Some pics of me munckins

A few more pics of me munchkins, Bob is doing super well with his new behaviour plan, I am a proud mummy.

Molly

Molly is once again gate crashing Bob and Bettys blog :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMvvBfGBIRs

Bobs new plan

Bob has a bran spanking new behaviour plan, his behaviour got out of hand again, he was pooing and peeing where he felt like, was making himself bold around his eye through scratching, waking me up at 5 am, whining constantly, all of this behaviour was attention seeking behaviour. He has this deep desire to gain my attention at all times and it makes him anxious, he feels he needs to be near me all of the time and it is getting out of hand, so his behaviour team decided enough was enough, he needs to learn to be able to cope without me.

This is his new plan:

 Change Bob’s interactions with you using the ‘Attention Control’ programme

Bob highly values your attention and has consequently learnt many different ways of getting attention from you! Your attention is so important because he needs you for reassurance when he is anxious and also for stimulation. He has learnt that in order to achieve attention from you he can do a number of things such as flick your eye lids, scratch his skin, vocalise at you, put his paw on you etc. Bob is so very reliant on your attention that he spends most of his time thinking up ways to get it! Every time that you give him attention whilst he is attention seeking or seeking reassurance, you inadvertently reinforce that behaviour and his emotional state. It is natural human thing to do to reassure or to give attention to a cat that wants it, but unfortunately it does not help our pets behaviour! 

In order to help him become a more confident cat and less reliant, you can use your attention to reward him for showing calm and confident behaviour, if you give him lots of praise when he is relaxed and confident (And NOT attention seeking) he will learn to show this behaviour more. At the same time as rewarding these behaviours it is important to ignore attention seeking or worried behaviour, this will teach him that these behaviours no longer work to get what he wants – you! Bob will at first get frustrated when you start this programme because the attention seeking behaviours that usually work will no longer be working and thus he might try harder to get your attention or he may try new behaviours to see if they work to get your attention. Once he has learnt that these behaviours definitely don’t work any more they will cease. We want you to give Bob as much attention as you do now but make sure you are always the one that initiates interaction with him rather than the other way around. Always call him over to you rather than let him approach for cuddles. This will mean that you need to predict his behaviour – try and invite him over when he would usually come to seek you out but before he starts his attention seeking behaviours.

This programme is especially important for Bob because it has become more and more apparent that he is so tuned in to how you are feeling that any small change in your behaviour also causes a change in his behaviour. It could be that he can alter his toileting behaviour in order to gain attention – we are not sure that this is the case but if it is, then we will need to make him more independent so that he will toilet without any problems. If you do this programme with him it will also mean that if you are upset for any reason, he is much less likely to be reactive to your emotional state and therefore his behaviour will be less likely to go downhill.

We understand that this is going to be hard for you to do because you love giving your cats attention, but it is important to remember that you can give Bob as much attention as you want but just not when he is asking for it! So initially it is going to be hard as Bob gets frustrated that you are not responding to his usual attention seeking behaviour, but in the long term it will be much better for both of you!

I think it would be a good idea for you to write down all the ways that Bob seeks attention from you so that you have a list of behaviours that you want to ignore. When you have done this you will need to think about how you can ignore these behaviours if they get worse. So for instance you can ignore his attention seeking at 5.15 in the morning but you are going to need to prepare yourself and make sure you are protected from flicking claws – have something that you can put over your face or roll up and make sure there isn’t anyway that Bob can wriggle under the covers. Bob will try very hard to wake you up but once you have endured a couple of nights of ignoring him trying to wake you – he will learn to give up and wait and a minute or so after he gives up you can get up and give him attention.

You make find that Bob’s toileting at night gets worse when you start this change in interaction – he might try pooping on your bed in order to get you up – I really hope he won’t do this but it is a possibility so do make sure your duvet is protected with a throw or something similar. Also remember that this is short term he is not going to try attention seeking behaviours for long, because he will learn that these behaviours no longer work as long as you are consistent.   

Remember the golden rules are:

• You start and finish all interactions with your cat
• You ignore all attempts at attention seeking
• You give your cat more attention than previously, but only when he or she is calm and relaxed and not seeking attention.
• The most important thing is to NOT give in to any attention seeking behaviour because you will just teach Bob to try more extreme attention seeking behaviours!

So how is it going I hear you ask? Well bloody well, SO FAR!!!!

Bob has regressed

In a matter of days Bob has regressed right to the beginning and I have no idea why. His behaviour is normally linked in with my mood cycles, I would say I am quite stable at the moment, but for what ever reason Bob has lost the plot. The other night he did a wee on me, then a few hours later followed it with a poo, he has pood on the carpet, weed on a cat bed twice, just everywhere really. But yesterday was even worse as he did the opposite and held it in all day, he didn't go to the toilet at all, so at bed time I had to take him to the toilet, as other wise I new full well he would do it once I was asleep on me. The problem is he has done the same today, he has once again held it in all day and I have had to take him to the toilet at bed time. This is no good for two reasons, reason one him holding it in all day would be unhealthy for any cat, but for Bob it is really dangerous as he has Urinary Tract Disease, holding it in like this will make it flare up and is likely to cause an infection, which will end in him getting blocked and needing a catheter, which is what caused the behaviour problems when he was a kitten. Reason two is that with the behaviour team we have worked hard to reduce Bobs dependence on me especially with regards toileting. He should be able to go to the toilet on his own and in the past he became dependant on me to take him and sit with him whilst he went. We do not want this dependence to reform.

It is just scary how quickly he appears to have gone so far backwards. For any of you that don't no why Bob has these problems or think this is all silly you have to remember Bob was so ill and nearly died due to Urinary Track Disease, he suffered some really invasive treatment which traumatised him and made him think that going to the toilet is going to hurt. It was my choice to keep him alive, so I have to deal with the consequences. He is worth every bit of the trouble we go through. He and Betty are two very special cats and I would put up with anything as long as they are ok.

I have rather neglected this blog

Betty looking at out new flat
you can see it out of our window!

I have rather neglected this blog recently, but you will be pleased to hear I haven't neglected Bob and Betty!

Things are going really well for them both. Bob has come off his prescription food and all of his medication and so far is doing extremely well and has had no urinary tract infections, his toileting behaviour has improved so much, he has moved further on in his behaviour plan and even some days chooses to go to the loo in the litter tray (at long last!). I can't remember the last time he had an accident on me in the night. The behaviour team seem really happy with his progress, it is just mad how he suddenly changed, I think an end is in sight and eventually he will be toileting confidentially every time in his litter tray.

Betty is still a trouble maker, she gets into all kinds of mischief, last night she ran through gold ink that I was using for crafting, she had gold paws and left gold paw prints across the carpet. She always seems to pleased with these kind of things, she is constantly on the look out for what trouble she can get into next.

Bob and Betty sunbathing

They are both enjoying lounging around in the sun that comes through the window, obviously they are house cats, so they do their sunbathing indoors!

They are loving Ben the hamster, they are not as interested in him as they were when he first arrived, but they like watching him eat. Ben still likes to follow them around in his exercise ball, Bob and Betty just walk away from him like he is the embarrassing little brother that wants to hang out with the older ones all the time.

Bob and Betty are looking forward to our big move, we should be moving in June, they are going to have so much more space, they are not going to know what to do with themselves. I feel almost sad about them leaving here in a way, they have lived here since they were tiny kittens, apart from a month at my sisters and a few stints at my parents when I have been poorly. I think I think about things too much, but will they miss here? will they always be thinking "we will be going home soon", I really do think about things too much don't I!

Betty dozing in the sun

Bob asleep with his
favourite toy

Bob and Betty keeping an
eye on Ben

Weight loss clinic

Bob has a appointment at the weight loss clinic tomorrow to check he is losing weight on his new diet. Sometimes  look at him and think he has lost weight, other times I look at him and think he hasn't, so I have no idea what the scales are going to say tomorrow. He looks healthy to me, that is all I care about.

They were going wild last night, they always have the odd hyper hour, where out of no where they suddenly go psycho and charge about like wallys, but last night was hilarious, picture the scene, big huge Bob chasing little Betty down the hall way, but then the next thing you know it is reversed and tiny Betty is chasing huge Bob and Bob is running for his life. Very entertaining to watch, just a shame they managed to break a bowl in the process!

I found some long lost photos of from when Bob was a kitten, enjoy!

Pictures galore

Betty looking mean and moody!

Chilling on my Mum and Dads bed

Bob Stretched out watching
the Christmas TV

My parents bed became the best
place to cuddle up

Stretched out in front of the fire

Guarding the stairs

 So here are a few photos of Bob and Betty's Christmas at my parents. They loved the open fire, eating coal, running up and down the stairs (we don't have stairs at home), but mostly they loved my parents bed and to my parents relief Bob restrained himself from doing a poo on their bed!

Bob and Betty's Christmas

Bob and Betty have had a great Christmas, they have been staying with me at my parents, they love it there. They spend their days running up and down the stairs, annoying the dog, sleeping under my parents bed, lying by the open fire. Basically they have been in cat heaven.

We did have one scary moment, one of my brothers left a window wide open, he just forgot they were here, Betty escaped into our next door neighbours garden, but bless her, she was petrified, she has never been outside, she didn't know what to do and froze, luckily the situation was all under control within a few minutes and Betty was safely returned to the comfort of the indoors, at which point I was able to breath again.

I have taken plenty of photos of Bob and Betty over Christmas, so will upload those at some point.

Bob and Betty want to wish every one a happy 2011.