Relating to pets / other animals

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i keep it at a safe distance

i rarely play rough w her, shes an outdoors cat and usually "runs herself off" outside, as we say,

during winter its cold as death outside, so she stays in for the most part, except for her little quick territorial surveys

so we'll usually play some quick chase-games jumping back and forth in the small kitchen or the usual "little toy behind a corner" and if she still has a lot of energy left we put on a couple of tough skiing gloves, and make a "running hand" that jumps up and attacks her, thats the rough play, she gets to kill the hell out of the glove-monster with teeth and claws, shes far away from the face, and i doubt she would ever even think of going for the face

Oh I see! The glove is the prey!

yep! both me and my brother grew up playing w plush animals, i SUSPECT my dad is the culprate aspie, he had very specific ways to play that he passed on to us, where you make the toys do very natural movements, almost like a very well done puppet show

so with that allready "in our blood", we make a pretty irresistible glove-prey, mimmicking typical small-critter movements. she loves when the glove skips around, then suddenly stops, as if it has noticed her "CHARGE!! !"

Nice! Is anything left of the glove at the end or do you have to buy a new one each time?

haha no theres a lot left she CAN rip it to shreds, but she shows some restraint, she knows we're playing. the thing is, she uses her claws playfully, but that doesnt help us much, since our skin is too delicate anyway. most people i think will simply avoid rough play w cats, other cats ive played with dont use their claws at all near bare skin. i dunno if theyve been tought it, or tought themselves.

if she digs her claws into a toy, i can easily make her let go, by sliding my hand under her paw, making her retract her claws. she definitely is careful, she just doesnt know we're so flimsy

the gloves get a beating tho, so we cant do it too much. we should have a like a real carpenters glove. my dad used that w a huge male cat we had when i was little. the glove took it!

How about oven gloves? Have you watched this video? Mean Kitty

haha that was awesome

i THOUGHT of kitchen gloves, but then i imagined myself in the kitchen using kitchen gloves full of holes, and an embarassing evening spent at the doctors, bandaging up my hand and stuff...

the cat in the vid reminds me of my kitty when she was younger, shes a female, so they seem to settle a bit and calm down. but yes, there was stalking, and needle teeth and claws on very sensitive bare feet and stuff

Glad you liked the vid!

I remember while I was 11 or so finding a stray St. Bernard (he was huge, around 250 pounds) in my neighborhood. I had no idea why my mom was so nervous about me petting him, just because I knew he wasn't going to bite me or anyone else. I didn't see how she could be uncertain about whether or not he was friendly.

A couple down the street ended up taking him in, and it turns out I was right. He never once bit or even growled at anyone up until his death last year.

We have two Lovebirds and they have more personality than some people. If we don't follow their schedule, they let us know with a chirp that is close to a Bronx cheer. They have certain tweets and sounds for certain emotions. If we bring one out to be with us and forget the other one we get scolded. They really try their best to communicate with us.

My last female cat was like that. I found that if you held her in your arms so that her back feet were firmly touching my arm or body she was fine with thta. (You might give it a try.)

I think she just wanted to feel a bit safer and more in control, so making sure she was "grounded" worked.

I've always had a special relationship with animals (especially cats and oddly enough, non-pet frogs).

1. Do you understand your pet's / other animals' body (non-verbal) language better than people's?

Yes, especially after they're mostly out of kittenhood. I like dogs but I don't "get" them the way I do cats.

2. Can you discern between your pet's tone of voice / intonation / sounds?

Definitely. Cat body language is much easier than people's.

My last female cat was constantly on my lap, even when I ate dinner. Once I accidentally left the door to the bathroom open and she jumped on my lap there. Eventually I had to wean her off of me a bit so I could sometimes get a break from her sitting on me.

Izzy used make a rattling noise from the back of her throat whenever she saw a moth, etc. she was hunting came close. When she wanted me to wake up, she'd lightly pat my eyes with her paws to wake me up...and that worked! When she was begging for food she liked (her cat food can, hotdogs, ham, tuna), she'd meow quickly over and over like a desperate kitten who needed to be fed NOW. When she was annoyed with our other cat, her tail would whap erratically on the floor until he walked away.

3. What are your pet's personality traits, if any?

My last remaining pet, an ancient English cocker understandably has far less personality then when she was young. When she was young though, she was extremely affectionate, constantly happy, and had the energy of an Olympic athlete. She also doted on Izzy and went out of her way to sleep near wherever she was sleeping.

There was one time a good decade back with a orange stripey shorthair I'd named Applesauce because he was about that color where I tried communicating "cat style"

No longer remember exactly what it was that he was caught doing or where it was, think it was in the kitchen, when I came back from the bathroom. Whatever it was he did was something he definitely did not need to be doing. Might have involved hot stovetop burners or something.

Had an inspiration - okay, what do cats do when they're really ticked off?
Ahh - arch, hiss, and spit!

So, I tried imitating that. Got in front of him and put on the show.

Ohhh baby: 'The Saucecat' looked like he'd just seen the wrath of an angry god - eyes as big a soccer balls and everything
He left the room at supersonic velocity and was never caught doing whatever it was again.

My other cat Annabelle, a little black and white longhair, was nearby and looked like it made an impact on her too. Then she put on her "I'm such a sweet kitty, see how I don't get in trouble" act.
Yeah, right, cat. And the moon is made of catnip.

Also works on my wife's "mean kitty" twins up there in the avatar. She has to ask me to come do it because she just can't be intimidation enough or something, they just kind of look at her with a "yeah, whatever" pose.
They do, however, pay attention to "daddycat".

The little black one, MightyMouth, will come look into the phone speaker when I call home. Cute

Yes and yes. Dogs and cats are very easy to read, and it happens instantly. I can learn to understand a bird or a horse and once I'm used to them I'm better at them than people. It's strange to me that I cannot seem to learn to accurately understand human facial expressions and body language when I can tell you what an animal is going to do.

I'm in the mood to keep telling pet stories.
Around the time I was 14 or so our beagle died and after awhile we decided to get a collie.
Found a local breeder who had a female who had abandoned her latest litter so breeder wanted to sell her to someone for a pet, no papers or anything.

We got her home, she had never been in a house, it was Christmas season. She came in the back door, saw the Christmas tree, yelped and headed back into the 1/2 bath just inside the back door.
Wouldn't come any further into the house till the tree was down. My little brother had gotten a train set - he and dad had it on the floor, Brandy came in to see what was going on. Brother started the train and she jumped in Dad's lap hiding her head under his arm!

She went from that to playing a mean game of soccer - she'd get the ball between her 4 feet and forget about getting it away from her - not gonna happen!
Something amuses me is that one of our friends who was very intimidated by her when she had the ball and wouldn't try to get it away from her grew up and went on to fly air force fighter planes.

She also liked playing with Nerf football (US). One time when us kids were all in our backyard she apparently went to block a punt and got kicked in the head - went off to the side, sat down, shook her head a couple times, then came right back to play. Another time she chased the soccer ball into a shrub and got a cut up the side of her nose from a broken branch.
Just kept right on playing.

Who would have ever guessed a once registered show dog would come out to be such a gritty athlete?
Cool!

She would be taken to be bathed and groomed every so often and from the way she pranced and sat in such prissy poses for a couple days afterwards you could tell she was aware that she looked good.
The prissiness did not, however last very long till her inner "Lady Jock" came out and she was back to roughhousing with us and our friends.

We had a plastic dish pan for her water there in Georgia in the summer: when running and playing outside she'd go over take a drink with her front feet in the water then turn around and stand with her back feet in the water for a moment before getting back in the action.

One time mom called us down to the kitchen window - Brandy was outside tossing the Nerf football with her mouth then running after it.
Couldn't resist going out and joining her!

And then one time dad got very sick. Brandy rarely went into parents bedroom and never got up on beds, but she jumped up on bed with dad and regularly did that till he got well.

She also liked to go canoeing. But no matter which way the boat was going she always got in facing upriver. For a time after we started that day she'd be real prissy getting in and out, working hard at not getting herself wet, even her toes. Then all of a sudden at some random point, she'd be in the water up to her armpits, with that silly collie grin and her tail going a mile a minute.
She did that routine every time she went with us.

She was such a sweetheart, I miss her. And my past cats.

And I'm enjoying all the stories immensely.

The stories go to prove that when there's good intention, two who communicate in very different ways are able to make themselves understood by each other and have a satisfying relationship...

Ok

My old neighbours cat is a bit aggressive sometimes, he used to be stray. I think he was mistreated and scared of people. He's a big boy, very strong, and he'd sometimes run out and grab your legs for no reason or attack you when you got too affectionate or close when patting him. He wouldn't just bite/scratch, he'd hang onto you for dear life with his teeth and arms/claws while tearing at you with his clawed back feet!

I was obsessed with him and got bitten a lot because I'd try to cuddle him or he'd suddenly get too much patting, I feel a bit guilty because I'd be smacking him to get him off me!

But he'd come around and visit a lot, and now he's a lot more affectionate and will sit on you. I think I flooded him and now he's learned that tickles from people are nice. Just still need to watch for the sudden head jerk, because then he's had enough!