Silly question: what makes cats sick?

[Vertigo]

I read somewhere that it is a miscommunication due to different body language between species.
Someone who doesn't like cats will sit very still and hope the cat ignores them.
Someone who likes cats, but doesn't necessarily understand them (or at least nervous cats) will sit there going "Puss, Puss" and waving hands around. Confident cats are OK with that, nervous ones are not.

So in a room with a bunch of strangers, many cats (but not all) will prefer the sitting quietly non-scary person and avoid the noisy "puss, puss" person. And so the cat hater gets the cat.

I understood it was the eyes. Humans tend to narrow their eyes when looking at someone or something (eg a cat) they don't like. Cats on the other hand tend to narrow their eyes to show pleasure. So the cats see the narrowed human eyes of a cat hater as an invitation.

 

[Montero]

@ Vertigo. Makes sense.

If I am trying to befriend a cautious cat I crouch down side on, hold out my hand for sniffing and look only out the corner of my eye - so not staring. If I am acceptable then the cat starts to do the cheek rubbing/marking on the side of my hand and it usually moves on to stroking being permitted.

I've also practised staring hard to see off a roving tom cat that was beating up our cats as they came out the cat flap. (Some years back.)

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I read somewhere that it is a miscommunication due to different body language between species.
Someone who doesn't like cats will sit very still and hope the cat ignores them.
Someone who likes cats, but doesn't necessarily understand them (or at least nervous cats) will sit there going "Puss, Puss" and waving hands around. Confident cats are OK with that, nervous ones are not.

So in a room with a bunch of strangers, many cats (but not all) will prefer the sitting quietly non-scary person and avoid the noisy "puss, puss" person. And so the cat hater gets the cat.

With my dad, I think it was the cats' natural magnetic pull toward the person who is cursing and throwing shoes at them. It apparently looks to a cat like great fun, this rowdy play.

 

[Danny McG]

How sick? Antifreeze is lethal to them. Furballs make horrendous sick like gracking. Oh, and check out lily pollen, that's poisonous to them but i don't know how badly.

Old thread I know. I wonder if anyone can explain the second sentence?
"Sick like gracking?"
As far as I know isn't gracking like a male version of twerking?

Aaargh! Is my slang out of date?

@Jo Zebedee

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Sounds to me like it means the noise cats make when they try to hack up a hairball?

 

[Kylara]

It's thn retching noise cats make when threatening to upchuck. Doesn't always result in vomit but sounds very much like 'grack grack grack'

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Ha! Yes, it was the noise. I see I'll need to teach @dannymcg to speak fluent Norn Irish.

 

[Dave]

I've had that before with biscuits. I think it's because they are dry, so the cat needs to drink water with them. But most cats seem to have an aversion to drinking water out of a bowl and would rather drink it from the bath or basin.

In the 1970's when dry cat food became more popular the recipe was too high in Magnesium (but they have changed it since then.) Cat's are very prone to Chronic Kidney Failure and can get renal damage for a number of reasons including infectious diseases, but they also need low magnesium diets. Some breeds are much more prone than others and we had a cat die from it. Of course, drinking from the toilet bowl that had blue cleaner in it probably didn't help either.

 

[Martin Gill]

All the cats I've been owned by have hated the smell of citrus fruits, so they wouldn't go near enough to eat any.

We've got one who will lick lemons. He hates them, but he will lick them if you offer them.

 

[The Judge]

That is just so wrong!

Does he at least do the wrinkle-the-nose thing before or after licking? Ours have all visibly recoiled and looked offended. Which is strange when I think of some of the things they have licked and enjoyed (feet, armpits, earwax...)

 

[Biskit]

For some reason, in the last few days, one of ours has taken to licking me. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be a hint for me to take a shower, or checking round on the options for a change in diet.

 

[Martin Gill]

Does he at least do the wrinkle-the-nose thing before or after licking?

Yep, and then looks offended, but tries it anyway.

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

We've got one who will lick lemons. He hates them, but he will lick them if you offer them.

One of our cats loves chips (fries for the Americans here), and pasta (cooked or raw). My husband gets great entertainment from feeding him several chips/bits of pasta by hand, and then, when he's really wound-up and excited, substituting a slice of lemon for a chip. Mo is usually beside himself with excitement by then, so he bites into the lemon before he realises the trick. And he never, ever learns. Fraser does this whenever we have fish suppers from the posh chippie that puts lemon on the fish. Mo falls for it every time.

 

[Martin Gill]

Our friend's cat is so into carbs he once stole a samosa from someone else's house and brought it home.

 

[Toby Frost]

Sometimes I feel like the only writer on the internet who doesn't like cats.

 

[Biskit]

Sometimes I feel like the only writer on the internet who doesn't like cats.

It's a failing, but you can probably get therapy for it.

Take one cat and stroke well five times a day.

It won't be enough, but tolerable if you find a very understanding cat.

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

Sometimes I feel like the only writer on the internet who doesn't like cats.

I don't know about writers, but we had a health professional visiting us yesterday to see my elderly Dad, but she was more interested in the animals we might or might not have than in his health or well being. Apparently she refuses to visit anywhere with cats, because she has a phobia (not an allergy). The only way I could convince her to visit was by promising to lock them all away out of sight, and the dogs as well (although she's not quite as bad with dogs). Also, I had to warn her not to look over the garden wall, as there are chickens there (nearly as terrifying as cats, apparently). The horses were okay, though. They're not at all scary, and she failed to see how anyone could be afraid of a horse. Her words!

While she was here, my daughter inadvertently let one of the cats out of our house while she was carrying a basket of washing out. I looked out of Dad's kitchen window and saw Mo sidling up to the visitor's car, which had a window open. I could only imagine the mayhem had she climbed into the driver's seat, looked in her mirror, and seen a massive black and white tomcat sitting on her parcel shelf! To speak, or not to speak? Luckily, she didn't notice the cat. Mo quickly became distracted by a dead leaf blowing across the yard, and disappeared in hot pursuit, so the coast was clear by the time she left.

Very odd.

 

[Toby Frost]

I don't have a phobia, although I am mildly allergic to cats. If I sleep in a house with long haired cats, I'll be wheezing in the morning. Simple anti-histamine gets rid of it easily, and I don't have anything against them for it. I think rabbits have the same effect.

To be brutally honest, I don't understand the level of emotional involvement some people have for cats, because they don't seem to give very much in return (dead birds excepted). They just don't seem very interested in humans: they don't appear to have the same capacity for affection as dogs. There, that should make me persona non grata on the internet for the next few decades.

 

[HoopyFrood]

As I've said elsewhere here, I think the difference is that dogs are very open with affection, whereas cats reserve it for particular people. If you're their special person, cats are very affectionate.

 

[HoopyFrood]

Our friend's cat is so into carbs he once stole a samosa from someone else's house and brought it home.

Mine once brought in a hot cross bun (probably from someone's bin, my girl seems to be a womble) and had a go at it. I also now have to keep bread in the cupboard after they gnawed through the bottom slices.