Thread by @cherryrae, This is Odin (a cat for anyone who doesn’t know). He communicates [...]

This is Odin (a cat for anyone who doesn’t know). He communicates with his mouth and mouths me A LOT. Some people are shocked we let him continue, but I realized early on in his life that this is his nature.

Instead I’ve worked to teach him when it’s too much or it hurts -

- he lacked that education. When I researched it I found a lot of cat behavioural papers that talked about kittens teaching each other (and lessons from their mother) about play and bite strength and boundaries. Odin was removed from his family group VERY young so he lacked that

We adopted him at 4/5 months old and he was already showing both play, strength AND affection with his mouth. The FIRST thing he ever did when I held him at the shelter was bite me (very softly) on the chin, then nose and then rub all over me. He still does that now - like kisses

He also lets you know his boundaries with his mouth. If he’s had too many touches or is overstimulated he’ll let you know, but he doesn’t HURT unless you keep pushing his boundaries - which we really shouldn’t to begin with (though sometimes we’re silly humans and miss his cues)

The downside is that when he is VERY VERY anxious and scared he can lash out. BUT he is a cat - I think it’s important they have those defence mechanisms to protect themselves. only time he bit me to seriously hurt was at the vets when he was in serious pain & we kept pushing him

I wish we could respect our animal’s natural behaviours more & work hard to work WITH them rather than try to bend them to what we think is acceptable

The line is that if it puts other people at risk then that’s a problem, but that’s not how this mouth communication works

I’m just thinking out loud I guess! The point is, I think we train animals to exist with us, but it also needs to be a two way street.

Odin is highly trainable, but I want to also respect his natural behaviours and abilities to build on them rather than extinguish them.

Every animal is also different. MaoMao (our other cat) only ever bites to HURT. She can go from zero to aggressive in the blink of an eye. She also wasn’t human socialized at first, but much later - around 6 years old.

She’s not a naturally social cat and likely spent even her feral years relatively solo - she spent much of them in a barn run by a local charity for feral cats that are too unsocialized to house, but she proved them wrong when she got sick around 6 years old.

SO - you see Mao readying her mouth to bite and you get the heck out of there! - Like we are taught to do with cats in general, but I think some cats in general have also gave a LOT of misunderstanding around their behaviours to do with the lens in which we see them :-

- that lens often being skewed by what we know best - typical human and dog behaviours, which is really a lens that doesn’t do cats justice at all (nor foxes).

As an aside Mao really LOVES to lick people - like some dogs, but for her it’s about communal grooming.

I hate being licked so I move away but I try not to correct her for it, because that’s HER ways. Plus she gets to groom M a lot.

We’ve spent a few years trying to balance training our cats with allowing them to express their natural ways. It’s a tightrope sometimes!!

Especially because they’re totally different. It’s really evident when they try to spend time with each other - they’re basically speaking an alien language and often all hell breaks out. Especially when Odin tries to communicate & Mao takes it as aggression!

This thread is partly why I empathize with cats so much and being autistic. For me the experience has SO much overlap. The lens with which many people view their behaviours skews how they’re interpreted - often to their detriment.

Thanks for reading

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