Your wisdom required...

[loCAtek]

Does this make you a were-cat?

[Sean]

The furry little bastard was probably trying to steal your breath Jarl!

[Jarlaxle]

Does this make you a were-cat?

Not quite...though I swear Liz's friend Tina is a real-life Dr. Doolittle. Even our vet has never seen anyone as good with animals as she is, and the way she can control her two cats & two big dogs is almost telepathic. (And they respond to commands exclusively in Gaelic, but anyway...)

And on two pet-related notes: I think my St. Bernard is blind in his right eye, and I just tripped over a cat sleeping across the kitchen doorway, and went ass-over-teakettle onto the floor.

[SisterMaryFellatio]

I don't remember how old you may have said Puddin' was but cats in general aren't really a good pet choice for young children

Glad nobody told my mother that...after about a week of, "What has been brought into my living area, and how in the world does it make all that NOISE?" my mother's cat Oscar seemed to consider me his surrogate kitten. That winter, the power went out on a cold day. With the furnace not working, my mother was worried that I wasn't awake and crying from the cold. She looked into the crib...and I was sleeping peacefully, head resting on Oscar's chest, with the cat curled up against me (he was a big cat), his tail looped over my head and tucked under my chin. She swore he was thinking, "Well, SOMEONE had to keep him warm!"

That day, they stopped worrying how Oscar and I would get along. The fastest way to get me to settle down was to get me to lay down using Oscar as a pillow...his purring usually had me sleeping in under a minute. When I was learning to walk, he was right there and perfectly willing to let me lean on him. I suspect Oscar is one reason I have always liked cats. He died in his sleep when I was about five years old...RIP, Oscar.

All three of my cats were abandoned strays. Vierna was at least a little "feral"...even now, while not at all destructive (except to paper towels in an open wastebasket) or agressive, she's a little aloof.

Mac (cat) is not like it all the time...he just has these moments where he turns...which is why I think he may grow out of it.

We might have just fixed the problem by adopting a dog over the weekend! Theres been no fights, neither side has taken a swipe at the other, both have fired warning shots over the bow with hissing growling and general spikiness. So heres to Mac being put in his place by Niles. If this dosn't work (I am hoping it does) then with much regret our furry purry friend will go to the animal shelter to be re housed with someone who does not have young kids.

Ta for all your imput.

Sean your a twat!

[loCAtek]

Does this make you a were-cat?

Not saying that's a bad thing; it sounds like you have an awesome furry family. But, that was you being a pet to the cat; not bringing in a cat to be a pet to you. Established pets are more accepting of new family members. Bringing in a new pet to the family is a different situation, with different considerations.

[alice]

Has anyone had any experience with feral cats that have been taken in?
Is it because he was feral or this is just his temperment?
Will he calm down as he hits the year mark?

My now 13 year old cat started off life as a feral cat and is now the most domesticated creature you'd come across.
But it did take a lot of work and patience.
( amd i don't know how old your child is, but mine were three, four and five when we had him dumped on us. We were always getting other people's reject animals dumped on us!)

He hated people - he loathed and feared people, and scratched, clawed and did everything to get away while literally shitting himself with fear if we tried to go near him or pick him up.

Firstly, we didn't let him out of the house at all for absolutely months. So that eventually the house became his territory - that took quite a long time.
Even after he was older and we started letting him go outside, we made sure he came in by around dusk. At first that was really, really hard, because that's when all the other cats start socialising and he wanted to stay out. We often had to search for him and tempt him in, or scoop him up unwillingly (at kleast by the time he was a bit older he didn't fight quite as much 'cos by then he actually liked us!)

Secondly, we emptied out a whole bottom area of a double cupboard, and put blankets etc in it, and kept one door permanently shut - this gave him his 'escape place' and at first he almost never came out. We would feed him just outside the cupboard, and also had a kitty litter set up there, and a scratch pole. Everything right at the cupboard door. And we would spend quite a bit of time just sitting beside the cupboard (reading, or the kids would quietly play there, any quiet activity that showed the kitten we were not a threat and we were going to be near). After a while days or weeks, I can't remember - just when it seemed that the cat was more used to us - we would often sit with a hand in the cupboard so the kitten just kept getting used to us and our scent etc. And sometimes we would often be holding little treats, of raw meat etc. Just tiny bits - at first the kitten wouldn't go near, eventually it got closer and sniffed, gradually it started to take the treats. But you had to have your hand in there for ages and just let the kitten build up it's confidence.

I left most of the 'work' to the kids, and coached and monitored them and helped out. If your children have the temperament, it's great, but they need to have loads of patience, or have the ability to learn patience. And my kids were very proud of themselves at each tiny milestone.

And the other thing we did was get a huge big soft bag. Sort of like a very soft sack (but very thick and cosy feeling - the one I had was a quilted one) with long, soft straps. And once the kitten started getting used to us and stopped trying to rip us to bits, we started taking it nearly everywhere in this big bag. The kitten was small and the bag was very deep, so the kitten couldn't climb out, but it heard us, and we could constantly reach in and pat it or look it and stroke its head etc - so we were always the security and the food source and the treat givers and the constant soothing sound etc etc.
It was a lot of work. I had quite a hectic job at the time, but the kitten also needed lots of 'by itsekf' time and sleep time, and when no-one was around it could always explore and retreat into its cupboard, and it had plenty of time to gradually get used to the house. We started off having the door shut for the room the cupboard was in, and graduated to open door for the whole house.
When we first let it outside (after months) it was only for short times, and monitored, and we never fed it until after it was brought back in. the food and treats coaxed it in as much as possible (sometimes we had to grab it, but we tried as much ass possible to coax it in 'voluntarily').
It took a long time, a lot of patience, but at the end of the day we did end up with a tame cat that is mostly an inside cat (in every night, any time we are not home, and most of the time even when we are.), and that is very, very loyal to us. We adore him and he adores us. He's not fond of other people, but tends to just ignore them - he's not the least bit fierce. He now shares life with 2 dogs - but he rules them and they absolutely defer to him!

You have to have a lot of patience, though and hope that you're as lucky as we were

[Guinevere]

Hooray!

[Crackpot]

http://www.27bslash6.com/missy.html

this fits