Sidney Morgan took her three-year-old cat Abby to the vet after she started limping around the house – only to be told the ‘jealous’ cat wanted ‘more attention’ after noticing how the poorly dog got extra cuddles
A pet owner claims her cat ‘faked’ a broken paw in a ‘bid for more attention’ after spotting the poorly dog got extra cuddles – but only after forking out almost $1,000 (£800) on vet bills. Sidney Morgan spotted that three-year-old Abby had begun limping one day out of the blue and worried that one of her dogs may have stepped on her paw.
The 28-year-old checked her beloved rescue kitty’s paw and was puzzled to see there was no wound so called the vet, who advised her to wait a little longer in case it was a sprain. But two weeks later, Abby continued to limp around the house and Sidney feared she may have broken it jumping.
However, after three trips to the vet, an X-ray, pain medication and blood tests, the vet and Sidney discovered her ‘dramatic’ puss simply needed some extra love. A relieved Sidney, who works for the SPCA, believes Abby was faking her limp in the hopes of averting some of the attention away from the dog, who was also sick at the time.
Sidney says people have suggested her pet has Munchausen syndrome – a psychological condition in which someone pretends to be ill so that people look after them or to get attention. Sidney, from Stockton, California, US, said: “My kitty was non-stop faking she had a broken paw.
“She’d do a little high-pitch meow and fake a limp. There was no swelling though and I checked her paw in case she’d stepped on a foxtail [a spiky cluster of grass] but there was no wound at all. I was panicking that she had something wrong with her so I called up my vet and they did X-rays.
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“They ran some more tests to see if anything else was wrong, we had three trips back and forth to the vet to do blood tests and urine analysis. All these different things. Everything came back that she was super healthy and they had given her high-dosage pain medication but she was still doing it so we knew she wasn’t in pain.
“It was around the same time that my dog was sick. We started figuring out that the cat is not actually sick but she’s mimicking the dog because he’s getting a lot of attention because he’s sick. She’s a very smart cat and very dramatic, so it checks out.
“Anytime she sees me giving him a bunch of love, she starts doing it again. I was like ‘okay you’re just tricking me now’. There was a comment saying she has ‘Munchausen’s syndrome’ and I thought that was cute.”
The animal rescuer found Abby with pneumonia when she was just three-weeks-old and bottled fed her back to health. Abby is one of three special needs cats that Sidney owns alongside three dogs, two turtles, two geckos, and one snake.
Sidney now advises other pet owners to always call up the vet if they think something is wrong as it’s better to be safe than sorry. Sidney said: “I’ve been giving her more attention now. She starts purring when she gets it.
“She’s my baby girl. She’s the boss of the house. She sleeps with me every night so she gets a lot of love, but she loves being the centre of attention always. I’m just glad there’s nothing wrong with her and that there aren’t any more health issues or something giving her pain.
“I would always advise others to take a trip to the vet because you never know. It’s always better to know than to be guessing. I see a lot of things which people dismiss as small things and they think it’ll just get better over time but it ends up being a big issue. It’s always good to get it checked out sooner rather than later.”
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