posted 07-03-2003 07:34 AM           

I have some confessions and questions.

First I will say that most of my life I've hated cats. There are a couple reasons but the main one was watching pet cemetery. That mavie blew it for me liking cats. After that point, I was like cats are evil.

This all began to change after me and my girlfriend went and adopted a kitten. I thought I could atleast try now that Im older. Things were ok for the first few weeks. having fun, playing.. but then things were going down hill. the cat at this point was like 8 months old. big cat too. well it started tearing up my work, like documents. I still at this point was mad.. but forgivefull. well things were not getting better. anytime I left anything of importance out, it was trashed. playing with the cat became a fang boxing match. my hands got tore up everytime. but then he started biting and still being a bad cat. It got to the point were I was starting to hate the cat more and more. while I was feeling this way about the cat, he still kept doing bad stuff and pissing me off untill one day I caught him ripping through some important mail and it set me off.. I grabbed him and chucked his ass. at this point I was like F*** the cat. but he was here to stay. my gf didnt care about her mail and never had documents on a desk because Im the one working at home. so anyways.. me and that cat were enemies for a while. Then I went off for a 2 month trip to germany and when I came back, I decided to start over with the cat. I did everything nice. never touched him again unless it was to pet him, hold him, or play with him. I swear Ive treated this cat sooo good for the longest time. over a year now. like a king.. I give em treats.. hang out with em.. shit, I even talk to em.. Things have been good. but, today.. I had him outside just to let em be out the house for a while. this was not the first either. we have taken him outside before and watched to make sure he dont take off. but one time she took em out and he jammed. I had to go look for em. I found em and brought him home. Ever since then she dont want him outside. but I still take him out once in a while. hes been pretty good about it. today though, I was out with him for like 20 min and I went to pick him up and he stabbed my arm with his fangs.. like deep.. I hope it didnt hit a vein because it was bleeding hardcore and its kinda sore.. but after he bit me I was like oh hell no... I grabbed him by the back of his neck and took em inside and gave him a pretty good kick.. I was so pissed.. I was doing him a favor.. things were good for like a year and now this.. I was really mad. I yelled at em and freakn kicked em again when he hissed and growled.lol. but I feel bad now. because I have developed a pet love for em. so I waited for a while calmed down and went out and pet em and gave em some treats. he actually purred... this cat dont purr for anyone.. and he loves my gf..

well.. I know this was long and maybe pointless.. but I still wanted to write it.

I would appreciate some tips though. maybe on how to get along with ( smokey ) our cat.

I would love to know how to train him to do things and or be a better cat.

so whatever pointer I can get or even some links to information, that would be great.

posted 07-03-2003 10:41 AM         

When he does bad - try first to clap your hands one loud time (this startles him) and say "NO" with a firm voice - do not scream at him. This should let him know that when he does that...he gets startled or scared and should detain from doing it.
If this works, try to reamain consistant with the sound of your voice each time he does bad, and you can start to tone down the volume of your clap - eventually you can get to the point where only a snap of your fingers and the "NO" can help correct all of his bad behaviors. It's just *very* important to reamain consistant with him in this correction so he understands when you do this, whatever he is doing is bad and he should stop doing it.
If this manner of correction does not work at all, I would suggest the "water gun" technique. Not too many cat lovers like it because it should be a last resort for behavior modification or correction.
Get a water pistol or a spray bottle that has the "stream" capability. When Smokey is doing something bad, spray him *ONCE* and say "NO" - as cats usually don't like water they stop immediately when they feel the water and run away from it. When they hear that "NO" coming from you they will know that whatever they were doing is bad or not allowed.
*Above all - when smokey does good things or stops something bad when you tell him "NO" it is very important that you praise him. Tell him he's a good boy and give him a pet or scratch behind the ears - they like that sometimes