Thank you for taking the time to share all that! Isn't hard to solve the mysteries of cats! We need all the evidence we can get to compare our own situations to. My new shelter cat, 3 years old, supposedly was a one family cat and they had to give him up. He does view biting as a way to deal with things, I think. He was neutered the day before I got him. He's male, and this is not his first home. I wonder if they get insecure when they are re-homed and the biting is their way to say—"You had better not abandon me like those other people did!!!" He would not let me touch him at all at first. First, I couldn't even get to him, he'd be way under the furniture. Then gradually I worked my way up to four strokes, over his little head and down, but not onto his back, and then, be prepared. I definitely can pat him more now. Also around his muzzle and chin. I feel some underground emotional stuff being touched in both of us as we get closer. I WILL NOT allow him to bite me.
Today we'd been having a pretty nice day and I was standing in the bathroom doing something, using the ironing board as a table, and I was talking to him a little, and as I watched, he gently but sharply bit my leg, where it is flat, hard and smooth. How could he get his teeth around anything?? I get emotionally shocked when I am attacked and I made a loud noise and shoved him away with my foot, went into my bedroom and slammed the door. People say that you are supposed to just accept that he bit you and move away from him, but I want him to get the message. NO BITE! It's not a punishment, it is just "what happens when I bite my person." I mostly avoid getting bitten by watching carefully when I'm patting him and withdrawing my hand as soon as I can tell. It's not that I'm pushing him to the limit—he often just is not in the mood. He adores PLAY! Toys on fishing poles, every day! And he is the most creative cat playing solitary with little toy mice that I have ever seen! Tearing around the house!! I have the feeling that he hadn't had much love in his life. Maybe he didn't get touched by humans early enough during that window from one to what is it? weeks. The window closes in the cat's brain and from then on, they can't develop into a cuddly cat. He will NOT sit in my lap, although he will lie beside me, touching me. He is very tall and might not feel comfortable confined to a lap area. Anyway, isn't this just like a doting cat mama? I want to tell you all the details of my new boy, my very first OWN cat at the Age of 74. Me, not him. He is really special! lol. In the shelter, his name WAS "Special" That's what the family that brought him in said his name was. Boy, I'd love to know more about what his life was life before. Oh so you want to know what he looks like!? Tall, long legs, long body, faint tabby markings with striped legs, light pinkish-buff-orange-and-white, silky fur with a puffed out tail that has fur-hairs that are twice as long as the fur hairs on his body. Bright pink paw pads, nose and tongue, green eyes, a nose with white on it, so it looks big, nice modest ears. LONG whiskers, and such a pretty face! Meow!!
Anyway, for me, because of my PTSD (maybe that's what it is) it is g