
Subject:      Annoying your Cat for Fun?
From:         dmenns@surf.pangea.ca (Darren Enns)
Date:         1998/02/02
Message-ID:   <6b5kqc$94o@surf.pangea.ca>
Newsgroups:   rec.pets.cats.anecdotes


I have to be careful how I ask this, lest anyone get
the wrong idea and think that I mistreat my cat (which
I do not), but does anyone else have fun teasing your
cat(s) by doing things that they may not like -- on purpose?

Some of the things that I do to my cat affectionately
that he might prefer that I do not do are:

1) Grabbing his tail (he meows that he does not like
me doing this but he is not terribly angry).  I tell
him that I just can't resist a cat tail sticking up
in the air! :)

2) Throwing him up in the air above a bed (either
rightsideup, or upsidedown with a flip at the
last minute).  He always lands on his feet in a gentle
way.  He is not angry, but probably wonders why I do
this.

3) Carrying him around in my hands on his back.  I have
done this since he was a kitten, so he trusts my 100%.
Again, he must wonder why I do this.

4) Having a chase where, when I catch him, I rub the
top of his head like a little kid.  He closes his
eyes in annoyance but puts up with it since he 'lost'
the chase.

There are probably other things that I do, but that is
a sample...


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I rub my cats furry belly.  But he sort of asks for it.  He lays on his back
with paws splayed out.  This is his signal that he wants his belly rubbed so
he can bite you.  But I always thought that cat's tummies shouldn't be so
soft and furry and warm if you weren't supposed to rub them.


Michelle S. Mavity

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Darren Enns wrote:
> ...does anyone else have fun teasing your
> cat(s) by doing things that they may not like -- on purpose?

Oh heck yes!!  And they play along, I do believe.  Who can resist gently taking
hold of a passing cat tail and detaining it lightly?  So that the cat stops
short and gives you that look?  My Fast Eddie has a particularly grabbable
tail-- it is immensely long and skinny-- and he trails it within hand's reach
all the time.  Not as though the critter doesn't know what's coming.

And tummy rubbing?  Could cats be related to Ho Tei, the rotund Chinese god
whose tummy is rubbed for luck?


Cynthia Walker

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Cynthia Walker wrote:
>And tummy rubbing?  Could cats be related to Ho Tei, the rotund Chinese god
>whose tummy is rubbed for luck?


Well, he is a little rotund.  But his tummy isn't quite large enough for
realy good luck.

My husband plays "bellpull" with my cat's tail.  He drapes it right in front
of his fact and waves it around, usually smaking my husband in the face
several times, and my husband gives it a gentle pull and says "Briinnng".
The cat gets annoyed, and continues to flog my husband with his tail.


Michelle S. Mavity

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I scoop my cat up into my arms on his back and cradle him like a baby.
When I first did this, about six years ago, he struggled to get free -
now he knows I'm stronger than him (and the floor is a long way down!)
and just lies there with a miffed expression on his face! To add to the
'fun', I sometimes pretend to start dropping him by loosening my arms
underneath him - at first this scared him, but now he expects it - and
the response I get is an expression of pure disdain!!!!


Laura

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Our Norwegian loves to be pestered. He hunkers down in between the door and
a box at the top of the stairs to the basement (he sleeps on it, don't ask)
and waits for me to come up behind him and start ruffling his tail and back
paws. When I do this he starts howling, caterwauling and writhing about like
I was really bothering him. He will usually try to bat at my hand, but the
space is limited and he can't quite reach. At first my wife thought I was
tormenting him, but after she saw him keep running to the spot to get
pestered she realised that I was only bugging him at his own request.


Daryl Clarke

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My husband and our Hobbes like fighting. Hobbes has a huge stuffed teddy bear
that my husband will use to 'attack' Hobbes with. He'll hit him (softly) with it
and hold it up for attack or hold Hobbes down in a wrestler's hold. The entire
time Hobbes is purring like crazy and trying to bite the bear. They do this just
before we go to sleep while they're waiting for me to come to bed. In the
morning Hobbes will knead and suck on Sunshine bear and purr happily.

Also, Hobbes will attack my husband when he's sitting on the couch, usually
nibbling on my husband's ear or biting his wrist. When Hobbes nibbles on my
husband's ear, he'll pull Hobbes' ear, when Hobbes bites his wrist my husband
will lightly bite Hobbes' front paw, when Hobbes baps his nose my husband baps
Hobbes' nose. I swear Hobbes knows the game they're playing and is intentionally
inititiating this game. But then Hobbes is odd anyhow, he'll get the shower with
my husband with the water running, doesn't bother this kitten to get wet!


Julie Cook

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My oh my!  There sure are a lot of people out there that like to
annoy their cat(s)! :)  Actually, some of you mentioned other
thing that I do sometimes:

- Finger in the mouth while yawning
- Scratch base of tail
- Blowing in the face
- Holding cat and pretending that I am going to drop him

I don't do the kitty-belly-rubbing thing, since my cat gets
very rough very fast and I end up with not-so-gentle bites.

My thanks for all the replies!


Darren Enns

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I like to wait until they're in a d-e-e-e-p sleep, then wake 'em up. I
poke them in the ribs, or shake them gently and say really loudly "Hey!
Are you asleep! Wake up! WAKE UP! I wanna play!" 

Boy, can cats ever throw you an evil look. Yow. 


Jas

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Jas wrote:
> Boy, can cats ever throw you an evil look. Yow.

I have a nice wooden dining room table that I polish and wax to an almost
mirror finish.  Smooth. Flawless.  Of course, Otis likes to nest on it.
As soon as he's curled up and cozy, I make a swift, dramatic sweep across
the table with my whole arm, and he goes sliding across and flying onto
the floor.

If evil looks from cats could kill, I'd be *beyond* reincarnation by now.


Noel Fong

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Noel Fong wrote:
> If evil looks from cats could kill, I'd be *beyond* reincarnation by now.

ROTFLMAO!!!!!  Actually I just thought of another thing that I "used" to
do when I was a bit younger and had less respect for the cats.  We had
this polished floor and I used to get the cat and put her on her side
and spin her about a dozen times.  One time she got up from that glared
at me cross eyed, told me off and then took off at a fast rate only run
head first into the wall coz she had no balance and was listing crazily
to one side.  Oh I know it was terribly cruel but at the time it was
massively funny.  Poor Sheeba has put up with alot from me over the
years (she lived with me through my late teenage years you see).  Gosh
but I can't help but laugh when I remember the look she's shoot me.

Pippa (cringing waiting for the flames telling me how cruel I was)


Philippa Wyrdeman

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Philippa Wyrdeman wrote:
> Pippa (cringing waiting for the flames telling me how cruel I was)

Actually, my husband did the same thing to our cat when he was small -
gently and just one or two turns - not enough to make him dizzy.  Well, he
decided he liked it, and will periodically lay on his side in the kitchen
and kick himself around in circles with his back feet until someone comes to
"help" him out.  If you stop before he's done, he will bite you then give
you the "do what I told you worthless human" look until you start spinning
him again.  He's certainly an odd cat.  This is the same cat that will crawl
into a 12 pack pop box with his head and feet sticking out and think he's
completely hidden.


Michelle

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I had a pair of kittens (collectively known as the Flying Zucchini
Brothers) who discovered if you took a  running leap at a standard office
chair and landed offcenter, the seat would revolve.  Later, it evolved
into a cooperative behavior: one would get on the chair seat, and his
brother would run and whop the edge of the seat, giving the sitter a
good spin.  This would repeat for several times, then the first cat
would stagger down, do a quick wash and brushup, and give his brother
(now on the seat) his turn at the carnival ride.

Now that they are sedate and stately cats of about 5 years of age,
they are much too sophisticated for that game.  Mousie under the
covers is more fun.  ;-)


Kay Lancaster

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Darren Enns wrote:
> ...does anyone else have fun teasing your
> cat(s) by doing things that they may not like -- on purpose?

well, the last thing i did to lennie that he didn't like was to
blow little puffs of air at his face, turns out from a little
too close, because his reaction was to smack me upside the head
a pretty good blow!

it's hard to tell what's too much with cats. if i find myself thinking
that lennie must wonder why i am doing something, i figure maybe i
ought not to do that.

and sometimes he gets pissed if i go to far, so i've been trying to be
nicer all 'round.

he asks for it sometimes, though! we have established a few ritualized
battle scenarios and he's not wanting to forget about them! so now
he comes by when i'm sitting on the floor (which i do a lot because
i have no furniture in one room 'cept the TV) and flops over and "attacks"
my leg, at which time i am required (!) to subdue him and give him a death
bite on the neck.

when i let him up he comes right back. if he didn't, of course i would stop.

i am hypocritical, too, or hyper-critical... i cannot stand to see my
stupid brother torturing cats. he doesn't do anything i don't, not too much
anyway, but i seem to believe it's OK for me but that he has no talent
and is not "properly" engaging the cat. his reasoning is like mine - the
cat would run off if he didn't like it.

but then i recall that in child abuse situations, children come to think
of the attention (negative) as love - they just find a positive thing in
their treatment as a coping mechanism.

but then i see lots of people who have cats who seem to periodically
need to blow off a little steam with some aggressive or mock-aggressive
behaviour.

so... i do these things, but in moderation and always with extreme care
and attention to how lennie is going along with it.


robert a. moeser

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Darren Enns wrote:
> ...does anyone else have fun teasing your
> cat(s) by doing things that they may not like -- on purpose?

Can't say I support tossing the cat up in the air to watch it land on its
feet.  When I was a horrible young lad (typical 11 year old?) with my
brothers and sister we used to toss the cat just to watch how cleverly it
landed on its feet every time.  We meant no harm to Tom.  Unfortunately
one morning Tom was dead and my Mom took him to the vet to find out what
happened.  The vet informed her that nearly every bone in his body was
broken over a long period of time.  When confronted, we told her what we
had been doing and though she understood that we had not intentionally
hurt Tom, we felt very very badly.  We loved him and missed him.

Please don't feel guilty!  No doubt you know your cat and don't experiment
like we kids did.  It is just that sometimes we don't know how much a
small animal can take. 

Anyway, enjoy your kitty.  As long as you ask yourself how you would like
it if any of those teasing things were done to you, and the answer is that
you would enjoy it -- go ahead!


Don Coughlin

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My daughter plays a game with our male Maine Coon (named Buttons, because
when he was a kitten he used to play with the upholstery buttons in the
back of our couch!) that I think is rather mean, but never the less fun
to watch. He is an outdoor cat and we have 2 exits from the main floor of
our house that he uses. Both doors have bells attached to the door knob.
My daughter stands at one door, rings the bells and Buttons comes running
to be let out, but instead of letting him out, she runs to the other door
and rings those bells, and he runs to that door. She can get him to run
back and forth between the doors several times, each time skidding to a
stop, before he gets totally upset with her and won't "play" anymore. As I
said, I think it is kind of mean spirited, but she does finally let him
out, and it is fun to see his expectation grow with each trip through the
living room.  : - )


Barbara C Bailey

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Barbara C Bailey wrote:
> My daughter plays a game with our male Maine Coon (named Buttons...

That's like a game I played with a friend's kitten:

The kitten was lying in a sunbeam.  I stood in the way, blocking the
sunbeam.  The kitten wakes up, STRETCHES, rolls over to get back into the
sunbeam.  Repeat...


TheCentralScrutinizer.37@pobox.com ()

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Darren Enns wrote:
> ...does anyone else have fun teasing your
> cat(s) by doing things that they may not like -- on purpose?

Yikes, not sure I should say this but I have to admit that I have, on
occasion, teased my cat quite mercilessly.  Like when she yawns at me,
poke my finger in her mouth which she only notices when she goes to shut
her mouth.  I get glared at for that.  Also when she's on my chest in
bed or something I grab both front paws and "nip my lips" at them as if
I was going to bite them.  It becomes something of a game sometimes with
me nipping at her paws and her trying to bite my nose, I do stop if she
either stops playing and gets sulky, or "tells" me to leave off.  I
guess there are other things too that alot of people probably wouldn't
think appropriate but I have burmese cats who tease me and laugh at me
as often as I tease and laugh at them.  Everyone ends up loving everyone
just as much in the end.


Philippa Wyrdeman

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Kimberly Kohler wrote:
> Philippa Wyrdeman wrote:
> > Yikes, not sure I should say this but I have to admit that I have, on
> > occasion, teased my cat quite mercilessly.  Like when she yawns at me,
> > poke my finger in her mouth which she only notices when she goes to shut
> > her mouth.  I get glared at for that.  
> 
> Oh dear, my husband does that one to me!  I usually try to bite his
> finger once I notice it.  Better be carefull kitty doesn't get the same
> idea!  :)

Hee hee!  My boyfriend does that with Farleycat (even caught it on
tape!) =)


Maryann Li

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Kimberly Kohler wrote:
> Like when she yawns at me, I poke my finger in her mouth which she only
> notices when she goes to shut her mouth.  

ROTFLOL!!!

Guilty, guilty, guilty!  :-)))

I also love to tease my Roxy once or twice a week by tapping her ever so
gently on her hind legs.  The response is a wonderfully annoyed
"Wwwaaaaaooo" and a little love bite which is exactly what I want!  

I'd love to play rough with my three girls but I'm big and they are little
so the play is always adapted to their size.


Joroha

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