(It's taken a long time to write this post because I'm reacting to glyphosate I almost saw the Professional Bad Neighbor illegally spraying on my property yesterday. I say "almost" because it was still dark, just before 6 a.m. I saw the body shape, and I know who's evil enough to do that, but I did not see the face--he jumped back into his truck and fled. The cats are all reacting to this amount of glyphosate poisoning, too. Even "Serena-Seralina" who, like the rats in the Seralini study, usually shows no reaction to glyphosate herself but has given birth to defective or hypersensitive kittens after exposure. Rain has finally come to our rescue but I'm still moving at about a quarter of my usual pace.)
Today we consider the question of why cats "attack" people.
Obviously we are talking about the playful "attack" that is a way some cats show affection, even if it can be painful for the cat's human friends. If your cat seriously goes for someone's eyes or throat, your problems are beyond the scope of this page. In the event of a serious attack the first priority is to remove vulnerable humans from danger, followed by eliminating all possibility of rabies.
But no. We are talking here about a friendly cat, like the one who turned my mother against cats for life, or like the one I've trained (mostly) to stop "attacking" me.
"Mommy Mommy Mommy, I was just sitting on the steps petting Miss Kitty, and she SCRATCHED me!"
"Oh dear! Show me the place. Let's clean it up and make it better. Now don't pet Miss Kitty again until you're sure you know why she scratched you. We want her to know it's not okay to scratch you! Even if you might have petted her a little bit too hard, or the wrong way, or in the wrong place."
For people who are not used to being loved by cats, here are the Rookie Rules:
1. Never chase or even call the cat. Let it come to you.
(Adult cats seldom do anything in a completely gender-neutral way, but kittens often do, and all cats were once kittens. So it should be all right to call the generic cat "it.")
2. If the cat rubs against you, sits on or against you, or otherwise seems to want to be petted by you, stroke the fur very gently in the direction it grows, on the head and upper back only.
3. If the cat starts growling, drooling, or kneading you with its paws, politely break contact before it gets too comfortable with you. When cats really feel cozy and secure in the bosom of their family, they're apt to forget how brittle human skin is.
4. If the cat stares directly at your face, it may be just giving you a hard time, or it may be trying to engage you in a rough game. Avoid eye contact with cats.
5. If one of those friendly little nips or scratches does happen, the natural trigger to stop it is to push back, not into but just behind the tooth or claw.
So much for young children and cat-phobic types. The questions that provoked today's post come from a grown-up cat owner who's not afraid of Fluffy's "attacks" but would like to be understand more about managing this behavior.
Q. Is attacking in a cat's nature?
A. Of course it is. They are carnivores. They live on meat--and it has to be freshly killed. The fact that most domestic cats no longer need to attack anything in order to get food has not changed the fact that they're built to hunt, and their main interests in life relate to hunting.
Q. Are certain breeds or age groups more predisposed to act on their predatory nature?
A. Breeds might be a question for a specialist. I've read that Ocicats, a large breed developed for an unusual resemblance to wild ocelots, are especially inclined to play rough, and no doubt everyone remembers Louise Rennison's assertion that the cat character in her comic novels was based on a real pet of hers. (Angus was said to be a Scottish Wild cat, or a product of crossbreeding with one. He usually bit and scratched humans who came within range, but was perfectly gentle with the toddler.)
Certain age groups are, of course, more likely to act on their predatory nature. Young cats are more active than old cats. For cats, nearly all activity has something to do with their predatory nature.
Q. What signs might signal that a cat ambushing or attacking humans for seemingly no reason goes beyond normal play?
A. Is it all directed at the one person? If so, from the cat's point of view there probably is a reason. A cat-phobic person might stare at the cat as if inviting it to romp, back away as if signalling that person wants to be chased, even hunch up its shoulders in a way that may signal "Come and join me" to some cats. A visitor sleeping on the bed the cat often occupies, or a plumber moving the cat's litter box out from under the sink...well, obviously! Someone who's not accustomed to cats may dart away when pounced on in what the cat perceives as an irresistibly inviting way. And sometimes the cat knows something about an individual that the humans don't know, yet.
"Beyond normal play" sometimes means that a cat's normal reactions have been altered by abnormal living conditions, i.e. living with its humans. My current cat's mother, a rescue kitten, was naturally friendly and had been a pet, but she'd also grown up around middle school boys and had become a panic biter. The sight of a glass or bottle being raised triggered panics that suggested a middle school boy's sense of humor. The sight of a flea comb also triggered panics that suggested that attempts at grooming had been clumsy and rough. Patience, firmness, and gentleness helped the rescue kitten calm down as she grew up, but she'll probably always be a bit of a "Scaredycat."
Rarely, aggression goes far beyond normal play when it's also obvious that something is wrong with the cat. It's very unusual, but not unknown, for a rabid or otherwise delirious cat to want to rest beside a trusted friend, then wake up delirious and suddenly try to kill that friend. If the disease happens to be contagious, as rabies is to humans, a "mad cat" bite can kill a man. Rabies vaccines and taking the cat to the vet if it seems feverish are important ways of making it safe for humans to live with cats.
Q. Can you list some possible reasons why my cat is "ambushing" me, and how to redirect or prevent the behavior?
A. The cat is probably either playing what it thinks is a great game, or trying to train you not to go where you're going when it "ambushes" you.
If the former is the case, try loosening up. Some people think it's adorable that a cat jumps off a ladder onto their shoulders in cold weather, when they wear jackets, and then complain that the cat may want to play the same game in summer. You might try redirection. If it was oh so cute when a four-pound kitten jumped from the top of the refrigerator to the small of your back, but now the kitten is a muscular fifteen-pound cat, I would seriously try explaining the situation in words: "You are bigger than you used to be, and I am older. This game's not fun for me any more." (Most cats don't understand words, but if you speak clearly, patiently, and mindfully a few cats will learn enough words to thrill both the cat and you.) Then propose a better game, like putting a cat tree where the cat can jump onto a shelf to pounce on a toy you trail along the shelf, Or just lock the cat out of the kitchen!
If the cat wants you to stay out of a particular place, "ambushes" you when you approach that place and increases the intensity of its attacks if you persist in approaching, you have a territorial dispute going on. A typical reason for that would be that the cat is rearing kittens in the space she has claimed, or is using that space as a litter box. If you can humor the cat about this, that's the way once-in-a-lifetime relationships with cats form. If you can't, accept a little punishment, do something nice for the cat when it's not punishing you, and trust that the disagreement will blow over in time. A cat who likes you may still want to have a place that doesn't smell of you--and it will probably find another place.
Q. Are there specific toys or games that appeal to a cat's hunting instincts and help redirect aggressive behavior?
A. All toys and games that appeal to cats appeal to their hunting instincts and help redirect aggressive behavior. The thing to remember about cat toys is that cats don't care how much a toy costs, and their only interest in moving parts is tearing them apart. What really holds the cat's interest is playing with someone else--the potential for a surprise! So, although expensive designer-label toys will be fun for a cat if you play with them, hedge trimmings and the strings out of feed sacks will be about equally interesting to the cat.
Most cats' aggressive behavior is about playing, letting off steam, and relieving boredom, so toys--and the time the human spends playing with them!--help redirect those urges into games where the human's skin remains intact..
Along with "handedness"--a tendency to grab with the right or left paw--cats also seem to inherit preferences for different hunting moves. Jean George described them as mousing, birding, bugging, and fishing grabs--each grab being most likely to work for a cat hunting a different type of prey. Some kittens would rather chase a toy across the floor, and some would rather chase one up in the air. The ones who prefer to chase things in the air are the ones who need to be indoor pets. Indoors, they use that move to swat insects. Anyway, those natural preferences help to determine whether a toy or game will be an instant success with your cat, or a challenge it takes weeks to master.
Young active cats want to spend more time playing games that mimic various aspects of hunting, hiding, stalking, fighting, and killing than humans ever want to play. To save your sanity, adopt another young active cat.
Q. Do cats of all ages experience play aggression?
A. Yes, but more energetic cats experience it more often. Though there is some question about the extent to which cats distinguish between a play-fight and a real quarrel...the bottom line is, whether they're kittens practicing their moves or adult males fighting over a female, cats fight ro score points much more than they fight to kill. And yes, other animals besides cats are likely to be drawn into it.
Q. Do indoor/outdoor cats exhibit different play/predatory patterns toward their humans?
A. Outdoor cats work off a lot more of their energy outdoors. If you prefer to come in contact with your cat when it's in the mood for a nap or grooming, rather than to practice disembowelling prey, you probably want to live in a place where your cat can spend most of its waking hours outdoors.
Full-time indoor cats often have no one to play with but their humans, which can contribute to abnormal, unhealthy behavior patterns in both species. If you have one indoor cat you really need to have two. Each cat will probably want its own space, including its own human lap to sit on, but how bad is that?
Q. How can pet owners distinguish aggressive behavior rooted in fear versus play?
A. It's not always cut and dried, but the cat's overall attitude toward you is usually easy to read if you're not in denial about it. I don't believe cats are naturally timid. That's not a survival trait for a predator. They can be made timid, because they are small, vulnerable predators, but mindful, controlled aggression is natural for cats. Since fearfulness is probably something that always has to be learned, usually by mistreatment, we often see mixes of fear and aggression in cats. Typically when they move in with humans, they spend a few days hiding under something or on top of something. During this time they're likely to threaten anyone who approaches their space. That's a natural reaction to being in a new place. Given time the behavior will probably disappear, or at least tone down.
(Something some vets recommend, and I've seen good results with it, is trying to give the cat the idea that its cage or carrying case is its safe place. For an outdoor cat a raccoon trap can be great. The cat can run in and lock itself in, and a raccoon or weasel can't get at it. A carrying case will also work. The idea is that, if the cat has to spend time at the veterinary clinic, it may be a little calmer if it's in its very own box where other animals can't attack it.)
When it's rooted in play, there's a carefree attitude. The cat may be venting some feelings about your recent behavior, but basically you and it are friends having fun. My current cats have a game where they charge past me and the goal is not to touch me, or be touched by me. They stare as if they're going to attack, charge right at my ankles, and run between or around my feet. That's the adult behavior of kittens who have been successfully retrained away from that game kittens love where they roll over on their backs, inviting you to tickle them, so they can grab your hand and bite.
Q. How can fear-based aggression be reduced or prevented?
A. Don't start it. From the day the mother cat lets you see kittens, treat them with as much gentleness and respect as possible. Little things like making loud noises or sudden moves become a lot scarier when they're being made by something the size of Godzilla, which is basically what we must look like to a kitten. You can get to the stage where you can grab a cat up, spin it around, and kiss its fur if you really want to, with some cats, but you need to take the time to build that kind of trust.
Regular readers remember Samantha, the rescue kitten who was the mother of my reigning Queen Cat Serena. Samantha was a beautiful little calico kitten who grew up in what I'd call one of the suboptimal cat sanctuaries in my part of the world. Too many cats and too many humans were in one house. Samantha spent a lot of time around middle school boys, and it almost ruined her. She loved to be petted and admired but she was on edge. It was hard to imagine what any move you made was going to remind her of, causing her to run and hide, or else scratch and bite.
Samantha and I had quite a time during the first few weeks. I have a rule that cats don't win fights with humans. If she scratched me, she had her claws clipped and spent a few hours in her Samantha Box--she understood words and responded to her name, so that was the name of a cage trap. Some days people in town would notice that my hands were covered with Samantha-related injuries. What had I done to set her off? I'd raised a glass of water to take a drink. She must have thought I was going to give her a cold shower just for a laugh. I felt sorry for her, nervous little Samantha Scaredycat. She responded to the words "Nobody's going to hurt you." I said that to her, often. If she panicked and scratched or bit, she had to settle down and let her claws be clipped, but I tried to be calm and matter-of-fact about it. This action has this consequence. The consequence is bearable but you might have more fun if you didn't do what led to it. Most cats would rather file their claws down by marking a piece of wood that they've chosen for themselves than have their claws clipped, though some cats like the attention. So she could hide in her box and have some quiet time to herself, and then around mealtime I'd ask if she wanted to come out. Usually she did, and she wanted to be petted and be friends again. She will always be part Siamese, a highly sensitive cat, but she calmed down a great deal in a year and a half. She went from being a kitten I kept away from other people to being a cat other people would want to adopt.
By the next summer, Samantha was so much less afraid of water that she'd try to peer into a bucket of water in case there was food in it. The weather was warmer, and if I spilled water on Samantha she'd give me the stink eye but she would not panic, much less attack.
Of course I can't take all the credit for healing Samantha's emotional wounds. When she came to live with us she was afraid of being left alone. She'd cling and try to discourage me from leaving the house in the morning. When I left she'd hide in her Samantha Box all day, if I hadn't locked her into it. Then she really bonded with an older, calmer cat. Cats don't usually form pair bonds, but sometimes social cats do and I think those two came close. It was only two or three weeks before she was comfortable staying home with the other cats, if her mate was there. Even non-social cats, who are definitely a majority, do "copy" what they see other cats do, so a calmer, probably older, cat who models confident good manners can be a great help...if the confident cat bond with the scaredycat and doesn't bully it!
If you can have a barn and keep a panic-prone cat as a barn cat, I recommend that. Giving them their space helps them work through their fear.
A thing I've seen with practically every "diluted orange" cat, which is also said to be typical with Siamese, is that they're very wary of new things but also very affectionate. How this works out is that, when a mother cat has presented her kittens, typically the black, gray, orange, or multicolored ones will look wary at first and then, within a half-hour or so, start sniffing around and making friends. The pale-colored one who's in the process of turning light brown or orange will hiss and spit and puff out all its fur. "Touch me and I'll bite!" Usually I ignore that behavior; sometimes I've picked up a kitten and told it it was ridiculous. It's made no difference either way. Sometimes the next day when they come out of their nest to scamper about, always within a week, that pale orange or brown kitten wants to be a pet. I think this is a natural temperament pattern. It seems to be fear-based, but the fear is moderate and reasonable, and they get over it easily. That's not the same thing as the post-traumatic stress disorder we often find in shelter cats.
Or, I have to mention, in one truly hostile cat that came to the Cat Sanctuary. Nobody brought it to us. I think it was dumped out of a car on the highway by someone who'd come to hate it. It was a hateful animal. A family of six social cats were in residence. They were friendly--they'd adopted young stray cats many times before. This stray cat was keeping away from me, but it would sneak up and really attack the little spring kitten in our happy social cat family. (Other spring kittens had been adopted but I'd wanted to keep one of them.) Cats don't often leave deep wounds on each other, but that one did. It was a young cat--its gender was still not obvious, which may have been part of its problem--but almost as big as my adult cats, with long hair that made it look even bigger, and it was trying to kill a harmless little kitten. My adult cats were just shocked. They were social cats; they never fought. Not like that. They acted as if they couldn't believe this monster was a cat.
I think that kind of aggression, which is very rare in cats, thank goodness, has to be fear-based too. But, quite frankly, I do not care. Because that particular cat was so beautiful, possibly Himalayan, I was able to find someone to adopt it even after being warned that it was vicious. Generally I have no problem with the idea of euthanizing a vicious animal.
Q. How can we identify a bored cat's behavior between attacks, and prevent boredom-induced attacks?
A. Bored cats may sleep more than is normal for their age, or may get into mischief and seem to want to annoy the humans who keep them inside boring homes. As humans we can do a lot to entertain our cats, but not nearly so much as another cat can. So the first thing I'd suggest would be adopting another cat.
Q. Should I get a second cat if my cat is ambushing me?
A. If it's just normal boredom, surplus energy, and high spirits, your cat will probably be delighted to have someone to play with. If it's fear-based, you will need to make sure the other cat is a good model of calm, friendly, kind behavior.
Relationships among cats and humans are one of the ways cats' reactions resemble humans'. Some cats may act nice when a human who rewards that behavior is watching, and then bully the other cat when the human's not around. Some cats who are generally friendly to each other may think of "owning" the human as a status indicator, and act jealous if the junior cat gets any attention from the chosen human. A way some vets recommend helping cats get along, even if there's only one human in the family, is to act as if one cat belongs to the legal owner and the other belongs to some other human friend. Then if "your cat" acts jealous you can say "Let's be kind to Tracy's cat." Still, despite the rivalries and dominance displays, the aggressive quality of cats' games, and the fact that some cats genuinely don't ever come to like each other much, cats are less bored and "neurotic" when they interact with other cats. It may look as if a beta cat is put-upon and miserable, and if you feel sorry for the beta cat and give it treats or favors it will probably get further into its "poor little me" role, but from a solitary animal's point of view, the cat's getting regular meals, a safe place to live, and the combination of private space with a sense of being cared about that cats seem to want.
Q. What triggers redirected aggression, and how can readers distinguish it from other types of aggression?
A. In the more pleasant sense of the phrase, you trigger redirected aggression when you train your cat to chase a ball instead of pouncing on your stockings. But there's also an unpleasant sense of the term, where animals (or humans) don't react during a crisis, but they wish they had, so after the crisis passes they turn their aggressive energy toward someone else.
We had this, once, at the Cat Sanctuary. I'd never heard of it in cats. All I know, even now, is that what I did--taking it seriously--was the wrong thing to do. Maybe, if six normal cats lived at the same address,, the other five would be pleased if one of them was removed. I had six social cats. They missed and worried about the one who'd shown redirected aggression. Sending her away obviously made everyone feel worse than they already did.
I know now that it's going to be hard to do much about redirected aggression because, if you'd been able to identify and help solve the problem that makes an animal (or a human) redirect aggression onto some inoffensive weaker party, you would have done so before the redirected aggression occurred.
Q. How should pet parents respond in the moment of redirected aggression?
A. Generally--regardless of the species involved!--psychologists recommend increasing interpersonal distance, maintaining calm, and trying to provide pleasant experiences for the individuals affected when they're not acting aggressive. These ideas are of course applied in different ways for cats, dogs, children, or adults.
It's not always possible to think of a way to make these ideas work. I still don't know how the situation in which a social cat showed redirected aggression toward another social cat might have been resolved.
Q. What factors can cause overstimulation in cats and how can aggression due to overstimulation be effectively managed?
A. Overstimulation feels similar to panic. Humans have ways to think of the two things as being different even though they feel similar; I'm not sure that cats do. Anyway, although it's hard to imagine just how cats see, smell, hear, and feel the world, overall they seem to perceive more than we do, and they can easily become frightened or overwhelmed when too much of what they perceive is new and exciting.
Cats will tell you when they've had enough of any kind of sensory stimulation. Putting silly little costumes or decorations on them? Most cats hate that. You might get away with balancing a flower on a cat for long enough to snap a picture, but if one flower blows off before you can snap, your cat will probably tell you not to try that stunt again. Putting baby clothes, or stickers, or even gluing human paraphernalia to their paws? Some cats might not bite you, but they'd be thinking about it.
Cats can be overstimulated by all sorts of things, especially by too much petting, especially on the underside. Many cats like to have their undersides tickled, but humans who play that little game need to know what they're doing. The underside of a cat is the site of nerve endings involved in reflexes associated with fighting, mating, and digestion. A little stimulation of those nerves goes a long way, so if you tickle a cat with the abandon some people use when tickling other humans, you can expect the bite that is a cat's way of saying "I said STOP IT."
Don't try to force a cat to come out and play when it wants to hide in its safe space. Cats ae very good at avoiding overstimulation and maintaining inner peace, if we let them.
Q. What is maternal aggression in cats?
A. Not all mother cats become insanely overprotective of their kittens. In my experience, most don't. Some cats are more affectionate than usual when they're nursing kittens. It's an old Cat Sanctuary tradition that at some point before kittens are completely weaned a mother cat will cuddle up on or beside my knee and nurse her kittens. But some cats are overprotective. Even the cat family and friends may be driven away from the babies in their den. Even the family's human godparents may have their hands slashed if they try to peek in at new kittens.
Inconvenient though it is for humans, this behavior is rooted in sound instincts. Kittens are vulnerable to infections. The fewer visitors they have, the better their chances of survival are. And some adult cats don't like kittens; males, especially, have been known to kill kittens in hopes that the mother cats will want to start a new family with them. (Sometimes it works.)
If you wanted the cat to have kittens so that children could observe the miracle of birth, and she's not letting them observe, you might feel cheated. No free science lesson and now you're stuck with kittens you didn't want. Too bad. I don't recommend letting a cat have kittens unless you want the kittens, or know people who do.
Meanwhile, the overprotectiveness will subside after the kittens start eating solid food, which normally happens some time in the second month after they're born. All you have to do is give Mama Cat the space she and her babies need.
Cats are by no means the only species in which mothers, and sometimes fathers, become insanely overprotective. The behavior can be observed in all the domestic animals and in some wild ones. Bears are most likely to attack humans who get between a female and her cubs. Even harmless little songbirds occasionally attack people who approach their nests. Humans show the behavior too. Everyone in Washington has had the experience of politely telling a tourist that it's illegal to carry open drink containers on Metro. "My child can have fruit juice when he WAAAANTS to!" they bawl, turning their horns toward you, pawing and snorting. Even Metrocops tend to back away from these cases of maternal aggression.
You know you've found truly social cats when mothers seem completely cool with everyone seeing their babies They find a dimly lighted, cozy place for a den, go into it bulging, and emerge some hours later damp and flat-sided, then proudly invite everyone to look in on their little darlings. If another cat has kittens she may actually give birth in the den with the slightly older kittens, or give birth in her own little nest and unite the litters when the kittens start to crawl out and explore. Social cats share responsibility; the cat who feels like taking a nap with all the kittens around her can snuggle up with two or more litters at the same time while the other mother cats go out and have fun. While this behavior is adorable, and can have some survival benefits, it's not without survival risks. Kittens get their immunity to infections--or lack of it--from their mothers' milk. Kittens may get some extra antibodies from their mothers' friends, but if one cat in the community is FIV-positive, the whole community may be infected.
Other cats usually leave mother cats alone, which is a good example to point out to children. Barn cats, however, sometimes invite humans to spend time near their dens--not actually handling their babies, but hanging out near where they are. In my experience this happens when the cat has observed that some potential predator avoids humans. Rats, snakes, raccoons, possums, and weasels can smell where humans have been and often prefer to hang out somewhere else. If a house cat gives you mixed msssages that add up to "come close but don't touch," either a potential predator is sharing your home, or instinct or experience are telling the cat that one might.
Most cats won't attack their human friends if we look in on their babies, but some will decide their den is too accessible if we do, and move their babies somewhere else. It's a good idea not to wear out your welcome, if any, to the residence of newborn kittens.
Barn cats traditionally bring their babies out to meet the world when the kittens are six to eight weeks old. The danger of maternal aggression is now officially over. Adult cats usually hide from potential predators who threaten or attack a kitten, but sometimes they muster the fortitude to defend one.
The flip side of maternal aggression in cats is that sometimes, instead of overprotecting her young, a mother cat kills them. This is definitely an indication of something wrong with the cat and the kittens; they probably wouldn't survive in any case. If the mother cat eats the body or bodies, that might indicate a nutrient deficiency, which is probably due to inability to absorb nutrients and, in our current state of medical knowledge, only likely to get worse. If she kills only one kitten and separates the body from other kittens, there's a small chance that only the one kitten was hopelessly sick, and the others might survive. Spaying can sometimes buy the cat a few months, maybe a year. In theory that might give her time to recover from whatever was wrong with her, or be diagnosed and treated for it. In practice, we don't know much about causes of infanticide in cats and the odds are against their being cured. At best, if the cat was your pet, keeping her away from kittens (and preventing her having any more) can give you time to say goodbye and find a healthier cat. The best thing that can be said about infanticidal mother cats is that the behavior is rare.
Q. What are common signs that a cat is experiencing pain-induced aggression?
A. It acts as if it's in pain. A cat with a headache may not want its head and ears stroked. If the cat is normally friendly, that's a clue. Fatal brain tumors in cats are a new thing that's increasingly observed in places where "pesticides" are used. Abscessed teeth and food poisoning can also cause cats to lose all interest in having their heads groomed, and other symptoms of those conditions are usually easy to spot. A broken rib following a traffic accident may cause a loss of interest in having the back or sides stroked. A fever may make a cat want to be alone; a higher fever may produce mad, delirious, but usually feeble and clumsy aggression. A delirious cat will bite hard if you insist on handling it, but will probably be so visibly confused that it's easy to trap and take to the vet. A vet may be able to cure the cat, or reduce its suffering from a fatal condition.
Barn cats have awesome immune systems. Nevertheless it's not unusual for them to become ill after eating a mouse or bird that had eaten something poisoned by humans, or even directly ingesting a household chemical like antifreeze.. Depending on the amount and kind of poison inside the cat, it may be miserable for a few hours or a few days, or may die. "Activated" (finely powdered) charcoal is a painless home remedy for accidental poisoning. It is for emergency use only, since along with adsorbing poison in the digestive tract charcoal also adsorbs nutrients and medications, and it won't always save the victim's life--but it can save lives. The formula of a teaspoon of powder in a cup of water, given in the proportion the animal normally drinks, is effective across species. If a cat's pain-induced aggression from food poisoning allows you to offer this solution in a syringe, the cat is likely to feel better soon. A real solution, of course, is for humans to be more careful about toxic chemicals. No chemical should ever be sprayed into the air. Things like antifreeze, washing soda (birds eat fine sharp gritty stuff), lye, bleach, or gasoline should be securely covered and stored where children and animals won't find them.
Q. When is a vet warranted for aggressive behavior in cats?
A. Whenever aggressive behavior is unusual for an animal and seems to be pain-related, calling the vet is indicated! If the aggressive behavior has anything to do with a disease condition, call a vet right away. If it's related to the reproductive process, you probably don't want that individual animal to reproduce, so calling a vet may preserve the peace.
There are vets who like to experiment with micro-doses of psychotropic drugs to try to control cts' and dogs' behavior. I don't like this idea, but some people do. You never know what even a microdose of a drug like Prozac might do to an animal who can't tell us what it's feeling, but if it comes to a choice between doping a cat or euthanizing it, some people would prefer to live with a dopey cat.
One more Q from a different source: Aren't shelter animals more likely to be aggressive than purebred pets from a breeder?
A. Shelter cats have been through some hard times. They are usually not aggressive, because shelters tend to decide aggressive animals are unadoptable and need to be euthanized. When they get into a safer living situation there may be some emotional problems, but shelter cats are more likely to be timid than to be aggressive.
Breeders vary. At best they don't offer animals a normal life. Breeding for specific traits can also breed in undesirable trats, which can include aggressiveness. Domestic cats have not been bred specifically for aggressiveness, but some breeds of some domestic animals have been.
However, most living creatures can be somewhat aggressive in some situations. It does not necessarily mean they're violent. An aggressive temperament in a peaceful environment can make someone a bold leader and adventurer, rather than a bully. I provided a safe, calm, peaceful home for a panic biter and her un-cuddly, rough-and-tough daughter, and I've never regretted that. Samantha grew up to be a good pet for someone else, and her daughter Serena has become one of those animals who are better described as friends than as pets. A calm,. patient response to a cat's "ambushes" can redirect that aggression in a good way and give you a good experience with a gentle but energetic playmate.
Once in a while a cat who had the prudence to act "shy" rather than aggressive toward shelter staff will surprise you when it starts to bond with you. When a real alley cat, who'd been born feral in an actual alley, started to become friendly with me, the first approach she'd ever made to a human was to grab my arm and nip and scratch. The arm was covered with harmless surface wounds for a day or two. The cat had tested me and decided I was harmless, and after that she was friendly and gentle.
So here are our contest winners for the week. As always, these are arbitrary contests for adoptable shelter cats (or, some weeks, dogs). Participating shelters post photos of their adoptable animals on Petfinder, and I pick the most appealing photos in a category. This does not mean the most appealing animals--if you visited the shelter you might give that title to some other kind of animal.
Three-colored cats are usually female. Some people accuse them of "tortitude" and believe they're more likely to be aggressive than other female cats. I don't find that to be generally true, though Petfinder did advertise one classic calico whose foster family called her "Maleficent" and insisted that she'd be a good pet, she just needed to be the only cat in the house. Aggressive or docile tendencies can be inherited to some extent. Some three-colored cats do inherit aggressive tendencies, and some don't. Some of the most gentle, well-behaved, even passive, good-girl cats I've lived with were three-colored. In fact this cat, who was almost too "good" for her own good--she didn't explore the world enough to learn some basic survival skills as a kitten...
Neither Irene nor Serena was ever up for adoption. The three-colored cats shown below are adoptable. If you can't adopt them, you can share their pictures and perhaps help find the person who can.
1. Zipcode 10101: Brownie and her Little Sister from Harlem
They were rescued from an alley at an early age and have become friendly, playful young cats. They may want more space than this as they finish growing up, but they'll probably always want to stay in the same house, or at least the same neighborhood. Suggestion: if the nameless little sister doesn't seem friendly at first, ignore her. She looks like a specimen of that wary, but then loving, behavior pattern I mentioned above.
2, Zipcode 20202: Trix from Laurel
Her story is told in a silly way that sounds as if something may not be quite right about it. I'd check out her old neighborhood to make sure she wasn't stolen from the yard of someone who doesn't use the Internet. However, in autumn spring kittens' mothers sometimes tell them to go out and find homes of their own, so it's also possible that her former family are hoping she'll be adopted.
3. Zipcode 30303: Opal from Lawrenceville
Isn't that frosted coat special? The web page says she's one of five sisters. Some of them may have been adopted already--they recommend you go in and find out. Apparently they're just some more kittens who were born because someone who didn't want kittens didn't make the time to prevent kittens happening.
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