BehavioRx Case of the Month
for July 2001

The Clawing, Suckling Tabby

A retired couple were referred because their 3 year-old male, neutered Tabby, whom they called "Tabby," had started clawing at the front of the seat cushions on the couple's favorite recliner love seat shortly after he had started suckling on the wife's current knitting projects. The referring veterinarian had examined Tabby and declared him as "fit as a jungle tiger." Historically, Tabby had no illness. With health problems ruled out, we started to work on a thorough diagnosis.

The couple described tabby as "outgoing, happy, playful and affectionate." "Martha" comment that, since her retirement, Tabby was especially fond of spending time on her lap, purring while stroked him and watched daytime TV dramas. "Jim" had started playing golf two times a week since Martha retired. The couple also swam several times a week in their pool.

The knitting-suckling began five months after Martha retired from her full-time job as a registered nurse. Jim had retired for four years earlier. Tabby was acquired from the local pound at 4 months of age and was neutered at 7 months... "To keep Jim company." The cat's diet was an excellent canned all meat food which he was fed twice daily. His toilet habits were impeccable.

Most pets spend a good deal of their days watching their people. Tabby was no different. When we asked how Tabby behaved when Martha started knitting, she said at first he tried to get onto her lap, but she couldn't accommodate him and her project, so she had to just crowd him off, telling him "Down." Tabby appeared to accept the rejection, usually lying on Jim's side of the recliner. Shortly thereafter Martha caught Tabby jumping into her open knitting basket at odd times of the day and evening. She would shoo him away. After swimming one day, Martha discovered the first holes in a shawl she was knitting. For a few weeks the drama continued; Tabby sneaking his trips into the basket to suckle, Martha showing him the damage and scolding him. Finally, Martha simply closed the knitting basket in a hall closet when she wasn't working on a project. At this time the love seat clawing started.

Both Jim and Martha had caught Tabby at work on the love seat and stopped him by scolding, which the cat seemed to adjust to calmly, with typical feline ingenuity; he just carried on when the folks were away from home. They tried two commercial repellents on the upholstery, but Tabby was undaunted. Hence, the call to their veterinarian, a complete physical, and the call to us.

As often happens during fact-finding interviews, the pets' owners have what many counselors call an "Ah-ha!" So it was with Martha while we were reviewing Tabby's case history.

1. The knitting activity and the material's interference with his close, affectionate interaction with her.
2. Her rejection of him while knitting.
3. This frustration was the basis for stress, which Tabby tried to relieve by suckling the material. As he suckled, he also kneaded the material with his paws. (Martha said, "I wonder if he thought he was knitting, too!")
4. When the knitting was taken away, Tabby turned his attention to the love seat, venting his frustration on the place that was symbolic of his interactions with Martha and Jim.

After reviewing Martha's marvelous "Ah-ha," we guided the couple toward designing a program of activities that would address the underlying cause of the behavior, as well as steps that would assist in turning Tabby off his new clawing hobby and getting him back onto his scratching post, which he had quit using in order to address the love seat. The following plan was developed.

1. Daily morning play sessions were instituted in order to proved Tabby with some intensive interaction with Martha and Jim. His favorite fluffy toy was tied to a string and jerked around while Tabby batted and trapped it.

2. His scratching post was moved into the den and placed a few feet from the love seat. Both Martha and Jim rubbed their palms up and down the post's fabric every morning, leaving their scent. (This is not advisable when suckling or clawing at an owner's hand scent has been part of the problem in the past!)

3. A citrus air freshener aerosol, named "Pure Citrus" has been found to be most unappealing to most cats with this problem. It was sprayed lightly on the love seat's upholstery, until Tabby stopped his clawing there.

4. When the clawing stopped, which was only fours days after the spraying began, Martha brought out her knitting (now smelling of citrus) and left it for short periods while she could monitor Tabby's reactions to it.

Tabby's aversion to clawing on a citrus scent transferred to his taste buds immediately; the mere odor caused him to turn away. Interestingly, the citrus did not deter him from jumping onto the love seat cushions to hop onto Martha or Jim's lap for some pet-purr interaction.

The six-week follow-up reported total success.

This correction program is include in the BehavioRx System instruction brochures at:

http://www.webtrail.com/petbehavior/bseries.html

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