{"id":1292,"date":"2016-06-09T04:17:45","date_gmt":"2016-06-09T12:17:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/?p=1292"},"modified":"2016-06-09T04:17:45","modified_gmt":"2016-06-09T12:17:45","slug":"thoughts-for-thursday-your-cats-bffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/?p=1292","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts for Thursday\u2014Your Cats\u2019 BFFs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"dinah-dummy\"<\/strong>Cats have a reputation for being aloof\u2014rather unapproachable, standoffish, and even snooty. But if you\u2019ve had many cats, you know that at least some of them can be quite friendly, even affectionate. This is especially evident when kitty is hungry or she\u2019s requesting some sort of favor (\u201clet me out,\u201d \u201cI want to sit in your lap,\u201d \u201cgive me a bite of your chicken,\u201d etc.).<\/p>\n

Cats, however, will develop a friendship\u2014sometimes a love affair\u2014with a particular person. There are two of us in our household, and our cats will typically choose one or the other of us sometime after they arrive to live here. While they\u2019re cordial and dependent on both of us, they will select one to be their BFF.<\/p>\n

Now what about visitors? Does your cat welcome them or hide from them? Most of our cats have been hidey cats and I\u2019m pretty sure they\u2019ve learned this behavior from each other. Our Himalayan, Katy, was from a kitten mill, so I doubt she was introduced to many people before I found the darling at a pet shop. She became attached to me and was not about to let anyone else in on our sweet relationship\u2014no how, no way. She was mine and I was hers.<\/p>\n

Most of our subsequent cats were from feral backgrounds and were naturally skittish when \"LilyTwins\"it came to strangers. A stranger was anyone who came to the house, no matter how often they came, unless they spent the night. Max, for example, ran every time the doorbell rang. But if the guest stayed longer than six or eight hours, he decided they were okay and he\u2019d allow them to see him, pet him, and even hold him, if they so desired. Lily, on the other hand, although she’s still wary of adult visitors, she has always adored children. Go figure.<\/p>\n

Katy, the Himalayan, was afraid of everyone outside of those of us who lived here, until the time our next door neighbors came in for a visit. She had no fear of them and it finally occurred to me that she was used to seeing them through the window as she sat on my desk every day. She knew them and felt comfortable with them even the first time they came into our house.<\/p>\n

My mother\u2019s cat, Smokey (the cat I patterned the star in my Klepto Cat Mysteries after) is okay with all visitors, but there are a few he adores\u2014I mean, he absolutely adores. One is their next door neighbor woman who comes to visit occasionally. He will sit or lay in front of her and just gaze in her direction the whole time she\u2019s there. The other is my niece who spends the night with my mother regularly. Smokey seems to know when she\u2019s coming for the evening as he will wait at the window and get excited when he sees her pull up. He greets her at the door and hangs close to her for petting. My mother was afraid she was losing her beloved cat\u2019s affections to my niece. But she will tell us with a sense of pride, \u201cHe won\u2019t get in her lap. He only climbs up in my lap.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cats aloof, distant? Nonsense. While our cats don\u2019t wiggle excitedly when they see us or show their teeth as if smiling, like one of my grand dogs does, it\u2019s hard to deny that when Lily curls up in my lap or bumps me with her head or just wants to be with me, that isn\u2019t pure affection.<\/p>\n

Announcement: Next week: June 13-15, Barbara Florio Graham will be GUEST BLOGGER on the topic of training your cat. Barbara won the $1,000 Sticky Paws award for the best article on training your cat in the 2002 Cat Writer\u2019s Association writing competition. You\u2019re going to be blown away to read how she trains her own cats and I couldn\u2019t help but ask the question, why? Don\u2019t miss this series of guest blogs.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Cats have a reputation for being aloof\u2014rather unapproachable, standoffish, and even snooty. But if you\u2019ve had many cats, you know that at least some of them can be quite friendly, even affectionate. This is especially evident when kitty is hungry … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1292"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1292"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1293,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1292\/revisions\/1293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}