Oh weâre talking cat behavior??? Hang on hang onÂ
YES to everything that has been said about cat behavior but a few other things people donât seem to understand that are important to understanding cat behavior:Â
BELLY RUBS: A cat showing you its belly is NOT necessarily asking you to rub it, like a dog is. A cat showing you its belly (when in a calm, sleepy mood) is saying âI trust you so much that Iâm going to reveal my MOST VULNERABLE side to you and I know you wonât touch it!â When you then move in and touch it, youâve actually broken that trust, which is why cats go from âshowing you their belly calmlyâ to âattack!!!â so quickly. It wasnât a TRAP. You didnât understand what they were saying and you responded incorrectly. The best reward for the belly display is a nice scritch under the chin/cheeks or a gentle rub on the head.Â
(And before anyone says âwell my cat loves having his belly rubbed!â âyes. There are exceptions to this general rule, because cats are HELLA unique creatures with distinct personalities. I have a cat who genuinely loves to have his side and belly played like bongo drums. Cats are weirdos. These are generalizations.)Â
Now: if your cat shows you its belly when in a playful/feisty mood, that IS an invitation, but beware: itâs an invitation to get attacked. Cats playfight. Thatâs one of the ways they play. This is very common in predatory animals, who use play to hone important hunting skills. A well-socialized cat will know not to go too hard, but a kitten wonât, so if youâre playfighting with a kitten and it bites too hard, go âOW!â really loud and take your hand away to help teach them. But yeah, if a feisty cat opens its belly to you: be prepared for a playfight!
PETTING: Cats are sensitive. Physically. All that fur builds up a lot of static electricity and when people pet them they tend to do it along the catâs spine, which means a lot of energy and static along the spine, which means OVERSTIMULATION. If youâve ever been petting a cat and suddenly it whips its head around and closes its teeth on your hand, that means youâve overstimulated it and itâs asking you to please stop. (Incidentally, the bite wasnât âsudden,â you just missed the earlier signs of âplease stop youâre overstimulating meâ and the cat had to take extreme measuresâmore on that later).Â
Petting a cat around their head/cheeks/chin will usually prevent that overstimulation (and once or twice down the back isnât a bad thing, just be mindful of overstimulating!). And itâs also polite to ask permission first! Cats are TINY compared to us, and very independent creatures, so coming quickly at a cat with your big olâ human hand can be alarming even if they know and trust you. Try this next time: How to ask a cat for permission to pet it.
OVERSTIMULATION: Cats can and DO get overstimulated! As I mentioned before, if youâre petting a cat and it suddenly bites (or gets up and leaves), itâs not saying âI donât like you anymore,â itâs saying âplease, stop.âÂ
Watch for the following body language cues:Â
1) Ears: if the catâs ears are starting to twitch back, it may be getting agitated. Try backing off and see what the cat does. If the ears twitch back forward and the cat seems to relax, then stopping was probably a good move. Try again in a few minutes and limit your petting to their head/ears/neck/cheeks.Â
2) Eyes: If your cat went from closed-eyed bliss to eyes open and pupils dilating, circumstances have changed. Your cat is getting agitated. Continue petting at your own risk but donât be surprised if they attack.Â
3) Tail: This is a HUGE mistake I see people more familiar with dogs making. A catâs tail wagging doesnât mean âHAPPY!â like a dogâs does. A catâs tail twitching or swishing means they are highly stimulated. Sometimes that means theyâre having fun (check out this video to see a very enthusiastically stimulated cat having fun climbing a rock wallâand watch that tail! Thatâs an excited cat!). But often it means theyâre agitated, not happy. If a catâs tail starts swishing, thatâs a good time to step back and let the cat find a way to calm itself down.Â
4) Body tension: this is a fairly straightforward one but if your cat went from totally relaxed to tense and tight, itâs probably not enjoying itself as much as it was. Maybe itâs about to launch an assault on something it saw across the room (another cat or a toy, for instance). Just know you may not have a sleepy contented cat in your lap anymore.Â
MIRRORING: One of the ways cats show affection is to âmirrorâ their companions:Â
Domestic housecats are not naturally pack animals but they DO have the ability to come together and form strong social bonds. You, their owner, are a member of their social group, and they will often try to mirror you, too! Meaning if you spend most of your day sitting on your laptop, they want to do it as well:Â
Theyâre not trying to be rude. They want to do what youâre doing! Because thatâs how they show affection!Â
(Now: is it occasionally annoying? ABSOLUTELY. Iâve had to shoo my cat Sam away from my laptop several times while attempting to type this post. But I still love him and I understand heâs just trying to be close to me. Heâs not being malicious because malice is a human emotion and cannot be attributed to cats. So is spite, scorn, arrogance, and any number of emotions that get falsely attributed to cats by people who just donât understand that CATS ARE NOT DOGS and therefore behave differently!!! Please do not anthropomorphize your cat!!!)
Now, most of the things the cat hater up there said have already been addressed, but Iâd like to expand on the Christmas tree thing, and then the scratching thing, because it segues nicely into another issue: claws.Â
The Christmas Tree: please picture this from the perspective of a cat. A cat has no religious affiliation. A cat doesnât understand what significance this thing you brought into your home has. A cat just sees you have brought in A TREE, which especially if it is real will have VERY INTERESTING OUTSIDE SMELLS. It sees SHINY TWINKLY BAUBLES AND LIGHTS. It sees GARLANDS OF SHINY CRINKLY FUN THINGS. Sorry but youâve basically just brought in the greatest jungle gym ever, full of interesting sights, sounds, smells, and textures, and told the animal that has NO CAPACITY to understand your words that âno you canât play with that.â Sorry but thatâs just a little unrealistic. And to attribute malice to this behaviorâto say the cat is attacking the tree with the intent of destroying it?âis to be so deliberately obtuse as to be almost malicious about it yourself.Â
The cat is having fun. A new novel unique thing has just come into its environment and a lot of the things about it resemble the toys it already plays with (balls, strings, crinkly paper, etc.). It is going to play. If you donât want that, then either find a way to stabilize the tree, keep it out of reach, or DONâT HAVE A CAT.Â
Okay finally. The claws thing. Letâs talk about cat claws.Â
Okay so yes, cats will sometimes try to wake you up by gently patting your face. If that results in you getting scratched, chances are, your cats claws are getting too long!Â
Cats naturally sharpen their claws. Theyâre a good weapon, and the catâs first line of defense and offense in a world where they are both predator and prey. They allow cats to climb out of danger or in pursuit of prey. They help cats catch things and hold onto them. They act as a deterrent if a bigger predator gets ahold of them. They help them stabilize themselves on the ground and in high places like trees. Claws are important.
Thatâs why cats scatch things (also to deposit scent markers from glands located in the pads of their paws but I digress): to keep their claws in good shape and sharpened, and to shed old claw sheaths (cat claws shed, did you know that? fun fact!).Â
HOWEVER, if your cat is an indoor cat only (which it REALLY SHOULD BE but thatâs a rant for another day), it may not have enough wearing down the claws in return, and you may have to help your cat maintain their claws! There are a couple ways to do this:Â
1) Trimming the claw - gently depress the toe bean to extend the claw then use cat claw clippers to snip the sharpened tip. Watch out for the quick! Youâll be able to see it as the darker vein of blood in the catâs claw.Â
2) SoftPaws or any other brand of cat nail tips! These stylish little claw tippers can be safely applied, and each application lasts about a month. These tips protect your skin and your furniture and do not bother your cat in the slightest! Plus your cat will look fancy af:Â
What you should NOT do, ever, please, ever, is declaw your cat. I know no one talked about this but, well, I pretty much jump on every chance I get to educate people about the inhumanity of this practice. If it changes one personâs mind about declawing their cat (or about getting one in the first place, if itâs genuinely just not a good fit) then good, I donât mind cluttering up some dashes.Â
People seem to think that declawing means âremoving the claws onlyâ when in fact, itâs a partial toe amputation. Look at your own finger. See that last joint before the nail starts? Yeah, thatâs whatâs getting cut off of your catâs toes. That whole last joint.Â
Iâm going to steal wholesale from an ask I answered on one of my other blogs to give you links to articles about the physical, psychological, and emotional damage declawing causes your cat:Â
Hereâs a great article about how the weight-bearing changes caused by declawing can lead to arthritis.
Hereâs another one that discusses other behavioral issues as well.
And hereâs a more detailed article with some anatomical information about whatâs involved in the surgery
A quote from that last article:
âSome cats are so shocked by declawing that their personalities change. Cats who were lively and friendly have become withdrawn and introverted after being declawed. Others, deprived of their primary means of defense, become nervous, fearful, and/or aggressive, often resorting to their only remaining means of defense, their teeth. In some cases, when declawed cats use the litterbox after surgery, their feet are so tender they associate their new pain with the boxâŚpermanently, resulting in a life-long aversion to using the litter box. Other declawed cats that can no longer mark with their claws, they mark with urine instead resulting in inappropriate elimination problems, which in many cases, results in relinquishment of the cats to shelters and ultimately euthanasia. Many of the cats surrendered to shelters are surrendered because of behavioral problems which developed after the cats were declawed.
Many declawed cats become so traumatized by this painful mutilation that they end up spending their maladjusted lives perched on top of doors and refrigerators, out of reach of real and imaginary predators against whom they no longer have any adequate defense. A cat relies on its claws as its primary means of defense. Removing the claws makes a cat feel defenseless. The constant state of stress caused by a feeling of defenselessness may make some declawed cats more prone to disease. Stress leads to a myriad of physical and psychological disorders including supression of the immune system, cystitis and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).â
So basically I know Iâve interrupted this post with a PSA but PLEASE. Please do not declaw your cat. Either find another solution, resign yourself to scratched up furniture, or DO NOT GET A CAT.Â