- Joined
- May 29, 2016
- Messages
- 6
- Purraise
- 7
Hi everyone, I'm hoping someone might be able to help me gently guide the behaviour of a cat who isn't actually mine.
One of my roommates' cats loves to attack my feet and legs. This is a problem because his owner doesn't trim his claws and the cat also doesn't shy away from biting with some force (it would probably be enough to lightly break the skin if I didn't wear jeans). The cat's about one-and-a-half years old, so he still has some kitten-ish energy.
One obvious solution would be to talk to my roommate and ask them to do something. The problem is that they're so laissez-faire with this cat in general that I don't imagine much would actually change after talking to them. They're often not home and they're already aware that the cat's clawed me a couple of times. On top of that, I've not been living here long enough that I feel comfortable moving beyond just making the owner aware of the issue and actually making a conflict out of it. Not worth it if nothing's likely to change anyway.
So about the cat himself: I have a feeling - though I don't know for sure - that this is an attention-seeking behaviour. As I previously said, his owner isn't home very much. I try to use his toys to play with him sometimes but I'm worried that this might end up making the problem worse if he wants me to play whenever he's lonely.
With that said, can anyone recommend a relatively harmless way of getting this cat to stop clawing and biting me? Tonight I had to retreat back to my room while making dinner because he just wouldn't cut it out.
Just coming back to say, because I imagine I could be asked, that I do believe the cat has been neutered.
One of my roommates' cats loves to attack my feet and legs. This is a problem because his owner doesn't trim his claws and the cat also doesn't shy away from biting with some force (it would probably be enough to lightly break the skin if I didn't wear jeans). The cat's about one-and-a-half years old, so he still has some kitten-ish energy.
One obvious solution would be to talk to my roommate and ask them to do something. The problem is that they're so laissez-faire with this cat in general that I don't imagine much would actually change after talking to them. They're often not home and they're already aware that the cat's clawed me a couple of times. On top of that, I've not been living here long enough that I feel comfortable moving beyond just making the owner aware of the issue and actually making a conflict out of it. Not worth it if nothing's likely to change anyway.
So about the cat himself: I have a feeling - though I don't know for sure - that this is an attention-seeking behaviour. As I previously said, his owner isn't home very much. I try to use his toys to play with him sometimes but I'm worried that this might end up making the problem worse if he wants me to play whenever he's lonely.
With that said, can anyone recommend a relatively harmless way of getting this cat to stop clawing and biting me? Tonight I had to retreat back to my room while making dinner because he just wouldn't cut it out.
Just coming back to say, because I imagine I could be asked, that I do believe the cat has been neutered.