The "Moment"

[The Goodbye Bird]

A long time ago me and the wife were watching The Boondocks on late night television and they described a behaviour (though they weren't talking about cats) called a "moment."

If you don't know the reference I'm going to leave it out as most of you will probably consider it offensive, mainly because it is.

However, as soon as the main character described the behaviour by narrating a short segment, I was laughing. This was not because I'm a horrible racist who thinks people do this, but because as he described the "moment" and the scene unfolded, I began to picture cats' heads on the two fellows involved.

Cats absolutely have moments. Their eyes lock, their territoriality turns on, and they often cannot disengage.

The "C-word moment" is so strong that it overrides all other behaviours. In this example, the housecat should never be aggressive toward something that can kill it in a single attack. The presumably wild mountain lion should also not be willing to approach a house with humans in it, but the moment occurred, and overrode all other drives in the individuals. It actually could have been a lot worse.


Clear barriers only intensify moments because the individuals can see each other but there can be no resolution. Cats that love and accept each other can even redirect when they have a moment with another cat through a window. My cats do this, and I've put slanted barricades on the outside of the sills because this is the only way to stop window cats from appearing and triggering a moment.

Some people clap once loudly to frighten the cats engaged in a moment. This doesn't always work.

Introducing cats in an ordered fashion and preventing them from seeing each other often precludes any moments.

What are some ways you've learned to stop the moment once it has already started?

 

[Talien]

I step between them and shuffle one of them away. Yes I'm aware that isn't the safest thing to do, but I do this a lot and so far I've not had any Cat attack me.

 

[The Goodbye Bird]

I step between them and shuffle one of them away.

Do they ever just try to get round you and try to get at each other again?

 

[cataholic07]

I've thrown a toy or clap. My cats arent aggressive with each other but they play super rough and sometimes it goes too far for the kitten and she will hiss and growl. For Jetty all I have to do is tap on the cat hammock next to me and he comes running. Fynn is much much harder, he never lets shit go lol. So for him sometimes I have to remove him from the situation and then get a wand toy out to try and burn off more energy. Jetty and Ceriah are pretty good at not holding onto hard feelings. Fynn can be a bit of a jerk.

 

[The Goodbye Bird]

Fynn is much much harder, he never lets shit go lol.

That sounds like my old blue-eyed cat. She's the only one I ever had an oops litter with, and it was unavoidable as I was burgled.

If a cat ever bonked her on the head, she would remember it for five hours and sit there and plot, waiting for the perfect moment, then ambush the other cat and bite honestly kinda hard. For most cats I feel like having babies makes them more affectionate, and when I go and adopt I seek out ones that have given birth. But for this one... it made her kind of dominant and less tolerant of other cats. Go figure.

Doesn't quite rise to the level of a moment, but what my cats do if they see a window cat does. They become wild, and it takes them sometimes days to remember that, oh, yeah that's right, I'm actually domesticated.

 

[Talien]

Do they ever just try to get round you and try to get at each other again?

Surprisingly, no. Whether it's my own or at a shelter that pretty much ends it right away.

 

[The Goodbye Bird]

Surprisingly, no. Whether it's my own or at a shelter that pretty much ends it right away.

It might be that ushering one cat off makes both cats think there has been a resolution, since one has fled.