I love cats with attitude. That being said, sometimes it can be hard to live with that attitude. Sometimes you hear stories of monster cats, but many of us have dealt with a jerk cat in our life.
Mine was this guy.
Code Name: Big Fluffy
Now, when I got Fluff I learned a lot of things. He likes to curl up into you and nap. He drools when he's happy. He rocks the sleepy eye like nobody's business. And he bites.
He is a picky jerk and there is a certain way to pet him. If you do it wrong, he doesn't stalk off or push you away - he bites. Hard. Let me clarify that it's not so much biting as attacking. He attacks you. He comes at you like you killed his only love. Like it's life or death. I couldn't deal with it.
But what's a pet owner to do? At the time, I'd just given away my cat Hector to a good family so he would get more attention than was allowed by my attention-hog Felix. But then Felix went nuts. Destructive nuts. We just moved and he was tearing up the carpet, the blinds. Running around screaming all the time. This was not normal we just moved and I'm unhappy behavior. It was too much change too soon and he was lonely.
So I brought home Bailey and renamed him Big Fluffy in a fit of hilarity. Felix was named by a previous owner and, like a good cat/dog, new his own name. Can't change it now. Fluffy is a classic cat name, but once I realized they add your last name to your cats (Smedley) and that Fluffy Smedley sounds like a mob name there was no going back. My mob boss kitty was quickly renamed Big Fluffy and we were off. Until the attacking started.
I was constantly marked up, but I was more worried for Felix. Felix is larger, used to the outdoors, and still had claws, but Fluff was a holy terror. What do you do? I was afraid for Felix but tormented by taking Fluff back to the pound. The whole time he screamed his little lungs out on the car ride home I was promising to love and take care of him. The pound I got him from was small and had few adoptions. He was already 6 years old when I got him and there's no way he'd survive if I took him back. That's the reason I get my cats from the pound in the first place!
So I decided to stick it out. I kept him isolated and slowly introduced him to Felix. 6 years later, this still hasn't been a total success. They're kind of dicks to each other. Maybe it's just sarcastic and I can't tell. Yeah, that's it.
Anyway, through the years he's calmed down. He still bites. Both myself and company. And Felix. And blankets. But it's calmed down a lot. He's turned into a kind of chilled out cat. The only thing I can contribute to that was building a lot of trust and learning his boundaries. Once that happened, we started to push the boundaries slowly until he wouldn't take your head off for the same thing. Plus, the attacking was taken down to bites. Usually a single bite and at 50% capacity. I mark that as a huge improvement.
Moreover, I think Fluff is so damn lucky that I think his attitude is cute. It's really the only things that saved his life after all.
So do you have a jerk cat? How do you put up with it?
Mine was this guy.
 |
| He's more terrifying in person. Promise. |
Code Name: Big Fluffy
Now, when I got Fluff I learned a lot of things. He likes to curl up into you and nap. He drools when he's happy. He rocks the sleepy eye like nobody's business. And he bites.
He is a picky jerk and there is a certain way to pet him. If you do it wrong, he doesn't stalk off or push you away - he bites. Hard. Let me clarify that it's not so much biting as attacking. He attacks you. He comes at you like you killed his only love. Like it's life or death. I couldn't deal with it.
But what's a pet owner to do? At the time, I'd just given away my cat Hector to a good family so he would get more attention than was allowed by my attention-hog Felix. But then Felix went nuts. Destructive nuts. We just moved and he was tearing up the carpet, the blinds. Running around screaming all the time. This was not normal we just moved and I'm unhappy behavior. It was too much change too soon and he was lonely.
So I brought home Bailey and renamed him Big Fluffy in a fit of hilarity. Felix was named by a previous owner and, like a good cat/dog, new his own name. Can't change it now. Fluffy is a classic cat name, but once I realized they add your last name to your cats (Smedley) and that Fluffy Smedley sounds like a mob name there was no going back. My mob boss kitty was quickly renamed Big Fluffy and we were off. Until the attacking started.
I was constantly marked up, but I was more worried for Felix. Felix is larger, used to the outdoors, and still had claws, but Fluff was a holy terror. What do you do? I was afraid for Felix but tormented by taking Fluff back to the pound. The whole time he screamed his little lungs out on the car ride home I was promising to love and take care of him. The pound I got him from was small and had few adoptions. He was already 6 years old when I got him and there's no way he'd survive if I took him back. That's the reason I get my cats from the pound in the first place!
So I decided to stick it out. I kept him isolated and slowly introduced him to Felix. 6 years later, this still hasn't been a total success. They're kind of dicks to each other. Maybe it's just sarcastic and I can't tell. Yeah, that's it.
Anyway, through the years he's calmed down. He still bites. Both myself and company. And Felix. And blankets. But it's calmed down a lot. He's turned into a kind of chilled out cat. The only thing I can contribute to that was building a lot of trust and learning his boundaries. Once that happened, we started to push the boundaries slowly until he wouldn't take your head off for the same thing. Plus, the attacking was taken down to bites. Usually a single bite and at 50% capacity. I mark that as a huge improvement.
Moreover, I think Fluff is so damn lucky that I think his attitude is cute. It's really the only things that saved his life after all.
So do you have a jerk cat? How do you put up with it?
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