 Poor Pica. She loves being held, and petted and squeezed, and will come to me to get picked up and comforted... BUT she gets a little scared, or maybe finds it fun to run when you reach out to grab her. So she keeps circling back and almost getting picked up over & over & over, until she's a just a little too slow. She gets caught. Then she goes limp in your arms and purrs and is so happy. What an absurd animal! (I don't pick her up for a day or two? she starts sadly meowing more & more...) 22 comments
 @futurebird With another kind of animal, I wouldn't have any idea. With a cat, I'm betting on game-playing. Our cat Callista always starts swatting and snapping when petted. But she keeps right on purring the whole time! She isn't upset. She just thinks she has to swat and snap because that's what cats do. @futurebird The solution if you want to get her to stop is counterintuitive: put your FACE next to her. Never once has she ever swatted or snapped at a face. Only hands. She's a rescue, and I suspect the asshats who abandoned her taught her that primate hands are cat toys. Maybe it's just a matter of some cat notion of "dignity" being picked up ought to be hard, because she is a cat and fast and only "let" me catch her. "oh no I've been caught, now I will HAVE TO be petted and told how beautiful I am... my life is so hard and unfair" - Pica, probably. @futurebird @dedicto @futurebird @dedicto @futurebird @dedicto My favorite puss, Ms. Mertz, had a skin allergy to grasses. When the itching would get bad enough, she'd hang around the cat carrier nonchalantly, sort of "Oh my. Look, the door is open and I might fall in accidentally and get taken to the vet for a shot, but it wouldn't be my fault, oh no..." Her pride insisted that she not go to the vet willingly, but if it was all an accident, her pride was saved! @futurebird @dedicto "I'm a pwedator, not a baby! ... Oh ok, ah, well yes, I'm a baby too purr purr" @futurebird It may be instinctual behavior. I have two feral cats that are now inside cats due to age and health. They both are very weary of being touched, the same way as Pica avoids being picked up, but purr happily when eventually petted. They also get quite vocal if you don't pet them.  @LockEx @futurebird I think that when you loom over a cat, which is a pretty necessary step in picking them up from a standing position, it triggers an instinctive reaction to get out of that space. I usually squat down and wait for them to get close enough to hook my hand over and around them, because going for the forklift style scoop also triggers an escape reaction @futurebird Pica is probably playing a game. Cats love playing games. I had a cat who loved cuddling and sitting in my lap. But when he got old, he began to be unable to make the jump from the floor up into my lap. The two of us ending up developing a game where he would come meowing and circling around me, staying just out of reach. I would drop one of my hands and look away from him, waiting til he would brush against my hand. Then I'd reach over with the other hand, pick him up, put on lap. @futurebird So that was the game he loved to do when he wanted to sit in my lap, it made it fun for him to get picked up like that and not have to think about how he was no longer able to jump up into my lap like he did when he was younger. @futurebird Our pixie will let you pick her up, but if you hold her for more than ten seconds will wriggle, then if you are unwise enough to persist, she'll get the murder mittens out.  @futurebird @palin No question, itβs a silly kitty game. Our multicolored 11-year-old poofball does exactly the same thing. @futurebird Our Jiji runs out the back door the minute itβs opened for any reason. |
Gregory's Server
To be fair, I too would be scared of being grabbed by a giant.
But, I can't tell if this is a game for her, or if she just still has a hang up with being grabbed.