Patience and Perseverance Pay Off In July 2017, PAWS received a call from a Melrose woman about a beautiful, large tuxedo cat who had been coming to her house looking for a meal. The cat was friendly and reasonably easy to get into a carrier, and was soon placed in a PAWS foster home. He was named Kalten. Scared but not aggressive, Kalten loved being touched and also love to "talk” to his new caretakers. However, all that suddenly changed when he started to be aggressive toward other cats in the house, and then, without warning, toward his caretakers. Although the aggression was intermittent, it was also without any obvious provocation, so very difficult to deal with. PAWS took great measures to get to the root of this erratic behavior. He had a complete vet work up. A behavioral consultant was brought in to see if there were any physiological or environmental factors that were triggering his outbursts. PAWS continued to apply the advice of the vets and behaviorists, but could not resolve the problem. Since the aggressive outbursts could not be predicted, the next step was to find another appropriate foster home, hoping a change in environment might help. Unfortunately, this took a while since PAWS was had no available foster space. But, finally a space opened up with our intake coordinator, Nancy. Nancy has had more than her share of experience with challenging cat behaviors, so she got out her bag of tricks and went to work. It took some trial and error, but Nancy finally concluded that Kalten needs lots of active play to work off his aggressive energy. After two really rough weeks of consistent exercise, Kalten turned into a lap cat with a rough edge. Once Nancy realized this, she learned to “wear him out” to the point that he would then sleep in her lap for hours, even snoring at times. Nancy also learned that he needs lots of space and loves being with people. He thoroughly enjoys having someone stroke his rich, soft fur. There were still times when he would strike out for no apparent reason, sometimes being rougher than others. But, after several months, his behavior was more consistent and it was time to begin the search for the perfect adopter. Nancy began looking for a home where Katlen would be a solo cat with someone who would give him space to adapt and who would forgive his transgressions. Nancy's patience throughout this process finally paid off when the right person showed up willing to adopt this handsome, albeit quirky, boy. Here is the rest of Kalten's story from Mark Sardella, his new human dad: I adopted Kalten in January of 2020 and I can say with certainty that he is a very happy cat. When I was thinking about adopting, a friend urged me to get an “easy” cat. With that in mind, I began perusing the PAWS adoption website. For some reason, I kept being drawn to this big male tuxedo with the unusual name. I could see from the description that he had a “history,” and probably wouldn’t meet the definition of an “easy” cat. But my previous cat, Teddy, had been a big old male cat with an ornery streak, so I figured I could probably handle Kalten. I filled out the application form with the two cats that I was interested in, Kalten and one other. Nancy Tolleson called me a couple of days later and told me that the other cat wasn’t quite ready to be adopted but Kalten was good to go. Nancy was very open and honest about his history, but said that she had been fostering him for six months and working with him on his “issues.” She said that he was a “different cat” from when she first took him in.  Nancy’s assessment of what Kalten needed in a new home A few days later, I met Kalten at the PAWS office and a few days after that I brought him home. The first day was a little chaotic, but Nancy talked me off the ledge and Kalten adjusted in no time to his new home. Now, he has become very loyal and devoted to me. He follows me around the house and always wants to be on my lap or close by. The house has lots of high perches that he likes to use. There are lots of windows, some close to the ground and others very high up, from which he can observe the many birds, wildlife and people in the neighborhood. He has lots of toys and I try to engage him in vigorous play at last twice a day so he can burn off some energy. He’s not perfect but the progress he has made continues. To paraphrase Nancy’s description, 95 percent of the time he’s a great cat. I would say that having a whole house to roam (instead of being confined to one room) and having no other feline or canine competitors suits him and we get along great. Kalten is a good boy and he proves that with patience a cat that was once considered “difficult” can be a great companion. |
