Saturday, March 12, 2011

Bunny bullying - the human obsession with cleaning


Dear George,
How do I put a stop to bunny bullying? Every morning my stuff is moved about, cleaned and tidied, replaced with dozing mats that don't smell of me and washed to within an inch of its life.The same happens to my two litter trays. As if this is not enough I am man-woman handled and whipped upside down while my err.... bottom is inspected. If it doesn't come up to their standards it is doused with my wet bunny flannel then bits of my precious fur is snipped off with a pair of dangerous looking scissors.What's a bit of poop between friends? I am then cuddled and horror of horrors, she sings to me!
I am getting old, George. I will be nine soon and I should be left alone to dream of piles of carrots and green fields. I have used every trick in my book to deter them from this manic, daily routine but they ignore me. Any ideas?
Harvey

Dear Harvey,
The human obsession with cleaning is irritating for all of us. We cats like a clean litter tray (no lumps or clumps) but one which has a nice familiar latrine smell. When humans scoop out the clumps, that is fine and we like that doing twice a day. But when they start cleaning up with smelling things or even putting in disgusting deodorant products, we vote with our feet. We go elsewhere. Just leaving a little heap outside the litter tray does the trick. Try it.
At least your human has the wit to give you two trays. Some human pets try to get away with one litter tray for two or three cats. It's horrible. Some don't clean up twice daily either and the clumps build up so that our paws get into it when we dig. I always try to tell my human that I like a clean tray by waiting till they have cleaned it then ostentatiously popping in to use it while they can see me. They seem to find this irritating and some don't get the message at all. Dumb animals, of course.

The bottom cleaning sounds really awful, Harvey. What does she think she is doing? A wet flannel, indeed! Luckily most humans leave feline bottoms well alone, since we have the claws to make them suffer if they interfere with private bits of our anatomy. The only time Celia put a hand on a feline bottom was when she was fostering Pushkin at his fattest. He just couldn't reach. So she snipped away at his fur, while he was forcibly held by her nephew. As soon as he lost a few ounces, he attended to his own bottom and made it clear to her that she had no further business with that area. She's stupid like all humans, but she got the message after he gave her a sharp nip.
I suppose rabbits can't bite but you could try giving her a good kicking. My local rabbits have had some kind of fight (mating season?) and there are tufts of fur all over the garden.
Have a go at her, Harvey. Let her know who's boss.
George.

PS. What's this singing? I don't approve of human caterwauls. They don't get their miaows in tune.

6 comments:

  1. Ugh! A human attending a bunny's rear? That's just terrible! And doing it singing?
    What is she thinking? Harvey....you can still bite (if you really try hard)! Bite her fingers like you would bite carrots!
    Love
    Tutu

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fluffy and CayenneMarch 13, 2011

    Hey, Harvey.....switch her with Celia!
    You claimed a while back that ....Celia is yours!
    See if Celia will leave your bottom alone :-)
    Hopefully she won't sing!
    Love
    Fluffy & Cayenne

    ReplyDelete
  3. Harvey, you look so cute! I'm sure your female human adores you! May be this is her way to tell you how much she loves you!
    Minnie

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'd tell you one thing; ALL humans are obsessed with our bottoms! I don't know if they are equally obsessed with theirs! They must be since I can hear them singing in the shower!
    Diego

    ReplyDelete
  5. I always used the cheapest litter mixed half and half with the cheapest clumping litter because neither was scented. As soon as the liter box was used, the "gift" was spooned up (not with a litter scoop, but an old large spoon) and discarded. Because the liter box was always kept cleaned, even with three cats using the one, they always used it never going outside the box. Well, except when I left my house coat in the laundry basket that had the neighbor's dog scent all over it, my beloved Oscar sprayed the laundry basket. Thanks to Celia's excellent advice I was able to clean the floor with surgical alcohol (denatured alcohol in the US) that totally removed the urine smell from the closet floor. Cats do like a clean liter box with unscented liter.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Poor Harvey! I agree with George, you should give your Mum a good kicking now and again to remind her of your seniority in the order of things. Do let her check your bum though, it will soon be fly season.

    Could you stuff some hay in your ears to block out the deranged ape cacophony? A senior bun needs peace and quiet I say!

    Whicky Wuudler

    ReplyDelete

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