My cat, who I can best describe as an unpleasant character, has perfected the art of knocking plates/glasses off tables and shelves, eating my food when I'm not looking, running around at insane speeds and miaow-ing as loud as possible as soon as it needs the slightest thing.
As any other cat owner, I punish it when it goes over the line with one of the following:
- water spray
- grabbing it by the scruff and verbalizing it,
- giving it the good ol' shout.
While this worked for my previous cat, it does not work for this one. In fact, my cat is extremely forgetful due to its age and a lifetime of running into doors. It will immediately forget that it received punishment and carry on its mischievous acts like nothing happened.
For instance, last night I caught it drinking from my glass of water, then knocking it over (the glass broke). I then applied the water spray treatment, then went back to sleep. Few minutes later, it comes back and knocks over my second glass of water in the same manner. Grabbed it by the scruff, threw it outside the bedroom and closed the door. This morning, I poured myself a glass of coffee, and ... you get the point.
So what can I do to effectively punish a cat who is both very mischievous and very forgetful?
