Sunday, November 09, 2008

I bite humans. I enjoy seeing them flinch. Should I stop?


Dear George,
I bite humans. Here I am stuck in a pen waiting for somebody to adopt me. Worse still, until recently I itched and itched and itched. I felt so bad I pulled out all the fur of my belly and backside. The anti-flea stuff they gave me made me so ill I thought I was going to have a fit. Then they changed my diet- after four months of itching - and my hair is beginning to grow back. You can just seem the remains of the bald bits if you look carefully at my tummy. I used to bite humans because I felt so itchy and awful. Now I just bite them anyway. They keep wanting to touch or pet me and I just want them to keep a respectful distance. Biting works well. I bit Celia four times in ten minutes. I wonder if I should stop. I don't much like the human race.
Zealand

Dear Zealand,
There's no ethical reason why you should stop nipping and biting humans. After all they are a different species and we cats don't owe them anything. Least of all you. Your humans gave up on you and just chucked you out into a rescue centre, where you are now. While you were itching all over, no wonder you bit. It must have been hell if you needed to pull out your own fur. No wonder you don't like humans.
Humans have this unhealthy desire to cuddle. And to touch. They must do it. They don't seem to realise that cats like you, who were probably given the wrong education as kittens, are frightened of being touched, or hugged, or cuddled or picked up. You want to be in a household where you get regular meals, somewhere nice to sleep, and you can get on with your own life - perhaps doing a bit of hunting in the garden. You are a no cuddles cat.
Celia can take it. She spent a year going into rescue centres and has been bitten by a large number and variety of cats -- frightened tabbies, neurotic pedigrees, Persians that have suffered from rough grooming, beautiful white princess pussycats terrified of the nearby noise of dogs, terrified gingers cowering in their beds, and cats like you that just bit any passing hand. The worst consisted of a bite plus a real clawing when half her hand swelled up. She doesn't enjoy it but she does understand that cats in rescue shelters are highly traumatised.
However, there is a reason for rethinking your biting policy. The more you bite, the more difficult it will be to find a home. Kittens find homes easily. Loving cuddly adult cats usually only stay about a few weeks in rescue. Somebody who wants a cat comes into the pen and picks them up and cuddles them and they purr.
But when somebody comes into the pen tries to pick up a cat and gets bitten, they often have to wait for months and months. Is there any chance you could try to be nice? Or just try not to bite till they take you home. Think about it. There are a few humans who don't mind being bitten but not many.
George

4 comments:

  1. Poor Zealand. I hope a cat-polite human comes forward to offer him a home where he can learn in his own time that being touched gently is sometimes ok. Humans can be so rude when they touch us, my fangs provide the perfect rebuke. But this led me to being very badly treated in the past, so George has a good point about holding back with the bitey action sometimes.

    Humans! Listen to George!

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  2. Poor Zealand! You are so beautiful and you have such a beautiful name too.
    George is right; listen to him - change the bitey policy.
    But...Zealand....bitting Celia?
    That's a no-no! I don't know her personally, but she seems to be quite nice for a human and she IS George's secretary.
    With a little help on your part, I'm sure she'll find you a good home where you'll get good food, understanding and love.
    My "Mommy" recently changed my food since I too started having problems.
    Hugs
    Cayenne

    PS. May be I should ask George about food in a new message.

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  3. Hello Zealand,
    I hope you'll take George's advice on bitey policy, so you can soon have a loving, carring human who you can train after all, right?
    But it is important first to have a good home and all the food and love you want. I heard stories in my house that Mommy before she got us (me & Cayenne),she wanted to adopt a older cat at a local shelter, but that cat (mommy said she was beautiful) wouldn't let her come close. Poor Licorice! She was grieving at that time and did not understand that she still needed a house after she lost her last. I know Mommy kept checking with the shelter and found out that an older couple adopted Licorice. Then....she got us :-)
    Happy ending!
    Love
    Fluffy

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  4. Celia, you are a noble woman! You continue to care for my fellow cats in rescue centers. God bless you! As for biting, I rarely have to engage in that behavior, only after my human just won't leave me alone when I want to sleep, only then do I resort to biting. I can't bite hard any longer, because I've lost some of my teeth fighting, but I can sure dig in with my sharp claws! Celia, keep up the good work you are so wonderful, for a human.

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Help for cats whose humans show behaviour problems.

This blog is devoted to the study of human behaviour. We cats, who live with this sometimes unpredictable and always feeble minded species, can benefit from seeing their behaviour in its proper scientific context. The study of feline dilemmas, training problems, and difficulties with humans, can only benefit all of us. All of us train our humans - to buy the right food, for instance, but many of us do not have knowledge of how to improve our training methods. The human species is obviously not as intelligent as the cat, but nevertheless can learn quite a lot - if properly managed. Topics of interest include the use of claw and order, purring as a human reward, rubbing your human up the right way, when to bite, spraying as a method of making our wishes known, ignoring the human, human harassment, human inattention and sheer human stupidity. I welcome your questions. Photos can be sent via my secretary's website, www.celiahaddon.com This blog has been chosen as one of the top 50 feline blogs by Online VetTechprogramms.org