Hi. I have never really been a cat person. I have always had dogs my entire life. The only cat I had growing up was an outside cat that came around occasionally to bring us a present (what it killed) and to stay warm at night and in the winter. My partner and I got together a couple of years ago, and with him came a cat, Crosby. I love him to death. He super sweet. I’ve never had a cat in my life that was so cuddly, loving, and playful. Having a cat inside is new to me though. This is the first cat I have ever taken care of that lived inside.

I have noticed over the past year, Crosby has started begging for food like a dog. It started out with dinner that was fish or chicken based. You could watch him sniffing the air because it was obviously something that smelled good to him and something he wanted. Then, Crosby built the courage to climb up on the chairs at the dinner table while we are eating. I will admit, my partner and I have given him a little bite here and there of chicken or fish because who could resist? Over time, his begging has gotten more aggressive. Now he claws at you at the table, jumps up on the table while you are eating, and will walk around the table meowing until you give him a fix.

Onto his meowing. He has always been a vocal cat. I get it that some animals are just more vocal than others. But over the past 6 months, he has gotten really bad. As soon as you get home, he starts meowing and doesn’t stop. You can clap at him, startle him, use a spray bottle, put him in his cat room, or even give him food, and it will not make him stop. It is driving me insane. Some nights, Crosby even does long deep meows throughout the night. It’s almost like he is hungry all the time. I have read so many Reddit posts from other people talking about how their cat act like they have never eaten a morsel in their life, despite being fed multiple times a day. But, I feel like Crosby is being excessive. I try to watch his food intake. He will eat so much that he gets fat. I am constantly adjusting his food intake to help maintain his weight. To help calm him down, I tried a certain catnip for him to calm him down and some kind of sticks that cats, I guess, scratch and chew on that Zens them out. It didn’t work one bit.

Lastly, at night, for the past 2 months, he all of a sudden has developed zoomies. He runs back and forth from one end of the house to the other, nonstop. He will do this for 5-10 minutes. He will run, do some weird meowing, then run more. I know he wants to play, but it’s just a random onset of this that I have never seen him do in 2 years.

With all this said, I need help or advice. What do I do? Where do I start? I’ve only known how to handle dogs my entire life, so this is new territory for me.