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Cat people: Please explain this cat's thinking!


RoughCollie
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The guy next door -- quite far away since this is a rural area -- has a lovely, outgoing, 18 month old female cat. She is so well-socialized and friendly that everyone remarks upon it. She lives outside, and sleeps in his barn. She weighs about 7 lbs.

 

She enjoys visiting Aidan. He loves her visits. He runs from window to window to spot her progress to and on our porch. When she lands on the porch, Aidan starts barking, growling, and attacking the window. Last night, she sat on the outside window sill and stared in at him. He is a terrier, and has a high prey drive. He is 7x her weight.

 

She sleeps on a soft, cozy rocking chair on our porch some evenings. She sits on the porch wall and stares at him when he is outside in his fenced area.

 

Yesterday afternoon, Aidan and I had planned to go for a walk. He stood in the doorway, sniffing the air for the cat. I did not see her, so we walked onto the porch. The instant we were out there, the cat jumped onto the porch. Aidan went nuts, lunging, barking, growling. She kept walking toward him. I wrestled him inside in a flash, and slammed the door shut so she would not follow us inside. She always wants to come in, even knowing Aidan is here.

 

Now why would a cat walk toward a barking, growling dog who is lunging toward her? Aidan is the only dog she has ever seen, and she has tormented him for the past year. Does she have a death wish?

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Cats, or the ones I've known, really aren't afraid of much especially dogs.

 

Agreed. Our tiny stray, before we brought her inside, would have regular confrontations with deer who stepped into what she considered her territory. I'd never before heard the sound intimidated deer make (sort of a mooing, if you're wondering), and all because of a six pound cat.

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Now why would a cat walk toward a barking, growling dog who is lunging toward her? Aidan is the only dog she has ever seen, and she has tormented him for the past year. Does she have a death wish?

 

Sounds a bit like our cat. When he sees a dog in the yard he makes sure he's on top of the deck railing where the dog can see him. If the dog runs to the other side of the deck our cat walks over there. I think the cat thinks it's funny that the dog gets all worked up. :laugh:

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The cat just walks calmly toward Aidan, like she is deaf and blind and has no idea that if she gets within his reach, he will grab her and shake her to death. She isn't afraid, and she isn't trying to scare or intimidate Aidan.

 

If our collie was still alive, he would lie down and let the cat climb all over him, without protest (not that he liked it).

 

Aidan does enjoy getting riled up by the cat. It's the most excitement we get around here, other than the mail lady and the garbage truck. He asked to go out earlier because he had to go, not because of the cat. When he got to the front door, he suddenly remembered that the cat could possibly be there and he started making these little excited 1" off the ground hops with his hind feet. He hops like that when he is standing with his front paws on the windowsill when the cat is there.

 

I've thought about holding him and letting the cat walk up to him, but I can't do it. I'm afraid he will lunge and grab the cat, and she will be history. I can't take that chance.

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Don't worry too much about the cat. Aiden will actually have to get a hold of her before he can actually hurt her. Cats are EXTREMELY fast & adept at dodging the dangers, especially if they live outside. Both of my cats dominate the dogs except our Cockapoo thinks she disciplines them (and they let her think that to keep from hurting her feelings). Most dogs will jump back & tuck tail if they get a hiss & swiped on the nose with claws.

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we refer to it as the "5 pointy ends rule" - cats have 5 pointy ends and know how to use them. I wouldn't worry about the cat too much.....if she lives outside she will know how to take care of herself. And if Aiden gets to close, he might get "barcoded" (several scratches across the nose from one of the pointy ends) but it won't cause lasting damage. :)

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Cats, or the ones I've known, really aren't afraid of much especially dogs.

 

Mine knows she can make it to a high perch well before the dog can reach her.

 

Now as for what cats think. Here is my take - mine exists to annoy me. Frankly, she spends all day, every day, looking for ways to make me nuts. I am pretty certain she thinks this way, "There goes that woman. I think I'll annoy the living tar out of her. Look, it worked. I think I'll do it again." Nothing, absolutely nothing dissuades her from this thought process except when the dog annoys her and she has to flee after batting at him and hissing in the kind of way that indicates she's psychotic.

 

When this cat is gone, there will not be another.

 

That said, your kitty knows she is faster than the dog, and can climb which he cannot do. It's actually fairly rare for cats to incur injuries or death from dogs. Usually, it's kittens, small and weak, or sick/injured cats and not full grown healthy ones that end up on the wrong end of a dog.

 

Faith

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It sounds like that cat knows she can beat your dog in a fight. I live with 6 cats. NOTHING crosses our property line our 5.5lb calico creature makes sure of it. Occasionally something tries and then there will be large chunks of fur on the yard near the property line. This is the same cat that bites if you make the children cry or put them in water when they are sick.

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You all have a lot of faith in this tiny cat's ability to keep out of death's reach. Maybe I'll get on of the boys to help me hold Aidan so he can meet the cat. I can hold his face so he can't stretch out his neck to grab her.

 

Do you think I should do that? Or should I just let the cat and Aidan continue their fun through window and fence? It may be impossible for Aidan to hurt the cat if two people are holding him, but Aidan's registered name isn't Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast for nothing!

 

It is annoying, by the way, to have a dog go berserk several times a day. He keeps it up even after the cat leaves, just in case he's mistaken and she is still out there.

 

OTOH, I don't want Aidan to get injured by the cat!

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I'd watch your dog's eyes around her. Cats will instinctively scratch the eyes. A scratch on the nose would be bad enough, but she could blind an eye.

 

I've heard that, for their size, cats can cause the most damage in a fight, compared to any other animal. If the dog can get her in his jaws fast enough, good-bye kitty. But if the cat is faster--damaged dog. Watch out!

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You must not have cats. :p They're just like that. Masters of the universe.

 

No, I haven't had cats for 17 years. Two of my kids are very allergic to them, which is why we don't have a couple of cats now.

 

The cat who stalks Aidan is special. My neighbor has a lot of cats, and this is the one that is the star of the bunch. When DH met her, she was waiting outside his car for him to get out. He came in the house insisting that the cat loved him, and we should keep her. I reminded him why we don't have cats, and that Shadow belongs to our neighbor. We can't just take her in. Now Shadow greets DH nearly every day when he comes home, with Aidan watching at the window, growling and barking his fool head off. Then DH knocks at the front door: "I can't come in. Shadow is waiting here to come in with me!"

 

DH greatly disliked cats and was not happy when I refused to get rid of my cats when we got married. It took one of my cats about 30 minutes to permanently wrap DH around her paw. They were both the boss of him! Now he loves cats.

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You all have a lot of faith in this tiny cat's ability to keep out of death's reach. Maybe I'll get on of the boys to help me hold Aidan so he can meet the cat. I can hold his face so he can't stretch out his neck to grab her.

 

Do you think I should do that? Or should I just let the cat and Aidan continue their fun?

 

It is annoying, by the way, to have a dog go berserk several times a day. He keeps it up even after the cat leaves, just in case he's mistaken and she is still out there.

 

I had a 25lb mancoon mix cat once (Mikey) who LOVED dogs. He grew up with a loving golden retriever and he would insist that strange dogs no matter their size or disposition lick him after our golden died. This cat may have had the same experience and just doesn't understand the danger.

 

I like the idea of having one of the boys help you hold Aidan so that cat can get a taste of the danger. If she scratches him a little (not in the eyes of course) I think that will be the better for both of them because it will (1) teach the dog that the cat is a danger and not just a prey and (2) it will show that the cat now understands that the dog is not her friend.

 

If after, the cat is still hanging around and you really, really want to get rid of the cat, I suggest a squirt bottle of water and vinegar.

 

On another note: I don't believe in coincidences. This is the 2nd cat in a few months that seems to want to be attached to you and yours.....I would wonder what the message is....

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Our cat, Lucky, is a male stray who sleeps on a sofa on the front porch. He doesn't even twitch when a person or a dog walks by in the street, except for when the UPS truck pulls up. He knows that truck is delivering homeschool packages, LOL.

 

But if another CAT or a RACCOON or even a SKUNK comes anywhere near the property, things go into overdrive for him. Muscles twitch, the tail flicks, eyes get HUGE, and he yowls. Not a pretty sound, actually. Another cat means territorial warfare and possession of the food bowl and the cushy sofa on the nice, dry porch. He's not giving up all that without a tom cat fight. Oddly enough, he was a kitten when we started feeding him, and he lets his mother (still a stray) eat out of his dish without a fuss. He's a cool cat, he understands everything we say to him.

 

Your neighbor's cat is funny, IMO. I would laugh to see her stare down your dog. Perhaps she finds him entertaining? She certainly can push his buttons! :)

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Agreed. Our tiny stray, before we brought her inside, would have regular confrontations with deer who stepped into what she considered her territory. I'd never before heard the sound intimidated deer make (sort of a mooing, if you're wondering), and all because of a six pound cat.

 

 

 

Oh, my goodness! Our cat did this! I never heard of this before, but our cat did this! We had two deer across the street in our neighbors' yard, and Lucky jumped down from the porch and crouched in the street to fend them off. We watched the whole showdown from the window and were fascinated. The deer gave up and ran off into the woods. Who ever thought a little cat could hold off two deer?

 

We didn't hear the mooing, but our windows were closed. Hmm... interesting.

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Our old cat used to taunt my neighbor's dogs this way. They would be barking like crazy at their partio door and she would lay on their back step grooming herself and driving them nuts. Then when they came out she would sit on the fence just out of reach and meow at them and groom herself while they went crazy.

 

The cat we have now, is like the one you described. Delilah accepted him as a new best friend right away when he started coming around, onyx would go nuts, the cat would swat him on the nose and onyx would bow down to the power of the cat. Now both dogs are gone, and the cat has moved in and I am sure he thinks he is pretty clever.

 

When it comes to cats there is no telling what is going on in their little minds, but it is usually along the lines of world domination I am sure.

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I have declawed cats. They still rule dogs. They hit dogs on the nose very hard and the dogs don;t like that and don';t bother them anymore.

 

 

Me, too. My 15 year old tiny little de-clawed 2 lb cat is clearly the dominant beast in my home. She LOVES me. I'm her person. She's laying on my now as I type with her little paw splayed across my chest and her head on my shoulder, snoring away. I adore her.

 

She, however, hates all other animals. All of them. She bit the face pad off of my younger cat when I brought him home. He's huge now, but she still rules the roost. I also now have a 6 month old Old English Bulldog that weighs 45 pounds. He wants so badly to play with the cats. They have no use for him at all. I'm afraid one day he'll figure out he's a big dog and they're little cats and that'll be if for them, but he's very submissive to them.

 

That said, I have seen dogs kill cats that got too close and too cocky. If it's a barn cat, it'll probably be fine. You may want to try the slow, controlled intro, though.

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In line with what many others have said: I think you over-estimate your dog and under-estimate the cat.

 

Yes, Aidan could maybe kill the cat. But it's also entirely possible the cat could do extensive damage to Aidan, especially his eyes. IME it usually takes two or more dogs to do in a cat. One dog usually isn't much more than an amusement.

 

And it's also possible that they'll become huge friends. At our former house we had a neighbor cat who'd jump into our fence and play with our Brittany. They adored each other.

 

Cats are nature's ultimate survival animal. I have no doubt if the world as we know it ends, cockroaches and cats will survive.

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On another note: I don't believe in coincidences. This is the 2nd cat in a few months that seems to want to be attached to you and yours.....I would wonder what the message is....

 

There is no message, Katherine. None. Well, maybe it is that I ought to trade in my 2 allergic teenagers for a cat. There are days that wouldn't be a bad idea! A cat would be cheaper and quieter, and who doesn't love a bargain?

 

This morning, I went to put the dog in his fenced area as usual at 6:50 a.m. He likes to watch the school buses roll by at 7 a.m. and the cows go to their pasture.

 

For the first time, the cat was still on the porch, lying curled up in the chair. Of course Aidan spotted her. Of course I held him back. The leash was not enough (he would happily choke himself and injure his trachea), so I straddled him and held him tightly with my legs.

 

The cat looked at him for a few seconds, while I figured out how to get Aidan back in the house. Then she began grooming herself!

 

I got Aidan in, and DS2 took him out and put him in the fence. Aidan is so strong that if the cat is nearby, I can't get him in the fence because he pulls me over, unless I can get to one of the porch columns and hold onto it. Then I'll get phone calls: "Say, I heard you were hanging on the porch because Aidan got the best of you. Ha ha ha." Yep, live in the country, and everyone knows your business even when no one is around except a cat, a dog, an old lady, and some cows.

 

Anyhow, after all that, I fixed a cup of coffee and accidentally poured it into the sugar bowl instead of the mug. The message, Katherine, is that I shouldn't get out of bed.

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I have one cat (inside) and two pit bulls. Very high prey-drive dogs. If they are watching a cat outside through the door/window (we have a relocated feral sibling group that lives in our barn), they go completely insane. However, the kitty that lives inside rules the dogs. And he is not a very nice dictator, if you know what I mean. He stalks them, takes their toys, pushes them away from the water bowl, etc. It's kind of ridiculous, actually, and he's been doing it since he was a 3-pound kitten.

 

My dogs respond to a verbal command to stop the insane I'm-gonna-rip-little-furry-thing-to-shreds mindset. Any way you could work Aidan to respond to a command? We started with distracting things that were fun and interesting but not that interesting--squeak toys and tennis balls--and just worked the command 'till now, it's pretty surefire, even off-leash. We happen to use "leave it!," but of course, anything that suits you would work. My dogs even mingle with my mixed flock of chickens and geese without a second look, and can walk within feet of the outside cats without batting an eye (ETA: yes, if they are outside within reach of the cats, they are fine. They still like to act like murderous delinquents if they are separated from them by a window, though a stern command usually gets them to knock it off).

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Cats, or the ones I've known, really aren't afraid of much especially dogs.

 

:iagree:

 

One of my parents' cats is famous for turning "dog tormenting" into a sport. In one of the places they lived before I left home one of the neighbors had a Doberman that really didn't like cats. Cleo (cat) would spend multiple hours every day just inches out of his reach (one of those cast iron type gates that he could very easily see her through) grooming herself, rolling in the dirt, or just lying there and sleeping.

 

I'm convinced she did that (and does similar things every now and then, even now that she's starting to get old and senile...) simply because she can and it fits her sense of humor.

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My dog Tick has killed many cats, even though we have about a dozen. If it's one of our cats she leaves it alone, anything else is considered fair game to her. We have to be very careful when we take her somewhere.

 

When I get a new kitten I carry it around with me and if she even looks at it I yell at her. Sounds mean, but I've found too many parts of barn kittens in the yard. We've had our newest kitten about six months and she's just now thinking about playing with her instead of killing her.

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My dogs respond to a verbal command to stop the insane I'm-gonna-rip-little-furry-thing-to-shreds mindset. Any way you could work Aidan to respond to a command?

 

Great minds think alike! I was thinking this morning that the cat can be the ultimate distraction when I'm training Aidan. It is hard to find distractions here otherwise. He is fully obedience-trained, but only at home (and not when the cat is here) is he not easily distracted.

 

My New Year's resolution is to train Aidan to obey even when we are in unusual (for a country dog) and highly distracting situations.

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Remudamom, bears used to be the bane of my existence. They were fun to watch, not so much fun, though, when they came up on our porch to sniff out the grocery bags a human was carrying. Our collie got so used to them that they were part of the scenery to him!

 

I will not put this cat at risk from Aidan. Everyone adores the little minx, including me.

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When it comes to cats there is no telling what is going on in their little minds, but it is usually along the lines of world domination I am sure.

 

 

Hmmm... my husband tells me I am very cat-like, for a person. I used to think he meant that I (1) always fall asleep if I'm sitting in a patch of sunlight, (2) always stretch when I wake up, (3) love to have my head massaged and my back scratched, (4) enjoy a warm, soft spot for sleeping, and (5) appreciate being waited on hand and foot. :D

 

But now I wonder if this is what he means by it? :001_rolleyes:

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Hmmm... my husband tells me I am very cat-like, for a person. I used to think he meant that I (1) always fall asleep if I'm sitting in a patch of sunlight, (2) always stretch when I wake up, (3) love to have my head massaged and my back scratched, (4) enjoy a warm, soft spot for sleeping, and (5) appreciate being waited on hand and foot. :D

 

But now I wonder if this is what he means by it? :001_rolleyes:

 

 

Probably :lol:

 

I know in that regard I am very cat like, I have my world domination plans, as well as the refusal to follow commands and an aloofness towards other people

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