She isn’t fond of the girl holding her but tolerates this baby doll position very well .... so do her two brothers. However she is most sedate/calm about being held of the three teen kitties. If you watched her being held she is so passive/sedate while being held you would swear she was sedated! (Which makes me think Alyx REALLY hurt the cat and deserved her tiny scratch plus so much more! Plus Alyx is well spoiled and bullies her brother when she is given a chance.) Cami was spayed at 4 months old; so that is not a factor.
So today Cami nipped at and lightly scratched my 6 year old niece who was bugging her. The kid has a history for being overly aggressive with wanting to hold her (she is not allowed to hold a cat without asking an adult first plus direct supervision ..... and she MUST always let the cat leave if they want to) and the cat was a hissy feral kitten when we got her at 4 weeks old. She hissed so much I nicknamed her Huffandpuff until my mom gave her a real/adopted name. Of the three kittens she is the only one that nips.... so part of it is just her. So those were the players, let me set the scene: Cami is in her cat cave in her cat tree minding her own business and staying out of the family chaos. Alyx’s dad comes over (so she thinks she now has permission to misbehave because I do put up with that) and she takes it upon herself to reach into the cat cave and pet her/?try to pick her up? (how and where I don’t know) then screams her head off that the cat bit her ...... enter the over protective hot head dad falling for his kid’s drama.
Now keep in mind one finger got scratched so lightly that there was barely any blood. There were know puncture marks/cat bite marks. I wouldn’t have even put a band aid on it (just wash it and put some Neosporin on it to make her feel better) but her over protective dad was there.
My gut response to the kid Alyx would have been ‘what did you do to the Cami to make her nip at you?’ and ‘let’s go clean you up.’Still I would like to prevent future kid scratching episodes. So how do I explain clearly to the kid what to (not) do to avoid being scratched (besides leave her the hell alone when she is in the cat tree.) Also how do I work on Cami (little miss tortie-rude) to quit nipping? She nips me sometimes when I groom her and I tell her no calmly/firmly. I let her nip away at the comb though. She gets treats after grooming... all burs/mats are cut out. Lastly how do I make sure the kid does not grow to fear cats? Alyx has made so much progress this summer learning how to read cat body language/respect the cat’s personhood/space. She has gotten so much better with the cats! I would hate for her to loose it!
*** she was released immediately after the close up of her face and given treats/left alone.
