Please Help Pets by Donating One Dollar
How your Playing Kitten can affect you
This article written by: Alfred and Baby Kitty
You are calmly reading your book or watching TV in your
favorite chair when along comes your kitten. It slinks
around to behind your chair then you hear the telltale
pricking of nails climbing up the back of your chair. It
doesn't take long for:
A. The kitten to launch itself onto your book, spin around
and then launch itself off and run into the other room.
B. Attack your head furiously with its claws while chewing
on your hair and bouncing on the back of your neck.
C. When you reach up to scratch your kitten's head it
attacks, latching onto your hand with claws and rabbit
kicking your wrist with its hind legs while biting your
finger.
D. All of the Above.
If you own a kitten your most likely answer will be D. All
of the Above. You will quickly learn to wear thick socks and
house shoes. You will also learn to perform the shuffle step
that will make your hair stand on end and all metal surfaces
will shock you on contact, sometimes with a visible spark.
Your hands, arms, feet and legs will look like you tried to
walk through a cactus patch and you will become intimately
familiar with antibiotic ointment, and may even carry around
a tube for these attack instances.
Walking through your house becomes an insane game of tag,
with your kitten launching itself at your feet from multiple
directions to snag the back of your ankle with its sharp
claws. Hence, thick socks.
Your first reaction to this type of behavior may be
surprise, giving way to resentment in some instances,
especially when you are on an emergency run to the bathroom
or going out the door to an elegant party. And trying to
calm an attacking kitten will just end up in chaos, so don't
try.
Although aggressive play is important for your kitten's
education on how to be a cat, you probably could use some
ideas for managing it at those inopportune times. See our
article "How to Deal with Aggressive Play in Kittens" for
some suggestions.
