Society of Cats

[lydy]

Mostly, I just want to brag on my Lady Jane Grey. For human-vs-cat socialization, she's come so far. She had a raw spot on her back, between her shoulder blades, which the doctor thought might be the result of an infection, rather than a battle scar, so he gave me some antibiotic to give her twice a day. It is in liquid form, and it is, I kid you not, bubble-gum flavored. Lady does not like it. But she lets me give it to her. I grab her head, tip it back slightly, insert the dropper, and squeeze. She struggles and fusses, but what she does not do is attack me. She does not bite, she does not scratch, and she very rarely hisses or growls. The other day, she was hiding underneath a chair in my study, and I had to drag her out bodily, pick her up, and move her to another location where I could medicate her. She did not like it, and she used language, but again, she did not attack me. This from a cat who, two months ago, viciously savaged me when I petted her wrong. I am incredibly proud of her. Pamela says that it's obvious she loves me best because she brightens a bit when I enter the room. Me, I don't see that, since I don't see her when I'm not there. But I do love her, and she loves me.

It's always a mistake to assume that cats have have the same emotional structures as humans. We're similar; we're both mammals -- but not the same. I was assuming that Nuit was responding badly to Lady Jane Grey because she was feeling worried that people wouldn't love her as much, any more. Because of this assumption, I tried to mediate between the two by giving Nuit more affection, attempting to reassure her that she was loved and wanted. This resulted in her being more aggressive and more horrid towards Lady. When I lost my temper, and yelled at Nuit to just stop it, she backed down, and behaved better. I've done some additional experimentation, and yes, being nice to Nuit when she's being a shit to Lady causes Nuit to be even nastier to Lady Jane Grey. Scolding Nuit severely for being aggressive causes her to back down and behave better, and sometimes even come scurrying over to the human for reassurance. (And, yes, Nuit does know her name, and does know when I'm yelling at her. And yes, LJG does sit there looking smug when I yell at Nuit, and does know her name and does look chagrinned when I yell using her name instead.) I do not understand cat politics. I do, however, love my cats.

Comments

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

"[B]eing nice to Nuit when she's being a shit to Lady causes Nuit to be even nastier to Lady Jane Grey." Um, sure. Absolutely. That's basic behavioral shaping technique. Give the subject a reward they desire as they're doing something you want to reinforce. Over time, give the reward later, waiting for more extreme (or correct, if it's your target behavior) examples before rewarding. This absolutely works with humans, too, as long as you are able to figure out the reward that works for your subject. It certainly works with dogs. Animal trainers who specialize in behaviorist approaches claim it works with pretty much anything that has a central nervous system. What the human (or the cat) consciously thinks about the process is actually almost irrelevant -- unless they're actually aware that you're trying to train them, in the case of humans, in which case it may not work. So I'm not sure this is evidence of cats having different emotional structures from humans.

[lydy.livejournal.com]

That makes sense, of course. I was trying for distraction and instead triggered a reward response. Also interesting, if the two of them are in the same room and being well-behaved and neutral towards each other, and I pet Nuit, she will frequently get up and start keening at Lady and generally being aggressive and horrid. I don't know if that's because I accidentally wired in a reward response or if that's intrinsic to cat politics. It makes it hard to make sure that Nuit gets affection and attention, though.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't know what to make of that one -- it could also be some third thing, like maybe specific to Nuit-and-LJG politics, or particular to Nuit's idea of what an appropriate balance of power looks like under different circumstances. One of the things Cesar Milan says about dogs that I think is totally right is that they are individual, they are members of their breed, and they are members of their species. All three will factor in to who they are and how they react to different situations. I suspect that's equally true of cats. Certainly among our three they have very different reactions to all sorts of situations.

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

Also v proud of LJG! Sometimes I think cats must fuss becuase to submit quietly is just wrong: it's not their idea. Making a fuss without actual damage is the best compromise.