{"id":3319,"date":"2019-03-14T03:56:45","date_gmt":"2019-03-14T11:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/?p=3319"},"modified":"2019-03-14T03:56:45","modified_gmt":"2019-03-14T11:56:45","slug":"thoughts-for-thursday-is-your-cat-a-love-bug-or-does-she-cringe-at-your-touch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/?p=3319","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts for Thursday \u2013 Is Your Cat a Love-Bug or Does She Cringe at Your Touch?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Isn\u2019t this an interesting question? But if you\u2019ve had a lot of cats with a variety of backgrounds, you know it\u2019s legitimate. Some cats will practically turn themselves inside out to feel the human touch and others seem to dislike being petted. They shrink away from your hand\u2014avoid your overtures. Then there are those who will accept and even direct just the type of petting they prefer: a vigorous neck scratch, strokes alongside their cheeks, or a tickle at the base of their tail.<\/p>\n

Why does the scrawny, wiry, cat crave petting and the gorgeous Persian seem to object to it\"\" or vice versa? Is this something their early life experiences create? I thought so, until our once homeless, standoffish tortie grew to adore being petted. She can\u2019t get enough of it\u2014she\u2019s extremely needy of affection now that she\u2019s accepted it.<\/p>\n

Lily, on the other hand, born one of fifteen kittens to three feral mother cats, and easy to handle from day one, sometimes seems to cringe when I (her favorite person) pets her. \"\"She almost always enjoys neck and cheek scratches and sometimes she loves being petted. Other times, however, she slinks away from me when I run my hand over her. I can only guess that she just wasn\u2019t handled enough as a kitten and this feels foreign to her\u2014she was taught not to trust. Maybe someone (a child, perhaps) was frighteningly rough with her when she was tiny.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the possibility that a cat who doesn\u2019t invite and accept petting is experiencing pain. Lily does have kidney disease\u2014could full-body stroking cause her discomfort?<\/p>\n

And then there are those adorable cat paws. Most cats don\u2019t like to have their paws handled because they\u2019re super sensitive, but some cats are so affectionate that they\u2019ll even offer a paw to someone they trust.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an informative sites talking about why some cats reject certain types of petting approaches: https:\/\/pets.thenest.com\/certain-cats-hate-being-petted-6641.html<\/a> If you have a cat that doesn\u2019t like to be picked up or is impossible to pick up, read this article: https:\/\/www.petful.com\/behaviors\/cat-does-not-like-to-be-held\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Isn\u2019t this an interesting question? But if you\u2019ve had a lot of cats with a variety of backgrounds, you know it\u2019s legitimate. Some cats will practically turn themselves inside out to feel the human touch and others seem to dislike … 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":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3319"}],"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=3319"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3320,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3319\/revisions\/3320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}