Abuse is abuse. Someone who will abuse animals will often be also willing to abuse humans.

Glad you’ve learned a better way to interact with animals!

:) tagAught

*headdesks* Yes, I talk to Imber all the time – I’ve talked to all the cats I’ve lived around, and even the ones I run into when out walking. They’re generally better listeners than humans. And I only occasionally start thinking that they understand what I’m saying.

I *do* think that some cats (and other animals) can learn to associate a pattern of sounds with something specific; that’s how dogs can be trained to sit on command, for example. Getting in their faces about is *definitely* not the way to do it. Only by being in normal situations and using repetition can it happen.

Imber (and Aspen, and Mitzy, and Brightspot before her, and others before them) knows what pattern of sounds makes up her name, and the nickname I have for her. I’m pretty sure she knows what pattern of sounds make up the name I have for myself when talking to her (“Mommy-Cat”). She’s aware of what the sounds making up “No” mean. And I’m working on getting her to realize the meaning of the pattern of sounds making up, “I’m turning on the light”, so that she will start closing or narrowing her eyes when I come into my room and have to turn the light on to see. But words *as* words? I doubt cats have that concept. Their communication uses different patterns, different sensory systems. (I believe some researchers have speculated that cats’ sounds are more emphasis to what scents and postures are actually saying.)

Jeeze, this is turning into my $2 worth! ;) Gotta be because we’re talking cats.

:) tagAught

Yes! This is how cats (and other animals) *should* be treated – never afraid to scold us (in their own ways, whether nipping gently or whatever) when we cross a line. (Of course, biting – as opposed to nipping – should be discouraged, but there’s no need to get physical about that; one of my parents’ cats loves getting attention from me, but when he was a kitten, he would bite even when nipping would be more appropriate. I responded by ignoring him when he bit me, and he stopped. He’s still willing to nip or scratch if he objects to something, but he – *usually* – doesn’t bite anymore. He certainly doesn’t bite me.)

Imber, my 4 year old kitten, would rather hiss and snarl at me when I cross a line with her than get physical – she saves that for Thor, the other of my parents’ cats. Unfortunately, usually the time she does that is when I’m clipping her claws…. *sighs* Which I have to do, not only to save the furniture and my skin, but also to make sure that she doesn’t accidentally scratch herself when she gets anxious. And she ducks down when I have to apply her anti-anxiety cream in her ear – but I definitely don’t stop her from running away from me when it’s done! (She usually comes back within minutes, and then the wariness is gone until tomorrow night.) *sighs again* Unfortunately, her anxiety *has* to be controlled, or she goes nuts at the very *sight* of Thor. And she exhibits allergy-like symptoms – biting the skin at the base of her tail and around her ruff to the point where she breaks the skin – when not on the meds. So that’s definitely for her own good. She just hates the feel of the cream in her ear (and hey, can’t blame her for that! I’d hate it too!)

Anyway, going off-topic. So, my two cents to this comment as well!

;) tagAught

Wow. I have to agree with pretty much everything you said here. Certainly I would *never* have my cats de-clawed (all else aside, it leads to serious mental health issues, and can lead to physical health issues as well!), and euthanasia is only an option if there seems to be no other choice. (I hate “putting cats down” with a vengeance… but there are some times where it seems more the cat’s choice than yours. My first cat [as in I was her human, rather than the first cat we as a family had] was put down because when I took her in because she seemed somewhat more lethargic than usual, they found she was so severely anemic that the vet had no idea how she was standing up, let alone jumping up to my shoulder as she had done when he came into the exam room. He suspects she was holding on for my sake, rather than her own. She’d been at the vet’s overnight before, and always had perked up to go home when I came to collect her, but that morning she just… it really seemed like she was ready to go, now that I’d acknowledged that she was dying. I’m just glad I was there with her.)

I always spay my cats (I don’t go for male cats). Something my parents taught me. I was unaware of the health issues you mentioned farther up, but I *did* know that spayed / neutered cats tend to live longer and happier (at least as far as we humans can tell) lives.

Anyway, just read this comment and knew I had to respond.

:) tagAught

*nods thoughtfully* I’ve always felt I need touch when I’m upset – but feline touch, not human touch. I’ve been lucky in my cats: Brightspot always understood when I was upset and came over, quite often licking my face to try to sooth my crying. Mitzy was always up for a good cuddle. Aspen… would let me pet her, but wasn’t really a cuddly cat, so I was satisfied with that. (She liked being petted, but a lap cat, she was *not*.) And Imber is usually happy for me to cuddle her, but it ends when *she* decides it ends. (She is of the opinion that happens even when I want it to end before she does as well, naturally…. ;)) So I guess it *is* more a strong want than a need. It’s something that helps calm me down and help me regain control, of myself and of the world, but if a cat doesn’t want to be cuddled, I accept that and let them go.

And I understand the point about power, but – perhaps because I grew up with cats since I was born, and once I got past the bratty stage of pulling Tikky’s tail and petting him when he didn’t want to be petted – I’ve always understood that if a cat wants to be left alone, leave them alone. They have claws. And teeth. (Mind you, this hasn’t stopped me from trying to coax cats to approach me occasionally, and let me pet them, and I had remarkable success with one very nervy cat on my paper route as an early teen…. :) But that’s coaxing, and again, leaves the power of choice up to the *cat*.) I think people who abuse the fact that they’re bigger… well, they’re *abusers*. Animal or “human” (given we are also animals), it doesn’t matter. That’s abuse. *nods firmly* (And that’s one ethical thing that *I’m* inflexible about.)

;) tagAught

“I used to wonder if dreams were real and reality was a dream. That got me in at least as much trouble with the psych people as my communicating with objects did.”

*blinks*

Obviously, they never took philosophy. That is a basic question: “Am I a man dreaming I am a butterfly dreaming I am a man, or am I a butterfly dreaming I am a man dreaming I am a butterfly?” I never took philosophy, have never been hugely interested in it, and even I know this. *shakes head in disgust*

Glad you’re strong enough to have moved past them / not paid attention to what they thought.

:) tagAught