 The
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| Issue 7, vol 5 | The Cat Scratches And Bites | August 31, 2006 |
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Dogs, Cats and Other People
Dear Uncle Matty: I have two kittens that I adopted from a local shelter. They are about two months old. The problem is, when I try to play with them or pick either of them up, they grab my hands with their paws and claws. They like to bite, too. Both my hands and forearms look like I've been in a fight. How do I stop this? I've never had cats before. Dear Barbara: Some people choose cats instead of dogs because they think they require less care and they are soft, fluffy and gentle. Well, they require a different kind of care, they are soft and fluffy, and it's up to you to turn them into gentle creatures or aggressive little fur balls. Kittens are also inquisitive, fast and funny. Biting and scratching is quite normal for them. These activities are also important aspects of their defense mechanism and general well-being. Before I give you a tip or two, I have a big "don't." Do not declaw your kitten. This is mutilation, pure and simple. It is as cruel, and probably more so, than removing a voice box from a dog that barks excessively or using pronged collars to influence behavior. The physiological makeup of a cat requires claws. They aid balance and support mobility. A cat without claws is sadly defenseless. When you declaw a cat you are performing a form of partial amputation, and the pain is pure torture. The entire first joints of the cat's digits are removed. It is like removing the ends of all your fingers to the first knuckle. Unimaginable cruelty! So what can you do when kitties bite and grab with their paws when they play? Avoid letting them get in the habit of clawing and biting your hands and fingers. Instead, get a large toy box. Use fun, moving toys like the ones that hang from the top of a door and swing back and forth. Or those fishing poles that you hold and use to dangle all sorts of colorful enticements for interactive play. Cats can amuse themselves for long periods of time with swinging, bouncing, squeaking toys. But don't depend on isolated play. It is also important for you to play with your cats one-on-one, using toys that tantalize like mice on a string or a soft, fuzzy ball. Interaction between you and your kitties is very important. Several 10- or 15-minute play sessions a day are recommended. They will usually let you know when they have had enough. Teach your cats to tolerate gentle stroking and touching. Start to stroke or pet them when they are relaxed, like after a play session. Don't try the soft touch when they are in the middle of play. When you are stroking, speak softly and in a soothing tone that is pleasing. Be gentle. Let kitty cats get the feel of your touch -- touch a paw, stroke gently behind ears and so forth. "Nice kitty. Good kitty." Be encouraging. If they start to nip or bite, say "ouch" like you mean it and stop playing or stroking or whatever. Walk away. This sends a message. Of course, never scold or yell at or hit a cat. This will only make them more aggressive. After all, they have to defend themselves even if they are still babies. If you want your felines to be lap cats, then you need to start holding them. Cats really don't like to have their feet off the ground. It makes them feel insecure. The best way to hold your kitty is to sit down and then lift her into your lap for some special attention. Don't expect her to stay put for very long, if at all, the first time or two. You might be most successful after a play session when she is all tuckered out. ------------------------------------ Dog trainer Matthew "Uncle Matty" Margolis is co-author of 18 books about dogs, a behaviorist, a popular radio and television guest, and host of the PBS series "WOOF! It's a Dog's Life!" Read all of Uncle Matty's columns at the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com, and visit him at http://www.unclematty.com. Send your questions to dearuncle.gazette@unclematty.com or by mail to Uncle Matty at P.O. Box 3300, Diamond Springs, CA 95619.
Reprinted from Arcamax Cats and Dogs Editor's Note: I've found that "biting back" by pinching an ear with the fingernails using medium force works well. After 1-3 times of "getting back what's given", most cats will no longer bite or scratch unless defending themselves. If Uncle Matty's advice fails you, try "biting back". |
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Barbwire Cats |
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Part One: Clayton’s Story (continued from previous issue) My name’s Clayton Goode. I live in a little tiny town called Barbwire, California. In 1941 The Great Attack came to Barbware — it was a boundless ocean of rats. It was going to take expert rat fighters; ruthless, cold-blooded, highly-skilled specialists, who didn’t know the meaning of the word fear. Barbwire was going to need every single kitty-cat it could get its hands on! Installment 3 For more than a week, a crack team of twenty, all-volunteer anti-rat commandos got a chance to once again don their uniforms from “The Great War”. They had done a splendid job of reconnaissance. From atop a low rise, and barely a half-mile from the enemy’s stronghold, they’d been able to accurately put the enemy strength at just under two million rats. This vital intelligence was then relayed to the high command. Strategists and tacticians set about crunching the numbers. If they assumed that the average cat could kill, say, twenty rats an hour, a cat that survived an entire day of fighting would take-out, conservatively speaking, four-hundred rats per day. They further estimated that the maximum time that a cat could do battle, before exhaustion set in, was three days, providing that it wasn’t killed or incapacitated first. This meant that with luck, each soldier-cat could account for a total of twelve hundred enemy dead. Very impressive indeed! Except for one tiny problem; using this statistical model, the cat-army would have to be, at minimum, twenty-five hundred strong! America rose proudly to the challenge. The wire services, the phone company, and every newspaper and radio station in the nation were ready. All of them went on stand-by, just waiting for the signal from Vincentville to begin the recruitment campaign. Everyone was anxious to help in any way they could. On Monday, March 21st, the recruiting phase of the counter-attack began in earnest. The media was geared up and ready to launch the biggest public-service drive ever seen. On March 28th the call to arms was sounded. The papers ran huge headlines above the stories describing the emergency in Barbwire. Radio stations persuaded the top ad-men from Madison Avenue to write (at no charge) inspirational appeals like “America needs your CAT!!!” and, “Hey There, Fluffy! Here’s your chance to be a Toughie!” Even the United States Army, eager to join the fight, printed special new posters for their recruiting office walls. The new posters added patriotic cats to the ranks of those whom “Uncle Sam Wants”. The poster showed grim old Uncle Sam, pointing down at a little calico cat, and bore the familiar caption, “Uncle Sam Wants YOU!” Many people remarked that the cat in the poster appeared to be thinking, “Uh-oh! What’d I do now?” All across the nation, military reception centers prepared for the arrival of thousands of four-footed volunteers. The phone company even hired temporary workers to call Americans at home (right at dinner time) and appeal to them to volunteer their cats. The initial response from the cat-owning public was stunning. During the first week of the recruiting campaign, a measly twenty-four cats “volunteered” for duty. Nicknamed “The Dirty Two-Dozen”, these were all cats that were considered, by their respective hometowns, to be the neighborhood nuisance; the night-yowling, trash-tipping, garden-pooping, scofflaws and anarchists. They were the cats with poor social skills, chips on their shoulders, and very bad attitudes. Cats that everyone had long wanted to ship off someplace, preferably someplace far, far away. The Army propaganda specialists began, in their words, “Gathering intelligence to ascertain the basis for the failure of the recruiting campaign”. They discovered that, basically, the only reason that people didn’t want to send their cats off to war, was that they would never know what became of their pets when the war was over. They wanted their cats to be returned to them after the war (whether they had survived or not), and to be given some small recognition of their service. Much to their credit, The Army responded, “CAN DO!!” And for every family that had asked for the return of their cat, the Army made special dog-tags. Each tag listed the name, gender, descriptive markings, and family-name and address. And they promised that once the rat-war had ended, every cat with dog-tags would be returned to their homes, whether alive or departed, along with a medal expressing their country’s gratitude. A very snappy, red, white, and blue, silk-collar, from which hung a rat-shaped steel tag, inscribed: “For Courageous Actions during the Battle of Barbwire 1941”. That did the trick. By April 16th, exactly 5,297 cats were at the staging area two miles away from Barbwire. THE COUNTER-ATTACK WAS SET FOR THE NEXT DAY, APRIL 17TH ... (Continued in the next issue of The Cat's Meow) David Perry lives in the High Desert of southern California with his two cats, Psycho and Lupe. His first novel "WHISPERING CATS" is due out mid-year 2007. |
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