The Joy of Cat Herding - Proven Solutions for Your Cat Behavior Problems

You know that Buster didn't mean to hurt you. But the other night you were rubbing his belly, and suddenly the claws came out and clasped your arm like there was no tomorrow, and he grabbed your finger in his jaws and held on!

No damage, really - just a few dents from his teeth and a couple of faint red lines where the claws dug in. And you had no doubt at all that he meant no harm - if he'd wanted to hurt you, he could have!

But it still didn't feel good. And you're wondering what to do if he starts to make a habit of this.....

First of all, it's not time to stop loving your Buster...and punishing him won't help.

This is natural behavior for a cat..."love bites" that indicate affection and pleasure in their interactions with you. Tomcats commonly grasp a familiar female (or queen) by the scruff of the neck with their teeth before mating. Mother cats also grasp their kittens by the neck in this fashion.

According to veterinarian Michael W. Fox, author of the syndicated column, Animal Doctor, you should remain perfectly still. If Buster bites too hard, make a noise to let him know that you've been hurt.

Dr. Fox writes, If he persists rather than learning to give softer love bites...[you] should hiss, say "No" loudly and tap him...on the nose with the flat of [your] palm, like a mother cat batting an unruly kitten. Then lure him to play with some cat toy, redirecting his focus to playful prey -- catching and "killing," as with a fluffy, animated toy.

If Buster takes a while to get the idea, you may want to try claw caps such as Soft Claws to protect your hands while you're training him.

And if you'd like to see more from Dr. Fox, check out his upcoming book, Cat Body, Cat Mind: Exploring Your Cat's Consciousness and Total Well-Being, due for release on 9/1/07!

Domesticating a feral kitten who seems to hiss and spit no matter how you approach? Your purring lapcat suddenly decided your hand was the Enemy?

No matter the age or temperament of our cats, sooner or later we all sport the scratches and bite marks that bear witness to cat behavior problems

Why? Just like people, cats can get angry. And while we have words to express our anger, cats demonstrate it in the way instinct still dictates: teeth and claws.

But that doesn't mean they don't have a good reason for their anger - whether it's physical, a response to people or other animals, or the result of environmental changes.

Whatever the cause, before you do anything else, talk to your vet about possible reasons. Too many cats are abandoned at the pound, or worse, into the wild - a virtual death sentence - because of a behavior problem that probably could have been solved with love and care.

Why do cats attack? According to a paper by the Dumb Friends League, Understanding Cat Aggression Toward People, cats generally lash out for very definite reasons:

~ They've simply been petted enough. After a time, petting can become unpleasant - or in a non-neutered male, sexually arousing.

~ They're feeling fearful or defensive.

~ They're redirecting anger from a tussle with another cat.

~ Their territory has been invaded.

Whatever the problem is, punishment won't help, and may make the problem worse. Your cat will learn to fear you, and may begin to respond habitually out of fearful defense.

Your vet should be able to determine the cause of your cat's anger, and may prescribe a medical intervention for physical problems. If not, check in with an animal behavior specialist. With love and patience, most cats can be retrained once you know the problem causing their anger.

Don't forget to check out my bookshelf for additional insights!

Our first question for the expert panel!

Randy asks:

We have three cats. Two males and one female. The female is declawed - we got her that way with one of the other two from a shelter several years ago.

We have always been sensitive to her inability to defend herself and she has always been very vocal ensuring the other cats stay away. But they do physically attack her sometimes. I'm not really sure if this is in play or not on their part but she wants none of it and everyone in the house knows her position when it happens!

There actually may be another male coming to live with us (he was actually once part of this lively group) but he was the one who bothered her the most.

I think she is probably the oldest too and may be starting to show some frailty. Is there anything we can do for her? Is there anything we can do to curtail the aggression towards her? What to do, what to do, what to do!?

Allison Nozemack, Training and Behavior Manager of the Maryland SPCA, answers:

My first thought without seeing the behavior firsthand and with only the information in the email to go on, is that rehoming is probably the best option here. It doesn't seem fair for the cats to be living in such a stressed out manner.

If the two males seem to get along ok, I would rehome the female to another family. Keep in mind that this will change the dynamics of the house so they need to watch the two males to make sure they don't start going at one another.

Bringing another cat into this situation is not an option at this point, especially if he was previously aggressive to the female. It is simply unfair to the female cat.

If after you rehome the female you decide to bring in the third male, he should be separated from the other two males for at least two weeks and slowly introduced via scent before actually being brought face to face with his new housemates.

If for whatever reason rehoming is not an option, you need to look at separating the cats by floor or by rooms so that the female has a safe place to live without the constant threat of attack.

Make sure there are at least four litter boxes in the home and several feeding/watering stations. Trying Feliway products and pairing any non-aggressive interactions that the cats have with treats or play may help modify the dynamics of the group, but this can be a long struggle and may never create total harmony between the cats.

Remember that cats are extremely territorial, and being confined together in a house often leads to problems like the ones they're seeing. Good luck!

For awhile the littermates Woody and Sweetums were always bugging one another...if Woody wasn't ambushing Sweetie, it was vice versa! They were both big guys, both neutered, both loving lapcats and gentle with the kittens...but they just couldn't get along.

And then Sweetums ran away. We caught glimpses of him in the backyard shrubbery, but he wouldn't come to us and wouldn't approach the back door. We coaxed, called, tempted him with favorite foods...no dice. Finally I hauled out the Havahart, and trapped him.

It only took a couple of fingerfuls of wet food to recall his hand-training days...and presto, he was our Sweetie again!

That was the start of the change. While Sweets was gone, Woody had become "leader of the pack" - keeping the troublemakers in line, protecting the kittens, giving everyone regular washes, greeting visitors at the door.

When Sweetie returned, there was no longer any competition for Top Cat. Instead, Sweets became second-in-command and co-nurturer, as well as the "ambassador" who patiently buddied up to make new cats feel at home. After all, he'd been Out There, too!

This kind of jockeying for position isn't unusual in cats, says lifelong cat students Nina El Falaki and Niels Peter Hansen in their article, About the Hierarchic System Among Cats: Dogs ...have a hierarchy system called absolute: each individual has a place in the system which is in force in all situations, until it wins a better place or...is "fought down" by another individual [or] voluntarily cedes a position.

Cats have...a relative hierarchy: each individual may have a different position depending on time, place, and situation (although females tend to be more absolute hierarchically).

What can you do to help settle the pecking order? Not much, say the authors.It helps to buy hideaway beds, so adversaries can hide when they want privacy, and it's important to spay or neuter your cats. Feliway reduces stress, and behaviorists and animal communicators can help you resolve tough conflicts.

Some cats are just talkers...like our Woody, for example, who's never shy about asking for attention or telling us what he thinks! Or our "outtie" cat, Lady, who greets me with a plaintive meow, and talks and chirps to me all the while I'm feeding her.

But every so often an elder cat (7 years or older) will simply start meowing, or sometimes yowling, for no apparent reason, any time of the day or night. Not out of any apparent need - there's food there, and water, and the litterbox is clean - but just, well, crying.

And while your cat may stop crying while you're petting him/her, the cries start up again soon after.

What's going on?

Well, it's rather like a baby that won't stop crying. Once you've gone down the basic checklist (Fed? Burped? Diaper changed? Cuddled? Naptime? Playtime?) and had no effect, it's time to call the doctor.

According to Debbie Horowitz, D.V.M, of the St. Louis-based Associated Veterinary Specialists, Elderly cats will vocalize for a variety of reasons. Cats that are in pain from arthritis or some other illness will often vocalize. A cat that is suffering from a hormonal imbalance such as hyperthyroidism may also cry excessively. Finally, cats that are suffering from hypertension or senility have been known to vocalize.

Often the solution can be as simple as a change of diet or a course of supplements such as glucosamine/chondritin for aching joints. But a crying cat is asking for help - now - and your vet is the best person to tell you why.

If your elder cat is in good health, now is a good time to start learning about cats' special needs as they age. One wonderfully comprehensive resource that I've found is Amy Shojai's book, Complete Care For Your Aging Cat.

From National Geographic, June 13, 2006:

June 13, 2006-Perhaps not since the Cowardly Lion has an animal's appearance been so at odds with its attitude.

On June 4 a black bear wandered into a West Milford, New Jersey, back yard, was confronted by a 15-pound (7-kilogram) tabby cat %u2026 and fled up a neighbor's tree. Hissing at the base of the tree, Jack the clawless cat kept the bear at bay for about 15 minutes, then ran him up another tree after an attempted escape.

Finally, Jack's owner, Donna Dickey, called the cat inside, and the timorous trespasser disappeared back into the woods.

"He doesn't want anybody in his yard," Dickey said of Jack in an interview with the Newark Star Ledger.

Unlike cats, bears aren't typically territorial, roaming instead over vast areas that would be impossible to patrol for intruders. With a habitat that includes much of North America, black bears are seen fairly often in this region of New Jersey.

Full-grown black bears weigh between 200 and 600 pounds (90 and 270 kilograms) and measure as much as 6 feet (1.8 meters) long. Their diets can include fruits, honey, insects, acorns and animals as big as moose calves-a fact apparently lost on Jack.

-Ted Chamberlain

If your favorite Bad Cat had a book of etiquette, this is what it might say...

Doors:
Do not allow closed doors in any room. To get door opened, stand on hind legs and hammer with forepaws. Once door is opened, it is not necessary to use it. After you have ordered an "outside" door opened, stand halfway in and out and think about several things. This is particularly important during very cold weather, rain, snow, or mosquito season. Swinging doors are to be avoided at all costs.

Chairs and Rugs:
If you have to throw up, get to a chair quickly. If you cannot manage in time, get to an Oriental rug. If there is no Oriental rug, shag is good. When throwing up on the carpet, make sure you back up so that it is as long as the human's bare foot.

Bathrooms:
Always accompany guests to the bathroom. It is not necessary to do anything . . . just sit and stare.

Hampering:
If one of your humans is engaged in some close activity and the other is idle, stay with the busy one. This is called "helping", otherwise known as "hampering." Following are the rules for "hampering":

* When supervising cooking, sit just behind the left heel of the cook. You cannot be seen and thereby stand a better chance of being stepped on and then picked up and comforted.

* For book readers, get in close under the chin, between eyes and book, unless you can lie across the book itself.

* For people paying bills (monthly activity) or working on income taxes or Christmas cards (annual activity), keep in mind the aim-to hamper! First, sit on the paper being worked on. When dislodged, watch sadly from the side of the table. When activity proceeds nicely, roll around on the papers, scattering them to the best of your ability. After being removed for the second time, push pens, pencils, and erasers off the table, one at a time. When a human is holding the newspaper in front of him/her, be sure to jump on the back of the paper. They love to jump.

Play:
This is an important part of your life. Get enough sleep in the daytime so you are fresh for your nocturnal games. Below are listed several favorite cat games that you can play. It is important, though, to maintain one's dignity at all times. If you should have an accident during play, such as falling off a chair, immediately wash a part of your body as if to say "I meant to do that!" It fools those humans every time.

Toys:
Any small item is a potential toy. If a human tries to confiscate it, this means that it is a good toy. Run with it under the bed. Look suitably outraged when the human grabs you and takes it away. Always watch where it is put so you can steal it later. Two reliable sources of toys are dresser tops and wastebaskets. There are several types of cat toys.

* Bright shiny things like keys, brooches, or coins should be hidden so that the other cat(s) or humans can't play with them. They are generally good for playing hockey with on uncarpeted floors.

* Dangly and/or string-like things such as shoelaces, cords, gold chains, and dental floss (& Q-tips) also make excellent toys. They are favorites of humans who like to drag them across the floor for us to pounce on.

Paper Bags:
Within paper bags dwell the bag mice. They are small and camouflaged to be the same color as the bag, so they are hard to see. But you can easily hear the crinkling noises they make as they scurry around the bag. Anything, up to and including shredding the bag, can be done to kill them. Note: any other cat you may find in a bag hunting for bag mice is fair game for a sneak attack, which will usually result in a great Tagmatch.

Food:
In order to get the energy to sleep, play, and hamper, a cat must eat. Eating, however, is only half the fun. The other half is getting the food. Cats have two ways to obtain food: convincing a human you are starving to death and must be fed now; and hunting for it oneself. The following are guidelines for getting fed.

* Should you catch something of your own outside, it is only polite to attempt to get to know it. Be insistent. Your food will usually not be so polite and try to leave.

* Table scraps are delicacies with which the humans are unfortunately unwilling to readily part. It is beneath the dignity of a cat to beg outright for food as lower forms of life such as dogs will, but several techniques exist for ensuring that the humans don't forget you exist. These include, but are not limited to: jumping onto the lap of the "softest" human and purring loudly; lying down in the doorway between the dining room and the kitchen, the "direct stare", and twining around people's legs as they sit and eat while meowing plaintively.

Sleeping:
As mentioned above, in order to have enough energy for playing, a cat must get plenty of sleep. It is generally not difficult to find a comfortable place to curl up. Any place a human likes to sit is good, especially if it contrasts with your fur color. If it's in a sunbeam or near a heating duct or radiator, so much the better. Of course, good places also exist outdoors, but have the disadvantages of being seasonal and dependent on current and previous weather conditions such as rain. Open windows are a good compromise.

Scratching Posts:
It is advised that cats use any scratching post the humans may provide. They are very protective of what they think is their property and will object strongly if they catch you sharpening your claws on it. Being sneaky and doing it when they aren't around won't help, as they are very observant. If you are an outdoor kitty, trees are good. Sharpening your claws on a human is not recommended.

Humans:
Humans have three primary functions: to feed us, to play with and give attention to us, and to clean the litter box. It is important to maintain one's Dignity when around humans so that they will not forget who is the master of the house. Humans need to know basic rules. They can be taught if you start early and are consistent.

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