Ruth (Monty’s Mom)
“What’s my motivation?” You might hear an actor or actress ask this question when trying to get into character. It’s a good question. We all have things that motivate us: we desire things like food and rest, but we also desire to be loved, to acquire possessions, or to have a good time. Understanding what motivates a person can be a key to understanding his or her behavior. So what motivates cats? I would say, quite often, it is the desire to hunt and kill something. Cat behavior is in reality the behavior of a predator, for he is one of nature’s best predators. The wonder and miracle is that these fierce little creatures will condescend to share our homes with us. This does not mean that house cats are not predators. You cannot totally take that wild element from cats, even if you take their claws. They are still hunters, but hunters without their natural weapons. Declawing a cat will undoubtedly cause psychological damage, because their claws are so much a part of their essential nature.
My message to those who would understand cat behavior is to look always to a cat’s place in the wild, for what he is there is what he still is even when he is sleeping on your bed at night. Responsible cat caretakers will keep this in mind. A variety of toys are needed to provide stimulation for inside only cats. Scratching posts of various heights and sizes should be provided. If a cat is allowed outside, cat enclosures are a good option. Some cats will tolerate a leash and harness. I believe it is good for cats to experience the outdoors, so long as they are safe doing so.
When outside in our fenced yard with my cat Monty, I will often scare away potential prey. This causes him to look at me as if I am hopelessly stupid. I must confess, I have not always been quick enough to prevent Monty from taking the life of a bird. (This has happened frequently enough that my sister has taken to calling him “Killer.”) His killing of birds is where our differing motivations come into conflict. Monty played out his role as predator perfectly, and though I couldn’t bring myself to praise him for it, I did not scold him.
But I took the reminder to heart: A cat is not a throw pillow. He is not just something to snuggle and hold on the cold winter nights. He is a predator by nature and will always be a predator, no matter how pampered or well fed. It would be much easier to possess a furry little throw pillow, but it would be far less interesting. We can learn from our cats if we are willing to treat them as cats by respecting that their motivations and drives are at times quite different from our own.
Edward
Well now I can speak from over 40 years of experience with cats as when me and my twin sister were born our parents had 4 so we always had cats in our life and knew no different.
The secret of having happy and good cats is simply that its best to have a relaxed household.
You have to understand that cats are not kids and our parents didnt treat them like they did us kids because they wouldnt have liked it. Cats are not people so shouldn’t be expected to behave as we do.
We had to learn right from wrong and how people have to behave for others to accept us but cats are different. You have to accept that cats are cats and behave by their instinct not by their thoughts like we do.
So if we were rough with a cat and got scratched it was our fault as we had got told to be nice and not pester the cats.
Our mam said she never left us alone with the cats until we proved we were responsible enough to treat them right. It’s not cats that need to learn how to behave, it’s kids because then they grow up into sensible independant adults.
Cats always have to rely on people to look after them all their life. We grew up respecting cats and they loved us and we loved them and we both have our own cats in our own homes since we grew up.
Shouting at cats is no good and I get annoyed when people say you should hit them or even squirt water as I think what a miserable life it is for a cat frightened of their people.
People who say give them time out like some teach kids don’t know much about cats as cats don’t know what time out is for. You can tell a kid what he’s done wrong and not to do it again but you have to actually show a cat what not to do. If you hurt them they don’t know why, I don’t think anyone should hurt kids or cats.
Like I said you only need to show a cat what to do, like where to scratch, if you don’t get them a scratching post what can you expect them to scratch on? They have to scratch to keep their body fit and to keep their claws healthy as well.
If you don’t want them to go on certain places lift them off and they learn where they can or can’t go.
Another thing is that cats don’t show their feelings of illness like people show theirs so you have to know if they are not acting like they usually do there is something wrong.
They can’t tell us they get lonely if we leave them too long so we need to remember not to do that and if we have to go away we must get someone we trust to look after them.
If they can’t go out because it’s too dangerous then they must have things to stop them living a life of boredom. They need a lot of our attention. No one should have a cat if they can’t give him or her a cats life of happiness and love and attention. No one in countries where declawing is legal should have a cat if they don’t like their claws because cats claws are not negotiable, they are essential and taking them off them is very cruel.
Ed
(Man, I need a pint after writing all that….)
