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When I discovered that RJ, at six months, had been tearing holes in the shower curtain, it proved to be impossible to catch him at it. So I made a big production, in front of him, of being distressed over the shower curtain’s condition. He stopped playing with it… until we got a new one.
I think I slipped up. I should have staged the same production over the new one. He obviously thought the old shower curtain was the one I was concerned with. He didn’t tear this one to shreds; he only made some discreet holes. So I didn’t have to put this one back together with tape. When I do get a new one again, I’ll make a big production over it.
Cats generally like big productions. Mr. Bond prefers Mr WayofCats to feed them instead of me, because Mr WayofCats apparently puts on a better show. I don’t go more than twenty four hours without making a fuss over Mr. Bond, or he will feel hurt. There’s few things Mr. Bond likes more than me seeking him out and acting thrilled by finding him.
This doesn’t mean we should get loud or make a lot of sudden movements. This is even more true for Gamma cats like Puffy, for whom too much is too much. My discipline of Puffy, like my affection, is low key and soft voiced, though enthusiastic.
Multiple cat situations are especially open to using drama. Each cat has differing skills in interpreting what we say to them. By dramatizing our requests, we increase our chances of getting our information across. The cats who didn’t get it from us can get the message from the other cats.
So if we feel that our message is not getting across, try dramatizing our message.
The dangerous area or object. To keep cats away from things, we should act out how dangerous this thing is. Shy away from it ourselves, do some hammy “jump backs,” and generally make it clear that this is a scary thing; maybe not now, but who knows what it might do? If this is something we have to handle ourselves, make our work there full of caution, and blast some air around it with one of those electronic cleaning cans. This reminds the cat that they are better off leaving this thing alone.
Their new bed or toy. Get the cat excited by expressing our own excitement. The cat might not show their interest in front of us; they have a reputation to maintain. But our thrill over it will pique their curiosity, and encourage exploration.
Approaching us for requests. We can encourage the cat to come to us by being happy and eager when they do so. Even if it’s just an inquiring face appearing around a doorframe, we should look into that face and express our willingness to say hello, get up to follow them, or ask what we can do for the cat. The cat will be far quicker to engage us in their troubles or challenges when they are reassured that we want to do things for them.
Acting it out will, at the least, interest the cat, and at most, we will be getting our request, our observations, and our feelings across the gulf of communication between us.
Try it. There might be a surprise in it.
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drama also helps when trying to convince an rescue cat to be an indoor cat…. when vidalia got out i scooped her up and acted very afraid…. horrible things are out here,,, not good for kitties… ooh oooh… now we are safe inside…
Mimed drama is about the only thing that works with a deaf cat, like my Byron. He doesn’t hear the words, but he sees the emotions.
Not cat related, but Parrot Honored For Saving Toddler’s Life is worth the read. The amazing part is what the parrot said. Animals are so much smarter than what humans give them credit for.
Well this sounds like something really fun to do. I have never done this before. My cats do stay outside a lot so they don’t get into very much trouble. The only thing they do that is bad, is dig in my plants in the house. I just put obstacles around the plant now.
Margaret Elmendorf’s last blog post..Getting Lucky
This absolutely works.
When I first got Tazendra she was very tiny, only five weeks old, and she didn’t know how to do anything catlike at all. I took her onto the greenbelt outside our apartment and put her in the grass, then ran up to the nearest tree all excited-like. She ran after me. I grabbed the tree bark and started popping it with my fingernails like a cat scratching, and she ran right up and started doing the same thing after watching me for a couple of seconds.
Sweetest thing I ever did see. I knew I was her mama then for sure.
I have had a really hard time getting it to work on my youngest cat. She is incredibly smart, but very willful, and no matter how many times I have tried to act out where she should be scratching, and how sad I act when she does it in inappropriate places, she won’t cooperate. There’s something else going on that I just can’t figure out.
Yes, I saw that parrot story, Bill, and animals don’t get enough credit.
And RJ still goes for Robert’s chair, but he knows not to damage it, he puts his claws in and takes them out and then runs to the scratching box to anticipate me. Shows signs of being a wiseacre.
haha, our Robie is a wisacre like that. he knows what he’s not supposed to do, but starts to scratch at something to get our attention. also, if Dad doesn’t pay enough attention to him, he will go to knock something off our desk, always looking over his shoulder to make sure we see him acting out.
LOL!!! To be honest, I never really thought about it, but this is true, you should really exaggerate your gestures and movements when you deal with cats. I’ve recently just trained my cat to walk on a leash, and was more concerned with practice and repetitions, not drama.