Holden still can't grasp that his adoptive mommies are relatively fragile. He sits on the typewriter shelf of my desk, and if he thinks he's not getting enough attention, he'll bite me.
Flinching doesn't help. Scolding doesn't register with him. So I've started crying, as soon as I feel the little cat teeth. I pull away before he can get a good nip. put my head down and sob, in as heartfelt a way as I can.
And that works. He'll either start smoothing on me or go into clown mode, rolling and grabbing at small items on the desk, very much, "I'm playing! See? See how amusing I am? Please stop crying!"
I just started a few days ago. We'll see if the lesson sticks.
Update
1 year ago
4 comments:
Now there's a problem I don't have. Most cats run from me, and I don't know why. My daughter's Maine Coon has finally stopped hissing at me after ten years, but Walter still keeps an eye on me whenever I'm in the same room with him. her other cats simply hide.
Only one cat has ever shown me affection...Ming, an elderly Siamese, who would crawl into my lap and take pets and scritchies all day.
You have a good idea, sounds promising. I remember a stray we took in- "Squeaky." She had the habit of jumping up quickly after a few pets, to bite me on the nose. This was especially annoying when she tried that maneuver on my workbench, amongst small parts and a hot soldering iron. I can't remember exactly 'what", but there was some small object she hated & I would bring that out as a deterrent. I was used to cat annoyance since I was then working at a radio station with the owners residence attached. Their 6 cats were allowed to roam the station at will. It went pretty well, except for one noontime newscast, when a cat fell through the dropped ceiling of the main studio, directly onto the newsman's copy, as I ran the board. We took a commercial break to laugh and remove said cat. (Shouted out the studio door, "Will someone please come and take this cat!?) The main studio round table with microphones used for discussion programs had a couple microphones in paralell, due to not enough inputs. If we forgot to unplug a parallel mike, sometimes a cat would come and rub their teeth over the mike grill during a newscast, causing a rumbling noise, mixed with purring. Though we were able to put a stop to it pretty quickly, it never failed to rattle us. However, no listener seemed to notice or complain. Boss would say, "I thought I told you people to unplug those mikes." I would say, "Lets buy a Shure outboard mixer." After a time, he took my advice, to everyone's relief. PS: There is nothing like the sound of a Revox 77 starting up on the lower part of the automation, than having a startled cat jumping up to attack the takeup reel. To Revox's credit, the smoothing mechanism & capstan caught up in a second.
Above comment by Bob Kramer
Sounds like Bob Kramer worked at WKRP. Workplace cats should be mandatory; we've had seven the past twenty years.
I've read that biting the biter's ear simulates momcat's method for teaching junior to modulate the biting intensity. Seems to work, though I pinch, not bite, as I am averse to cat hair in my mouth.
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