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The Predator Peek

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Are cats sneaky?

Of course they are! This is how they hunt. This is how they live.

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The Predator Peek is how a cat will slide the top of their head, ears held back, over a barrier, so that as little as possible of them is showing. This is how they watch birds from windows and mice from hiding. This is not learned behavior; cats who drank from a bottle and never hunted with their mother will still do the Predator Peek.

Sneaky lets a solitary creature use stealth and cunning to get dinner. Sneaky also means intelligence; sneaky doesn’t work, otherwise.

This is part of the Cat Package; the smarts, the cunning, the fun. Because cats play games this way, too. Hide & seek, tucking a toy under a throw rug, and losing their balls-with-bells under the fridge; it’s all part of sneaking up on things.

It activates their imagination, because they have to imagine all the different ways their prey could react to their attack. It strengthens their conceptual abilities, because they need to visualize plans. It enhances their logical reasoning, as they work out possible combinations of different actions.

This makes cats quiet and clean and trainable; all wonderful attributes for a pet to have.

So when people complain they don’t like cats because they’re “sneaky,” I just laugh. This is an incredible and useful feature; not a bug.

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Kitten Proofing – An Essential Step

I love kittens. But I know they get into everything.

We do ourselves a favor by making our home, at least temporarily, into an area that lowers the chances of a crash-boom-anguish event.

funny pictures-I scoff at yur baby gate and yur feebul attempt to contain me!
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The number of variables in this situation are considerable, and will have an impact on our preparations.

The kind of kitten. We can have a quiet little Gamma or a whirling dervish of an Alpha. Some kittens calm down quickly, and some never do.

Some kittens amuse themselves; whether we like it or not. Other kittens demand attention and particular kinds of play; they don’t know how to stop asking for what they need.

Choosing a kitten carefully will help us get the level of independence/interaction we both want.

The number of playmates. We can have older cats or sedate dogs who don’t want to play with the kitten, or a combination of cats, dogs, and children who urge them to max it out. While kittens don’t need much encouragement to race around, willing victims who chase and are chased will create more chances for them.

But this also wears out the kitten for us.

Our preferred decorating. I had an advantage going in. I like knickknacks put away for easy dusting, prefer heavy pieces of furniture which don’t tip over easily, and value easy over fussy.

We can have delicate items and elaborate displays in our house. But we shouldn’t expect to combine them with a couple of delightful, and rowdy, Alpha kittens. We can have a room where the cats are not allowed, or we can choose more mellow, easily amused, types of cats.

Our expectations of training. Of course we can train our kittens; this is what raising them is all about. But while we may think they grow up all too soon; it’s not soon enough if we are not relaxed about the process.

They can learn things very quickly, but forget it in the heat of the moment. They can be kittens for up to three years, and have kitten “bursts” for years after that. They can be 90% there, but continue to be stubborn about something which exasperates us.

We didn’t get to give up the super-cheap shower curtains, mended with tape, until RJ was over two years old. He was sweet and cooperative and learned to please us rather quickly, but he had a vendetta against shower curtains.

This is how kitten proofing works. It’s individual, of varying lengths, and has widely divergent targets. That’s because it mostly depends on the kitten, and how they interact in our home. Each home has its own individual character.

So I can say, “Fasten down electrical cords so they don’t get tangled, loop venetian blind cords over a topmost slat so they aren’t tempting, and put away the tippy things,” and this will certainly cover these usual suspects.

But some kittens will be like Tarzan and some kittens will be like Pooh Bear, and some kittens will be like Buddha.

And each one is different.

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Mapping the Cat Brain

When people find cats inexplicable, it’s because they don’t understand the way cats think.

As shown in this classic cartoon, it’s funny when we observe cat quirks with understanding. But for many people, cats are neurotic bundles of bizarre, untrustworthy, behavior.

Then, it’s not funny.

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Cat appreciators laugh at this because we have a clue about why cats act this way. The Cat-Unenlightened do not. Ironically, cats and the people who dislike them actually have a lot in common:

Expecting the worst. People who dislike cats view all of their actions through the lens of trust. Cats do, too.

Thinking that a purring cat will put up with anything, presuming any cat will understand their friendship gestures no matter how ambiguous, and becoming angry when the cat does not respond the way they want; cat dislikers always have plenty of reasons to approach a cat with trepidation.

Then they get the suspicious, even hostile, response they expected to get. See, they say. I knew there was no point in trying to be friendly.

Cat caution is a response to their wild, hostile, environment.

Misinterpreting the signals. People who have difficulties with cats get tripped by one overwhelming expectation; that cats should act like dogs. When cats don’t, it’s somehow the cat’s fault.

The cat shows their belly, the person rubs it like they’re waxing a Porsche. The cat is relaxing on their end of the couch, the person comes in and act like they own the place. The cat decides to leave the room, the person chases them.

At each point, a person operating under a “dog delusion” blames the cat for not conforming to their unreasonable expectations. Not only are dogs eager for attention, they will shrug off rejection and come back for more; the burden on the human is nearly nonexistent. Not engaging with a cat in the way a cat prefers is simply laziness on the part of the human.

If such people would make the mental shift from “frat party” to “tea party” when interacting with cats, everyone would be much happier.

Cat are solitary hunters with social skills, not social hunters with an inability to be alone.

Trouble adjusting their focus. A lot of a cat’s “obsessional” behavior springs from a quite amazing ability to concentrate and consider. These are good things.

But a human subject of such study can become nervous. Being observed, seemingly without emotion, by a being with vague motivations creates a lot of suppressed anxiety. Which is something a cat focuses on with increased intensity. Then we have a feedback loop people are not aware they are experiencing; except to complain that they “don’t like cats.”

Because cats have the ability to observe small differences, act with confidence and quickness, and contemplate with intensity, people might not be aware that they could be intimidated by these small, furry, contradictory creatures.

But they might be.

Cat concentration is how cats manage to ambush and outwit their prey.

These are all marvelous qualities we celebrate in people.

We should celebrate them in our cats.

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How to Choose a Third Cat

We might have a cat incompatibility problem. We can solve it with… a Third Cat.

To make our cementing Third Cat block more sturdy, we should make this cat a carefully chosen move:

funny pictures-Then Goldilocks found one that was just right!
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The right sex. When choosing First Cat, it doesn’t matter. Maybe we didn’t have a choice with Second Cat, or we feel we must have chosen badly for the situation to have turned out the way it did.

While their sex doesn’t matter for their suitability as pets, it does have an influence on inter-cat relations. I’ve found that cats are more likely to be buddies if they are the same sex.

There are certainly all kinds of exceptions; opposite sex cats can be friends. But if we are working to remove barriers to compatibility, a same sex match can give us a bit of an edge.

The right type. With widely varying types, we can use Third Cat to split the difference.

But a such a move is not always the best choice. We can love the sweet Persian mixes, but wind up with two cats who cannot make social connections. This may result in the two cats ignoring each other, which isn’t too much of a problem.

But if one cat is lonely, they will keep asking the other cat for friendship. The lonely cat will be upset that they keep getting rejected. The solitary cat will be upset that they keep getting asked.

In this case, getting another Gamma would help the situation because their style is not so different from the other cats. But deliberately getting a mellow, highly socialized Gamma will create an optimum situation for the lonely cat, while modeling better skills for the solitary cat that they can take advantage of… or not. It will be up to them, finally, because the lonely cat will find buddy opportunities with Third Cat.

And we get three cats of our favorite type.

Or we might have an Alpha who is just too much for an older or quieter Beta, straining their coping abilities. The Alpha is the one who needs more play and more interaction; getting another Alpha would be the right choice.

The right age/activity level. Age/activity is like a fine-tuning knob on our cat choice. A baby Beta has the energy to keep up with an older Alpha, while an older Beta can be just right for a baby Gamma.

Kittens have a built-in advantage when it comes to being Third Cat. They are less sensitive to rejection, are still building their social skills and can be more forgiving of social blunders, and are less likely to trigger territorial imperatives.

Just look at them! Older cats usually have an instinctual understanding that such bumbling foolishness is not trying to take over their territory.

But kitten ease comes with a built-in disadvantage, too. They are high-energy; they must have a target who will accept the sudden pouncing and ritual disemboweling that kittens will perform on them, whether they like it or not.

Bringing a kitten into a home with two older cats might mean two cats getting harassed, and neither of them liking it. The way around that, of course, is to get two kittens. They will play with each other, and can band the two older cats together in mutual disdain of these little beanheads.

This also means doubling our chances of the kittens being the right kind of cat to win over one or more of the older cats.

If such a move gives us pause, we should consider an under-three. We are upping the territory imperative somewhat, but we are also lowering the pedal-to-the-metal exuberance that can so distress quieter cats. Under-threes combine kitten friendliness with more mature sensibilities; they are more able to take their time making friends.

Older cats are less flexible; both physically and mentally. If we have two older cats who don’t get along, and their combined age is greater than ten, we might consider a different step: re-introduction of these two cats.

If we make this move successfully, we can more easily consider a Third Cat.

Yes, it’s true. I’m saying:

The solution to your cat problem is more cats!

Because so many cat problems arise from cat incompatibility; which is usually from cats reaching out, and being rebuffed. If we take care of the social reach of the lonely cat, we also take care of the harassment problems of the solitary cat.

Giving everyone what they need. That’s how any happy family gets built.

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Why Third Cat is Different

A common problem is starting with one cat, haphazardly adding another; and then the cats don’t get along. This can stall a promising Cat Career. What can un-stall it is what seems like a counter-intuitive move; adding another cat.

When we have three, or more, cats, we have levels of interaction which will increase everyone’s satisfaction and happiness.

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I already have two cats who don’t get along! Why would I want to make more problems for myself?

Because cats do not obey the laws of physics, we may add a cat, but we will subtract from our cat problems.

Third Cat, especially if carefully chosen, creates another option for cat friendship for both of the existing cats. Even in the worst case scenario, that of a lively Alpha with an anti-social Gamma, adding a third, Beta, cat will impose a different, and more flexible, dynamic.

Now, instead of one cat constantly being harassed (as they see it) by the other cat, we have Third Cat, who, being Beta, will try to make friends with everyone. They will, at the least, be an object of interest to the Alpha, taking the pressure off the Gamma. At the most, the Beta will pivot between fun activities with the Alpha, and quiet companionship with the Gamma.

All our cat relations improve.

It’s fairly easy for an aspiring Cat Appreciator to acquire two cats who don’t get along. We get a stray, we get another stray; they both have issues with abandonment and trust. We probably messed up the introductions, and then didn’t police the situation properly.

But the odds of having three cats who hate each other are fairly astronomical. Someone is going to send out a friendship feeler, loneliness doesn’t look so good any more, bridges get built.

After all, two cats who ignore each other are not a problem. Two cats who divide up the house and stay away from each other are not a problem. Cats who have differing ideas about social interaction… there’s your problem.

More cats is the solution.

    Cats do not have pack behavior. But they do have social behavior.

    Learn more about the different cat types.

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