Do you wonder why your cat ignores you when you call her? She might look at you when you bellow, but immediately go back to what she was doing. Why do dogs run to you when you call their name and cats pretty much ignore you? It could be that that your cat doesn’t know her name.
I noticed the other day that when I greet Lily, it’s often with terms of endearment. I say, “Hi, Cutie,” “There’s my little Sweetie-doodle,” “Good morning Sweet Thing,” “That’s my precious girl,” “Whatcha doin’ punkin?” etc. Have I managed to confuse our tabby?
Before continuing, I want to bring to your attention, my most recent guest blog post at Oh My Bookness. It’s about my writing career and habits. Check it out here:
http://authorsblogcorner.blogspot.com/2017/07/meet-author-who-cant-not-write-by.html?m=1
To continue with the theme, I have to ask, does your cat respond to you? What’s your
secret? My mother uses few words with her cat. She refers to all of Smokey’s meals as supper. His breakfast is supper and so is his evening meal. Then there’s treat. We don’t know if he understands the word or if he associates getting a treat with visitors. When someone arrives at Mama’s house, she instructs them to, “Give Smokey a treat.” Now, Smokey has become quite the greeter. Anytime someone visits, he comes running and does his best to lead them to where they keep his treats.
Lily does actually know her name and she often responds when I call her from the kitchen. She loves to eat. She’ll often come to me when I alert her to a bird outside the window or when I’ve brought home a new toy. I don’t have to call her name when it’s meal time, however. She doesn’t miss a meal or a treat. She will ignore me if it’s time for a nail-trim or grooming, but not when food’s involved. Now there’s another cat puzzle. Why do short-hair cats love, love, love to be groomed and those who really need to be groomed hate it? I’ve learned, however, that short-haired cats need grooming as much as long-hairs. Have you ever run a fine-toothed grooming comb through your short-hair cat’s fur during summer? You’ll pull out a LOT of undercoat. I don’t know about other short-haired cats, but our tortie, Sophie, sure loves to be groomed.
Regal Sophie
Are you grooming your cats this season? It’s a good idea for all cats. It helps keep the long-haired cats’ fur from tangling and matting and it is healthy for all cats to have the winter shed combed or brushed out. You’ll be surprised how much fur you’ll get. Maybe you can come up with something interesting to do with the fur. A friend used to roll her cats’ fur into tight little fur balls. I’m not sure why. I don’t think you want your cat to play with them, tear into them, and start ingesting the fur. We have enough fur ball urps without giving them fur they might eat. Some people make jewelry and other items out of cat fur. But that’s a topic for another blog.
Back to our topic—have you figured out why your cat doesn’t come when you call her? With our older cat, Max, I figured it was because he was getting too tired and arthritic to get to his feet and come to me. He seemed to think that if it was something I really want him to have, I’d bring it to him. And he was usually right. But I think I’ll try something different with Lily and Sophie. I’ll try to eliminate the terms of endearment and use their names more often. Perhaps they’ll become more obedient and actually come to me when I call them. Obedient? Isn’t the term obedient cat kind of an oxymoron? Most likely, the thing that causes a cat to come when you call them is curiosity, certainly not obedience.
