Hi, everyone - I found this post and am hoping to get some insight into my cat's behavior. I'm going to apologize in advance for what is probably going to be a long entry. First, some background...
About 3 weeks ago, we adopted a starving stray cat, who still doesn't have a name for sure because I keep changing my mind (I'm leaning towards Simba). He's a pretty orange/blonde cat, fairly small, was so severely starved that he has had muscle loss in his legs, but otherwise got a clean bill of health from the vet (after shots, blood tests, wormer, flea & tick medicine, heart guard, etc.). He was obviously a house cat in his prior life, since he had been neutered and de-clawed (I know, but I didn't do it!!), and is litter-box trained. He was terrified for the first few days, but has become quite friendly. He is a VERY serious cat - I have finally got him to play with a little yarn for a minute or two at a time, but he's really pretty quiet and laid back. The vet was not able to make a good guess at his age - he is adult, that's pretty much all I know, but he doesn't look like a really old cat to me. I'd guess a young adult, but it's just a guess.
This cat does something that I've never seen a cat do before - he bites me a lot, but it almost never seems aggressive. He mainly does it at night - he comes up by my head in bed and head-buts me hard a few times, then if I don't get up he starts biting me (not hard), purring loudly the whole time. He also bites me alot when I'm sitting at the computer - there is a table behind my chair, and he gets behind me, head-buts me in the back, then bites my back. Again, he purrs the whole time, and it almost seems like he is trying to be affectionate. The only time he has drawn blood was one night, he had awakened me 3 times in about 2 hours, and each time I picked him up and put him at the foot of the bed. The third time I did it he bit me hard and hissed loudly - apparently he did not want to be moved. So it's more irritating than painful, but it's still a little scary because, well, he's biting me a lot. And the strangest thing is that he really only does it to me - he's nipped at the kids when they've petted him too long, but that seems more normal. He will head-but my husband at night some too, but never bites him like he does me.
Any ideas? Like I wrote, it's almost like affection sometimes, but he will nip lightly when he's irritated also. I really have no idea if there is any way to stop it.
Thanks for any help...
Susan
About 3 weeks ago, we adopted a starving stray cat, who still doesn't have a name for sure because I keep changing my mind (I'm leaning towards Simba). He's a pretty orange/blonde cat, fairly small, was so severely starved that he has had muscle loss in his legs, but otherwise got a clean bill of health from the vet (after shots, blood tests, wormer, flea & tick medicine, heart guard, etc.). He was obviously a house cat in his prior life, since he had been neutered and de-clawed (I know, but I didn't do it!!), and is litter-box trained. He was terrified for the first few days, but has become quite friendly. He is a VERY serious cat - I have finally got him to play with a little yarn for a minute or two at a time, but he's really pretty quiet and laid back. The vet was not able to make a good guess at his age - he is adult, that's pretty much all I know, but he doesn't look like a really old cat to me. I'd guess a young adult, but it's just a guess.
This cat does something that I've never seen a cat do before - he bites me a lot, but it almost never seems aggressive. He mainly does it at night - he comes up by my head in bed and head-buts me hard a few times, then if I don't get up he starts biting me (not hard), purring loudly the whole time. He also bites me alot when I'm sitting at the computer - there is a table behind my chair, and he gets behind me, head-buts me in the back, then bites my back. Again, he purrs the whole time, and it almost seems like he is trying to be affectionate. The only time he has drawn blood was one night, he had awakened me 3 times in about 2 hours, and each time I picked him up and put him at the foot of the bed. The third time I did it he bit me hard and hissed loudly - apparently he did not want to be moved. So it's more irritating than painful, but it's still a little scary because, well, he's biting me a lot. And the strangest thing is that he really only does it to me - he's nipped at the kids when they've petted him too long, but that seems more normal. He will head-but my husband at night some too, but never bites him like he does me.
Any ideas? Like I wrote, it's almost like affection sometimes, but he will nip lightly when he's irritated also. I really have no idea if there is any way to stop it.
Thanks for any help...
Susan
