A Michael Broad Blog
Question: The domestic cat having inherited its wildcat ancestor’s characteristics and living in a human environment is instinctively cautious and at times defensive of, for example, unknown objects and strangers etc. Agree? Response would be: Absolutely! Just like humans, cats have unique personalities that influence how they react to new situations. Confident and social …
Domestic cat maternal aggression is also referred to as maternal protective aggression. It’s what you think it is: a queen’s protective behaviour towards perceived threats to her kittens. It’s a natural instinct when she is caring for her young. In Peter Neville’s book Do Cats Need Shrinks? a client of his, Susan Swift, asked …
Normally domestic and unowned cats have a tendency to retreat and hide when confronted with something or someone that frightens them. They do this silently as making a sound during this action would be pointless. But if they are cornered and can’t run off, they will be forced to defend themselves and part of …
Fear in a cat can be ‘trained in’ by bad experiences. This infographic is about ‘training out’ that acquired fear (fear developed through experience) through a sensitive, graded and progressive approach to desensitizing the fearful and anxious cat. It is training the brain to accept what once frightened them. The points I want to …
Most of us have seen it: kittens performing a defensive stance as if confronted by a hostile, strange cat who is aggressive towards them. The kitten turns sideways and their hair bristles to make them look bigger. They do the crab walk. Sometimes kittens dance and hop around the floor while taking up this …
Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it. I have no idea where the video was made. It looks like Asia. It seems a little bit strange to …
A female cat who adopted her owner sixteen years ago, which means she is elderly, attacked a bunch of seven pit bull dogs who were walking past the home where she lives. The home is in Victoria, Canada. It is believed she was instinctively protecting her human companion, Del Thompson. Her name is “Baby”. …
This is an irrefutable example of a domestic cat protecting a baby from a man (the father) who pretends that he is hurting his baby. It is a rather bizarre video really because I disagree with the behavior of the man. There is something distasteful about it. However, the behavior of the cat is …
