Men in the life of cats
Sometimes the owners notice that their cats like women and hate men or are afraid of them. Why?
There are two factors. The first one is the tone of human voice. The female voice which has higher pitch is more alike to cats voice and this fact makes it more attractive to cats. But this is not the full explanation of their actions when they see approaching men: they run away or hide. It usually means that a men caused some troubles to cat some times ago. Cats have good memory, and if they once were hurt by men’s hand they will hate all men for some months or even some years.
That’s why we can come to a conclusion that men’s attitude to cats is more cruel than woman’s one. But they do not realize that cat can understand the difference between the intentional cruelty and the hurting for their own sake. The problem is that most of the veterinarians are men and cats often remember how they were treated. Veterinary just tries to help the cat but the animal can’t understand that the cruelty is connected with injections which cause the further recovering. The cat understands only that the men is coming up to it and catching it. And then something painful happens. that’s why when the cat hears men’s voice or steps (and cats can quickly associate heavy men’s steps with his voice), it decides that it will be painful again and quickly runs away.
Such behavior was clearly expressed by a cat which at first was friendly both to men and women. It was the street cat which had come to the city garden to ask for something to eat. If somebody had given it something tasty it was happy and rubbed itself on the legs of new friends without differentiating between men and women. But once somebody decided to take it home and asked for the veterinary to examine the animal. Having closed the cat to the garden shed the veterinary caught it and made the necessary injections. Then they put the cat into the box and got it to the new owner, a lonely old woman. The cat and the woman made friends at once. The cat was very tender, slept in woman’s bed and followed her everywhere rubbing on her by the head and jumping on her knees. She turned from the hungry animal into the pet which was satisfied with its life. But the memories that it was caught and injected stayed and even in a year every time when a man come into the house the cat was running upstairs or hiding under the bed. The cat was sure that it was a veterinary who a back to torment again. Any tender words of men couldn’t win the cat’s fear. But if the women came into the house the cat was meeting them with pleasure, rubbed on their legs, purred and in generally behaved itself like with the new mistress. Cat differentiated men and women practically without any mistake. The only exception was the old men who was sitting still and could hardly move. The cat could differ it from the younger veterinary.
Perhaps one of the most unpleasant sides of the profession of a veterinary surgeon is that he can’t explain to his patients that the doctor is trying to help them to recover. Kind people who take the poor street cats home or take them from shelters for homeless animals must be ready to such behavior of their new pets. Don’t accuse yourself that in some conditions your cat is aggressive to some people. The reason of such behavior is cat’s past about which the new owner knows less or even nothing. Such animals often remind damages which they had. And these reminding are the reason of their strange behavior. In such cases the special self-control is necessary but, of course, you may hope that when the cat gets accustomed to new home it will become lovely and devoted pet. It can even become too much devoted to its savior and never let him alone. But it is only expression of its inner fear that it will be betrayed again. Sometimes it is very difficult for the cats to understand people and they never forget if they were hurt.
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