Problem with husband or cat? Needy behavior!

[BarbCatLover]

I have a 9-year old male cat and he displays different behaviors with my husband then he does with me. With my husband, he is clingy, pines incessantly, and nearly trips him every time my husband takes a step. The cat is not like that with me. I told my husband to ignore the negative behavior and to praise him when he is acting appropriately. That has not worked. My husband gets really annoyed and even angry with the cat. He also yells at him quite a bit. I don't want this to become it's me or the cat type of thing but I am trying to figure out why a cat behaves differently with one person over another.

 

[ArtNJ]

Its super common for cats to behave differently with different humans. Generally best to consider each relationship separately. Doing that, it is definitely a bit of a puzzle why the cat would be very clingy with a human that doesn't seem to like the cat much. I don't think we have enough facts in your post to speculate. Maybe give us the history of the cat and his relationship with you and the husband, might help. Make sure to include who was/is home when and does what for the cat.

 

[gilmargl]

Sorry, I can't give any advice but I have had 2 cats who instinctively chose to "annoy" people who hated cats, by showing them a lot of affection. My father-in-law was not a cat lover. He seldom visited but when he did the cat would immediately jump on his lap.

Another time we were debatting whether to keep a stray kitten who had suddenly appeared. For some reason, this cat made a great deal of fuss of the one person in the family who wasn't keen at all on having another cat. Perhaps a week later, the matter was settled, the cat was allowed to stay. She then ignored this person completely for the rest of her life, much to his annoyance.