How Can I Stop One Of My Cats From Constant Howling?

[AndiFlatland]

In September 2010, a friend of mine passed on a black-and-white DSH female cat to me, that had not had a great life so far. She was approx.8 years old, and had been passed around from pillar to post because she never seemed to be happy in any of her homes. Despite the fact that I already had 2 cats, from day 1 she settled down here as if she had lived here all her life, and seemed perfectly happy. The other cats were not hostile to her, and neither was she to them, but she needed her own little area, which she found on my bed, which is the upper deck of a bunk-bed sofa. She did not displace either of the other 2 from that area. She gets plenty of love and attention from me, and is as affectionate a cat as I could wish for. But each time I catch her attention, or reach out to stroke her, she recoils as if she thinks I'm going to hit her, and I get the half-open twittering mouth, like they do when the see a bird, until she's got used to the idea.

But after a few weeks of contented life here, one evening she ran up the ladder to the bed, and let out the loudest, most piercing howl - far more than just a miaow - that I'd ever heard. I immediately thought that something was terribly wrong, but when I checked, there was nothing to be seen. And she kept on doing it, at least 6 times, each howl lasting up to 10 seconds, before the racket finally abated. And from then on, she has done it every time she runs up to the bed.

I washed all the bed linen, in case there was some residual scent from one of the other cats that she didn't like - no dice. I took her to the Blue Cross, where I had registered her, and described the problem to them. They told me that they had not heard of anything like this before, and thought it might just be a territorial thing until she's properly established. But it's now been going on for almost 5 years at the same level, and it's driving me mad! I now tend to keep shouting 'Shut up!!' at her every time, but she just stares wide-eyed back at me and keeps on. The vets gave her a full health check, and found everything to be normal. She is eating normally, and seems to have no problem with urinating or defecating - she uses both the back garden, and the litter tray that's provided for one of the other cats who is almost blind.

The friend who brought her to me told me that she howled incessantly in the car for the entire journey (from Hastings to South London), even though she was sitting on her lap (her husband was driving), so it cannot have anything to do with not being happy in my flat, or with the other cats.

I know that dog barking can be controlled with the use of an ultrasonic whistle. I wonder if this would also work for a cat?

Anybody got any ideas?

[chanel5]

I dunno, Andiflatland, something like the dog whistle that is used to control barking might stress the cat and make things worse. The poor girl. On the one hand she is extremely lucky to have found such a great home and such loving care with you, on the other hand the traumas that she may have suffered in her past may be causing her some distress. I have a boy who is somewhat similar. He doesnt howl, but he has growling sessions, where he growls at nothing and winds himself up into a bit of a state. If we try to pet him when this is going on, he tries to bite. He too had an unsettled life, was passed around from pillar to post and, we suspect, abused. The one thing that helped him was Feliway. It is a feline pheromone that calms cats and helps them to de-stress. You can buy it in a plug-in dispense form that you dispenses the pheromones in the room where the device is plugged in. Humans cannot smell the pheromones but cat respond to it. You can also buy Feliway as a spray to spray on cats' bedding.
I hope you can find something to help your girl. And to give you a bit of peace and quiet.

[AndiFlatland]

Thanks for your response, chanel5 - the only one that's come up so far.

Yes, it had occurred to me that might be the case with using an ultrasonic dog whistle to try and control the howling. Obviously I don't want to stress her out any more than she already appears to be, for whatever reason. And it did seem to be the case that she may have suffered neglect or abuse in her previous homes, which could well have left permanent emotional scars, but she had no evidence of any physical injuries, and purred readily. Sadly, it may be the case that she will never forget, even though she gets food, affection and security from me that she may never have enjoyed before, and even scrambles into bed with me and purrs contentedly - although she crawls out again after about 5 minutes, and sleeps at my feet for the rest of the night (even though she risks occasionally getting kicked when dreaming causes me to have involuntary reflexes!)

I even changed her name from Fudge (!! - she's not brown!) to Wendy, to disassociate her from any unfortunate memories the name might hold for her..

As for your suggestion of using Feliway - I'd forgotten that we did actually try this when I took her to the Blue Cross. We used about 3 of the little plug-in devices over a few months, to zero effect (although it's possible it may have contributed to keeping the little trio reasonably harmonious). Their behaviour was not noticeably better or worse when the plug-ins ran out, so I abandoned them.

Anyway, thanks for your suggestions - I guess I'm just going to have to put up with it (and I sometimes wonder what the neighbours might think I'm doing to her, as they must be able to hear the howling - it's almost like a wild dog or a wolf, and sounds terribly mournful). At least she has come to the end of the road with me - she's here for the rest of her life, and I won't be offloading her on to anybody else. I just wish I could do something more for her.

PS: In case anybody else feels like chipping in, I should also have mentioned that there are no noisy children or any other people around, the flat is largely quiet, unless the TV, radio or music are on, never loud, and there are no other animals nearby, other than the cats which live in the houses either side, and she appears not to have any issues with them. There are dim orange lights on all night long, and she comes and goes through the cat flap as she wishes, and is never pursued or challenged going through it - to the best of my knowledge. She never seems to desire to hide in dark, inaccessible corners, and is quite content, like most cats, to peacefully snooze most of her life away! To all outward appearances, therefore, a normal and well-balanced cat.

[Prudie]

I would suggest that as the vets have confirmed all is well, Feliway had no effect which tends to rule out a stress cause then you just have a vocal cat who likes to make her feelings known, think of it as a victory roar that's she's found her place in life! It's probaby territorial in origin and quite frankly if it's gone on for 5 years you've got fat chance of it stopping. Treat it as her very special individual quirk :-)

[woofgang]

In case anyone with a dog is reading this, dog barking CANNOT be controlled by an ultrasonic whistle and its cruel to try.

She might have some oriental breed in her, they tend to be very vocal cats.