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Why Your Cat Thinks You’re a Huge, Unpredictable Ape

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Re: Why Your Cat Thinks You’re a Huge, Unpredictable Ape

#41

Post by objclxt »

breischl wrote: post #33
gadders wrote: post #21

Reading that article, I can't help but think most of those problems would be a lot less likely to occur if your cat was allowed outside with a cat flap or similar. If you're cat goes outside you tend not to need scratching posts and litter trays for starters.

Everyone in your neighborhood would like to thank you for encouraging your cat to crap in their yards and letting them pick it up. Get a litter box and clean up after your own damn pet.

You know that cats bury their poop, right? When I lived in London, where it's the norm to let your cat out, I never encountered any cat poo in my garden, and we had around half a dozen local cats.

Re: Why Your Cat Thinks You’re a Huge, Unpredictable Ape

#43

Post by objclxt »

gadders wrote: post #21

Reading that article, I can't help but think most of those problems would be a lot less likely to occur if your cat was allowed outside with a cat flap or similar. If you're cat goes outside you tend not to need scratching posts and litter trays for starters.

Although I'm with you on the litter tray, my poor sofa is a testament to the fact having a cat flap is no prevention strategy! I think my cat honestly just preferred scratching the couch to anything else available...

Re: Why Your Cat Thinks You’re a Huge, Unpredictable Ape

#44

Post by danbee »

ohhoe wrote: post #28
gadders wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or install a cat flap and let your cat go outside?

Yeah so your cat can go to someone elses house, or get run over by a car, or get attacked by animals. Great suggestion.

Cats are very capable of looking after themselves.

Re: Why Your Cat Thinks You’re a Huge, Unpredictable Ape

#45

Post by pilif »

>He just doesn’t know how to connect your negative reinforcement with his behavior.

I don't know. The one time I got seriously mad at Yoshi (my cat) was when he bit through an ethernet cable. That was the one single time I've actually squirted water at him and threw him out of my appartment.

Since then neither my ethernet cables nor my iPhone USB cables got bitten through any more (he also knows that chewing on iphone cables and headphones is a very good way to get attention).

There's a lot of stuff I let slide with him (maybe too much - I love him to bits), but he really seems to respect the fact that chewing on cables is a total no-go (also: bloody dangerous - some carry current)

Re: Why Your Cat Thinks You’re a Huge, Unpredictable Ape

#46

Post by greedo »

gadders wrote: post #14
hvs wrote: post #12

Free cat advice: If your cat is going outside of its litter box, it is most likely because it isn't cleaned regularly (would you like to stand in poop to go the bathroom?). You should be cleaning it at least once per day.

Or install a cat flap and let your cat go outside?

Read about how many wild animals an outdoor cat kills in a typical year...

Re: Why Your Cat Thinks You’re a Huge, Unpredictable Ape

#47

Post by wuliwong »

jchendy wrote: post #9

"This is because cats evolved as solitary hunters with little need for reading social cues, especially those for behavior modification." [...] “How the hell is your cat supposed to know that you’re yelling at him because you want him to stop scratching the couch?” [...] "When your cat does the thing you want her do to, reward her with a treat, or affection." If we accept that cats can't learn from negative reinforcem…

They think that because they don't logic well. :)

I thought the same thing. I hate that any comment on a HN post adds to it's score. I would like this comment counted as a negative. This article is terrible.

Re: Why Your Cat Thinks You’re a Huge, Unpredictable Ape

#48

Post by objclxt »

ohhoe wrote: post #28
gadders wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or install a cat flap and let your cat go outside?

Yeah so your cat can go to someone elses house, or get run over by a car, or get attacked by animals. Great suggestion.

Having lived in both the U.S. and the U.K. it's interesting to see the two different attitudes to cats. In the UK, letting your cat outside is the norm. The shelter I adopted from wouldn't give you a cat unless you were able to let it out (or the cat had feline AIDS and needed to be kept indoors for protection).

But it's the complete opposite in the U.S, and although that makes sense in some places (a lot more predators in the countryside), in a city like San Francisco the risks seem identical to those of London. It's very strange. Of course, in the UK cat owners aren't legally liable for their cat's actions (cats, unlike dogs, are deemed by the law to be free agents), maybe that's not the case in the states.

Re: Why Your Cat Thinks You’re a Huge, Unpredictable Ape

#49

Post by zrail »

post_break wrote: post #37
zrail wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then there's something else about his environment that isn't right, or he's sick. Have you taken him to the vet lately?

He's completely normal. Has done this for about a year. Multiple costly vet visits for them to say "What have no fucking clue". I think he just likes leaving me presents to come home to at this point.

Otherwise normal cats who go outside of their litter box are usually upset about something in their environment. Are the boxes near something noisy or surprising? Are they in a private spot where he's not going to get approached while he's using them?

If there's a regular spot where he goes, maybe try putting a box on that exact spot. We had a similar problem a few months ago, where our cat was peeing in the basement on a stack of paper he found. We moved everything away from that spot and put a box there and now he's happy as a clam.

Re: Why Your Cat Thinks You’re a Huge, Unpredictable Ape

#50

Post by gadders »

josefresco wrote: post #36
gadders wrote: post #21

Reading that article, I can't help but think most of those problems would be a lot less likely to occur if your cat was allowed outside with a cat flap or similar. If you're cat goes outside you tend not to need scratching posts and litter trays for starters.

At least in my part of the world, coyotes and foxes prey rather successfully on household pets allowed to roam freely outside.

In the UK we really only have neighbour's dogs. Foxes tend to run from cats.
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