March 13th, 2009
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A cat who was spoiled with attention as a kitten has unrealistic expectations. If a kitten is showered with attention when he or she is little, if can turn him or her into a demanding and greedy adult cat. Love your kitty when small, but try not to go overboard! |
I get your daily cat tip email but this one is just dumb. If you’re not going to pay your kitten a lot of attention what the point in getting it in the first place? They just turn into cats that eat and then go and do their own thing only returning when they want more food.
If you give them a lot of love and attention they give it to you in return. I know that the case with my current cat Ka – zar he was showered with lots of love and attention as a kitten and he grown up to be a sweet loving and loyal friend not a spoilt brat.
You’re right Vicki – that “tip” sounds pretty cold out of context! I think I’d had a lot of complaints from people about over-demanding cats and this tip grew from that but wasn’t a complete thought. Of course affection is essential for a good relation ship with a cat, as is mental and physical stimulation. But if you
have a lifestyle where you are gone long periods of time and a cat gets over-stimulated, or comes to expect/depend upon a lot of interaction with you, then your disappearance can be really unsettling and create a clingy, begging cat when you are around. So a better tip would have been not to build up false expectations in your kitty by giving tons of attention and then not being around very much. Love your cat to pieces but if you do, then get him a feline pal or a cat sitter (or friend or neighbor) who comes in to fulfill the emotional need you have encouraged in your cat. I hope that says it better and i appreciate you pointing out the failings in this tip since i actually share your viewpoint entirely!
My furmommy thinks that all animals should be spoiled! Me and my brofur (even though he is a dog) are spoiled rotten! We get new toys all the time, lots of love and attention. We get to sleep in her bed, even though we usually try to sleep on her side. She does not sleep very well when we do that, but we are spoiled. Furmommy won’t let us eat her food though. She said it’s not good for us and even though we would really like her food, she says she is spoiling us by not letting us having any of it. She said we will be healthier that way. She gives us treats all the time, but they are really little treats so we can have lots without it being too much. She likes to break up one treat into bunches of pieces so it seems like we are getting more than we really are. We don’t care because its TREATS!!!!
Furmommy says spoiled animals make for happy animals. Furmommy also says she doesn’t own us, we own her. Silly furmommy!