• aedalla@lemmy.ml
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    3 years ago

    Expecting them to speak English. I communicate very clear expectations to my cat as to what I expect and for the most part she has no issue following my rules. Everybody says their animals don’t listen or are spiteful and all I see is inadequate communication.

    The biggest thing people notice is that when I tell her to stop doing or get away from/off of something she immediately stops and moves (sometimes trots/runs) away from whatever it was. I don’t have to yell a bunch of times I just sternly say “No. Stop that.” once. This is because this is all the warning she gets before I spray her with water. Even if she runs away, if I have to say it twice I will find her and spray her. To me, I’ve been tasked with her safety, which means keeping her from eating things she’s not supposed to, breaking glass and stepping in it, etc. So when I need her to not do something that command needs to work, and it needs to work right away. She’s also an indoor cat and the same rules apply for hanging around near the door.

    On a nicer/cuter note, right now we’re learning to not step on my boobs. When I touch something she doesn’t like she yells and pushes me away with her paws. So that’s what I’ve been doing when she wants attention and steps on my boob. I say “ow!” about as loud as she’d yell at me and push her paw away. Today she went to step there but realized where her paw was going to be and put it back down and rubbed her head on my arm instead.

    Stop expecting your pets to just magically read your mind lol.

    • Kohen Shaw@lemmy.ml
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      3 years ago

      That’s all well and good, but did you stop for a moment to think if you raise to your cat’s expectations, hmm? Cat has expectations from their human servant. You’re lucky cats don’t have thumbs, it’d be water spray in the face every time you move.

      • Stoned_Ape@lemmy.ml
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        3 years ago

        My honest opinion: This relationship as explained above wouldn’t work out if the cat was allowed outside. My home is also the home of my cat. She can do whatever she wants. Just not the things that I don’t like, which are not many. She’s just like a regular person, a part of family.

        And everytime she comes back in, it’s because she wants to, and that gives me a nice and positive feeling.