gonzo

Indulge me...try something? The next time he's determined to get in your space pet him using this technique:

with the palm of your hand start at his nose and use your entire hand to both cover and stroke his whole face in a motion moving towards his tail. (You're going for a primal deep stroke.) Repeat it several times if he gets into it. I'm curious as to how he reacts. I'm a cat person from way back, and I've actually stopped bad behavior using various techniques like this that bring up a maternal bonding instinct they were denied or torn away from too soon.

I know this sounds nuts to you, lol.

djack

In fact my cats stick their nose under my hand and then push their heads under it. But cats like to hide their heads anyway.

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gonzo

Yeah, and many do this if they were removed from mom too young. I have two like that. One is the sole survivor of a litter of 5 week old kittens that this AH was tossing out a moving car window...one every 10-15 feet. Scooter is the only kitten that survived, and he's blind in the eye on which he landed. (They did this in front of the police dept. I was working in.)

I can say I'm smarter than two of my pets: my snakes, lol.

djack

Well you have a snake for a pet.

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AlineaHeart

How did the game of memory become a standard of intelligence?

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Have Fun! :-)

Jonesy

Animals are not dumber than us, they've simply spread out their strengths and weaknesses more evenly. We've consolidated ours almost entirely in our brains. This means, while most humans cannot come close to learning as fast as cats, they have a significantly higher overall capacity. Even the few who can learn close to the speed of cats have a significantly higher overall capacity.

Considering the threat we face due to excessive use of technology (due primarily to dependence), you might say animals were wiser. There actually are not many predators. The 'chaos of nature horror' stories governments always provide are a bunch of BS. Most creatures are like squirrels... they eat nuts or grass, and have no trouble evading the few existing predators.

W.M.DEEEZ

A little more info for the case study...I know what you mean about babies being taken from mommy too early.


I believe Franklin was imprinted by a girl who was kissing him on the mouth. He was born in a horse barn and I think his early weeks were perfectly normal. As well, he was properly weaned, as far as I can tell.

I was told that this girl that cared for him used to put him on her (rather large) chest to caress him. This, since he was tiny. I fully believe that when he was in such close proximity to her face, she used to kiss him on the mouth.

He hasn't forgotten this behavior, since he is on a constant quest to get his mouth on mine. When I'm sleeping, he comes in the room, and I wake to him pressing his mouth against mine!


There is almost nothing that I do to him that he doesn't love. He is one of the most compliant pets I've ever had. I have actually been doing what you suggested, and he doesn't seem to mind at all.

I have fleas in my yard. During the summer, in addition to using Frontline, I used a flea comb to remove fleas from him. I comb them off of his body, and I drop the flea into a can with alcohol in it.

This process requires me to flip him over, comb his face, neck, and sometimes his stomach. When it is time to do this treatment, I grab the comb, the can of alcohol, and I sit on the floor in front of the t.v.. Franklin immediately comes over (without being called) and lays down for his pampering.

I am a bit of a pushover...but he's so easy to spoil. I am having a problem with his demanding attention when I get home. If I don't immediately address him, he will stalk me, and jump from the floor to my shoulders. Sometimes, he doesn't quite stick the landing, and I have scars as a result.

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Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got til it's gone

gonzo

Along with a parrot, 5 dogs, 8 cats, and your point is?

djack

If you were smarter than the snake it would be feeding you.

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Jonesy

See... IQ tests can be funny. If you could give a cat an IQ test, you would find it would probably score somewhere between 150-170 (depending on the cat).