My Aunt Dorothy disliked cats but whenever she visited us our cat, Sam, seemed obsessed with her.  He would hang out next to her chair and would even try to jump in her lap.   In general Sam ignored me and my sister who were always fussing over him and would have loved it if  he gave us that much attention.  Recently I learned about the cat behavior that helps to explain this. 

If you are a cat owner, you have probably noticed your cat rubbing or brushing against furniture and other household items.   He especially wants to examine everything new, walking around it, brushing against it and examining it from all angles.  It seems like he is just curious, but in fact your cat is putting his scent is on those things, making it clear that the room and the objects in it are part of his territory. In cat terms, your whole house and everything in it belongs to the cat.

For the same reason your cat will rub against any strangers who come into your house, and do the same to you if you have been out any place where there were other cats. It seems like he is welcoming you home, and he is, in a way………….your cat is making you its property again.

This is why your cat seems to target people who have pet allergies or just don’t really like cats. Most people will happily let a cat rub around their legs as soon as they walk in the door, or they may even stroke it or let it lick their fingers.  Once that has happened the cat’s job is done. Those people have been accepted and your cat can ignore them for the rest of their visit.  But people who generally dislike cats will avoid them and so the laws of cat behavior require that your cat keeps on trying to get close to them!

This persistent behavior makes it seem like cats love people who don’t like them!

By the way, Sam’s persistence paid off, eventually my Aunt Dorothy grew to like Sam (isn’t that always the way with people who think they don’t like cats?)

Visit our website for more information about cats.  www.adoptastray.ws

No tags

The Paw Project, a non-profit animal advocacy organization, unveiled this dramatic new billboard to educate the public about the harmful consequences of feline de-clawing.

De-clawing surgery is commonly performed in the U.S. to prevent cats from scratching furniture. Since a cat’s claw grows from within the last bone of its toe, de-clawing requires an amputation at the last “knuckle.”

“Declawing is one of the most painful surgeries routinely performed by veterinarians, and it can result in serious physical and behavioral complications,” said Jennifer Conrad, DVM, who founded The Paw Project in 2000 to promote public awareness about the crippling effects of de-clawing, to rehabilitate de-clawed cats through reparative surgery, and to support measures to eradicate de-clawing.

As a result of The Paw Project’s efforts, California now bans declawing of captive wild and exotic cats, the USDA forbids its nationwide licensees from de-clawing exotic and wild animals, and West Hollywood prohibits declawing of all animals, including domestic cats.

For more information about declawing, visit http://www.adoptastray.ws/articles/ and read More than a Manicure – Declaw Information.

No tags