloper. This victim was PISSED, and made it clear that it was not acceptable for the cat to be biting people.

I don't know exactly what happened there, the details weren't shared. May have been some court action, may have been some medical bills paid. All I know is that after the cat bit victim #2 (third bite), the neighbor came over quite contrite and apoligized to my my mother for the bites she suffered, and acknolwledged that it was a big deal.

It is a big deal. Your pet biting neighbors is not ok. You should follow Russ Campbell's advice and get the cat checked out by a vet, and follow up with the neighbor.

The neighbor doesn't want to hear "but the cat's so nice!!!" Neighbor wants to hear "I'm sorry, I know this is a big deal, are you OK?"

Seriously, don't just brush this off. You can't have a pet biting people.

How did your neighbor and cat get so close? I'd be hesitant to touch a neighbor cat unless it was being super affectionate. But even then I wouldn't take too many liberties.

Our indoor/outdoor cats might let a stranger pet them on the head, but they'd definitely draw the ling at holding. And we housemates all know better than to touch our girl cat's belly, but a stranger wouldn't.

Before I knew better (a kid) I got bit trying to pet a strange dog tied to a tree at a boat show. Now I know better and so does your neighbor.

Cats are pretty demonstrative about their comfort level of a person in close proximity. Their stance, body posture, orientation, eye gaze, mouth (open/closed), position of the ears and vocalizations will all give clues as to their emotional state. If a person does not interpret these signals correctly the cat may react with hissing, scratching or biting behavior if they feel cornered. Usually they will just run away.

There is a lot missing from your description of your cat that makes narrowing down the possible causes of this behavior - age, reproductive cycle status, background, previous life history (adopted from breeder, found, feral, etc.), and whether she has been spayed or not.

There are cats that can apparently change emotional state rather quickly and appear as very emotionally labile, sometimes almost psychotic in nature. I have personally seen this in young cats that are in estrus and also rarely in some females that appear to have psychological aberrant behavior after being spayed.

Cats can sustain puncture wounds from encounters with other cats (either by claws or bites) on the face/head, shoulders and at the base of the tail that get infected and become very painful. Along comes someone that they initially respond well too and when the person goes to pet them and contacts these lesions the cat reacts violently (seemingly for no reason to the human on the receiving end of the outburst). For a cat that is out and about this is a very real possibility. Lesions like these are likely to swell with infection, require some surgical intervention and draining and will need consistent care and be kept clean while healing.

You may want to take your cat in to your vet for a check up and have a discussion about your situation and the behavior problems you are experiencing. Do some research to see if you can find a vet that specializes in behavior issues. If you have the resources you can get an extensive consultation with a local behaviorist specializing in cats for just under $200, see http://www.thecatbehaviorclinic.com .

Whatever you do with your cat, you also need to do some bridge mending with that neighbor that was on the receiving end of your cat's bite. Go and visit (without the cat) and make sure she is doing alright (as long as you haven't been ordered to stay away by court order). Don't spend a lot of time telling them what a great cat she is. Instead make the visit about THEM and their welfare. You may find out some very important information about what happened that day that will prove valuable in working with your cat.

You will need to sincerely try to change your cat's behavior and roaming if you don't want to find yourself in the terrible situation of having your cat euthanized.

Letting your cat try a higher voltage is likely to backfire, as it may give your cat inadvertent electroshock therapy and thus make him forget what he just did. Our rabbits do the same thing, and I can almost see the thought bubbles. "Ooh, a cord! It looks tasty! nom nom "maybe this wasn't a good idea" nom Zzt! "Ooh, a cord!" repeat ad nauseum. Rabbits seem to be drawn to electricity, as I once placed an already eaten, unplugged laptop cable on the floor near them, and they went straight for the live cable. Silly rabbits. Does your cat only eat live wires, or does he eat anything with a plasticky coating?

Perhaps try switching your deterrent flavor? Cats do not like citrus, so try switching up your bitter apple with lemon or lime. A switch from regular to lemon-scented SOS pads was the only way we got my childhood cat to stop eating steel wool--he lived to 18 so it didn't hurt him.

(I don't have any advice...just wishing you luck. But needed to share that my brain read your question title thusly: "Can't stop eating wires")

My cats do this as well. I've read that certain animals will act friendly by turning their butts towards you, either because sniffing that area is a greeting or because they're showing they trust you by turning away.

I used to have a cat who sprayed even though he'd been neutered, and he never attempted to spray humans. He marked his humans by rubbing his face on our legs and marked his territory by spraying trees. It might look similar, but I don't think he'd actually spray you.

My "fixed" female cat also does this. I like to think it is happy tail! I like that term. Perhaps they have some invisible-to-human-eyes scent-making apparatus installed in their butts. I don't know. I didn't think that girl cats normally sprayed, so any residual spray behavior seems unlikely if girl cats don't spray. Glad you asked this question though, because I had never seen a cat do this before my current cat.

I've seen this behavior in my "fixed" female cats over the years, and also felt it was related to "spraying".

I didn't know how to interpret it until now.
Thank you!

I think you have done an excellent description of the behavior and have a very accurate read on its origin and how it is expressed by your tom (who was neutered very young). I believed this is indeed a spraying related behavior (motor) pattern that is being used in expressing excitement by your cat.

Don't focus on the origin of the behavior, just realize what emotion triggers it and what it signifies in your feline family member.

"When he's very happy (for example, when we come in the door after being gone, or when we go to the fridge to feed him), he arches his back, puts his tail straight up, and does a fast, quivering, vibrating, tail-shake that lasts-about 4-5 seconds ("shaky tail"). I've seen it mentioned as a sign of ultimate happiness in cat books a few times."

Huh! My (neutered, 2+ y/o) cat's been wrapping himself around my leg and doing this "quivering" when I try to sleep. I just assumed that he was attempting to hump my leg.

I'd love to hear from someone more knowledgeable about this, so I can know whether to get creeped out and keep him from doing this... or take it as a sign of affection.

He's 'cuffing' the other. It's either a mothering thing ("hey, don't do that, bro - its bad for you") or an alpha dog type thing, where the cuffer is reasserting authority. It sometimes is a precursor to full on 'I hate you' fights --so keep an eye on them

My cat goes gaga over the water from a can of tuna, so much so that I can't open any can with a can opener (her food comes in a pop-top) without attracting undue attention. She also will occasionally eat lettuce (never the cheapo green/red leaf, only the high-quality mesclun mix).

There are some fruits/vegetables that are no bueno for cats. Off the top of my head: onions, grapes. So consult this list before you give your cat some treats.

I heard cats tend to like stone fruits.

Our boy cat LOVES yogurt. At twenty paces he can tell you are holding a yogurt container and will come running.

He does not like plain yogurt, only the flavored kind. Which we think is funny.

He's also eaten pot roast and licked curry off of a plate. He always likes to sniff our food, but yogurt & pot roast are the only things he has taken a bite of.

We consider him food adventurist. Especially compared to our Girl Cat who wont even eat wet food, barely eats any different kind of dry food. We put out all sorts of treats and different foods for the Boy Cat and she always tries to bury them. She also tries to bury the dust pan, coffee spills, sponges, ash.

I agree that you cat does NOT have any super-natural abilities to "read" or "sense" a person.

But she does have a super-sensitive nose and can read body language.

Some animals can "read" a male vs. female in terms of voice pitch and physical size of the individual. If she has been dominated or man-handled by a large male man in the past, she could be generalizing to your current boyfriend.

But he can help her unlearn some of this by being gentle and supportive to her, making no fast moves, and keeping his voice low and gentle.

It takes time.

What are of town are you in? There are a variety of shelters/rescues that could offer help/tips, too. Of course, the rescues are busy caring for their own orphaned kittens, but they've got expertise to share. Your vet should be able to help and provide resources, too.

http://www.animaltalkrescue.org/foster.html

From that link, you can download the Foster kitten handbook. It has tips and information for the volunteers who care for kittens (some orphaned and still bottle-fed). Not all of it will apply to you, but there are some very helpful tips about bottle-feeding, litter boxes, heating pads, etc

Good luck!

How much do your kitties weigh? That helps to estimate age. And, are they eating solids or are you bottle feeding them?

Tiny kittens (eyes/ears open, somewhat ambulatory, about 3 weeks old) just aren't coordinated enough to use a litter box; at this age, they really need 24 hour care if their mom isn't around. If they are this little, wait it out and keep them confined so that they don't pee everywhere.

Assuming you have 6 weeks or more old kittens (they should weigh 1.5 lbs or so, are active, playful, and eating solids), you can work on litter training. The problem arises when a kitty is taken from or loses its mother before it is old enough to learn about litter from her. If they were taken from a feral mom, they won't have any idea what a cat box is.

I would confine your kitties to one room of your home--this keeps them safe and unable to pee wherever. Give them nice, soft, attractive cat beds with covers (or just cardboard boxes if they like those) to sleep in. At the opposite side of the room from their food, place a litter box with unscented sand-type litter. If they poop outside the box, put it in the box for them. I've also had success with picking up the cat and just placing it in the clean box--don't force it to stay in if it doesn't want to do so. The texture usually is enough to make them want to dig/eliminate. Once they start using a box, which shouldn't take long, be sure to clean it at least once a day.

The one thing you don't want to do is punish them physically. Dogs don't understand punishment administered after the fact of the crime, and cats even less so. If they poop outside the box, put it in the box. If they pee, use Urine Gone or a similar product to keep them smelling scent markers and continuing to pee there. I've learned from experience (with my now-deceased, crotchety, easily-offended rescue cat) that angering a cat usually leads to laundry being peed upon.

Caveat--make sure your kitties are healthy. I once fostered a mother cat and her kitten. Mom usually used the litter box, but she had giardia, which meant sudden, uncontrolled urges to void. Once that got cleared, she was perfect in her litter use. Cats with UTIs will pee everywhere, too, especially on warm, soft surfaces because it makes it hurt less to pee. If you even suspect issues like this, get the cats to the vet ASAP because early treatment is essential for health, well-being, and owner's well being.

Good luck!

Try putting the "poo" in the box and leaving it there for a bit. If they aren't old enough they won't get the "nose rub/tap" method. If they are old enough, you could try showing it to them, then GENTLY tap their nose, can't stress the gently part enough. It's a wild sign for "no", but they're also more fragile than us so we have to be careful not to hurt them using it. Also speak the word "no" in a short halting but not yelling voice, the tone is important, to show them dominance (works for a lot of animals actually). Also, stay calm, though you don't sound like you're getting angry to me I always recommend it. Kittens take a lot of patience if they are young, usually it's better to leave them around their mom until they pick up the good habits like this.

If they ran every time they saw a stranger with a dog cat's would run themselves out of calories.

Animals don't challenge fight to the death as often as people may think. There's a lot of evolutionary incentive to conserve your energy if you can.

Cats and dogs are fairly domesticated therefore their behavior is altered, ever notice how ferral cats are more skiddish than family -socialized- cats?

And for predators, fast low to the ground moving objects quickly become a target to chase. No matter what they are. For this reason certain breeds take extra socialization with small kids.

What BBinA said - and also, running away is likely to incite a dog to chase, whereas looking aggressive and big may cause the pooch to not bother with attacking. Cat can still GTF out of there quickly if necessary.

Because it's their turf, interloper.

Blowjobs?

The Seattle Humane Society has a program for people who've lost their pets. I've heard really good things about it. Ofttimes, it helps to talk to other people in person.

Grief at the loss of a loved one is one of the most powerful emotional processes we can experience as human beings. Well studied and described you can look up the psychological descriptions of its different stages. However, intellectually understanding it has little impact on the person in the throes of of desperate helplessness of the shock of losing someone you care for.

Pets, for the most part, live a compressed lifetime in comparison to us. The time line of their maturation and natural aging occurs in a matter of a decade or two and for us the memories of them being young and lively is very fresh in our minds and recent in time.

With our companion animals, we maintain a caregiver role their whole life long, there is no real "growing up", we see to their every continuing need. How then to reconcile that we could not make old age, disease, or decline all better again?

Honor their life and importance to you by gathering together the accoutrements of their presence and memories - photographs, a favorite toy, video clips burned on a disk, collar or tag, etc. and put them in a memory box to place prominently in your home. If you need to visit these things they are there to look through, otherwise they serve to represent the energy of the the entity's life and presence in your heart as well as home. Unfortunately we are the ones that are left behind.

When our cat also had come to that point and the same decision had to be made, we brought her back home stopping at a department store to select a decorative cardboard box for interment. I also bought a smaller one of the same design/pattern and it is still here in the house with a few mementos inside. I am glad to see it when I run across it and think very well of her at the time (along with a bit of melancholy).

It does get better with time. The pangs of loss remain but become manageable - they are the lasting measure of the importance that individual creature played in your lives.

---------

There is, of course, another story here - a hero's tale!

One fateful day your husband reached down through trash and detritus and plucked that being out of abandonment and certain imminent death. They lived a long and loved life with the trusted companionship of a loving family.

Do you not think that being was not ever so grateful for her own rescue by him? She showed it daily. When the time came to relieve her of experiencing the severe pain and panic of her body failing, he again made a difficult and important decision. With him close by she passed a dignified and much less stressful death. Losing consciousness and falling asleep in trusted company.

Give him lots of hugs and spend time talking it out, tears are good too.
It does get better.

We have friends who moved abroad and left their two cats with her mother, who already had other cats and could work theirs into her household and take loving care of them. One of the two died while they were away (he was old, and the illness was sudden), and while our friends were crushed, they were grateful that he'd been with someone who'd dealt with those last days as lovingly as they would have.

You may or may not have any options like that, but if you do, it's pretty darn ideal--even if you have to drive them across the country or something to get them there.