Category Archives: Living with cats

How to explain a sexual behavior in a spayed cat

However strange it can appear, a spayed cat like me can have behavior of tomcat for months, even years later again.

It is a little bit awkward to say, but I often try to masturbate on my humans ; since Momo’s come-back, I also try to bite Claire’s clothes as if it was the neck of a ladycat.

How can this happen ? And what does it mean ?

When a male cat is castrated, his rate of testosterone decreases strongly. However, his male side is determined in utero by the foetal testosterone which bathes his brain and makes it more or less masculine. This male side is activated from the adolescence by the production of testosterone. The higher is the rate of foetal testosterone, the more the male character of the cat will be pronounced. After castration, in the lack of testosterone, the male behavior is not deactivated, it’s just less active. Attacks against another cat, dominant behavior (often confused with sexual behavior) or attacks with sexual character can persist.

In my case, I try to show that I’m the boss. My behavior is a dominant behavior. And I insist. Obviously, Claire tells me that it’s not acceptable, and that she’s going to learn me not to do it anymore by fixing me the following rules :

I can make biscuits, it’s normal that I do it when I’m happy
if I make biscuits and she sees my pupils dilating, that means that I am going to do something else : if I knead more and more, purr more and more hardly, get excited, she will stop petting me, will put me on the ground, and will ignore me for a while
and if I hump all the same, she will do the same thing, and will quit the room and leave me alone

Thus, if I play the bad boy, I lose her attention ; I have to understand that I’m not the boss in the house : but then, who is the boss if it’s not me ?

Claire on the keyboard : evaporations of pheromones can help in this situation ; in certain extremes cases, the cat can even receive injections of hormones to limit this behavior. Zorro did not need it and fast understood what I expected from him.

Routine visit at the veterinarian

ZORRO :
Of what does it remind you ? Of an ambush ?

That was exactly it !

Our PTU are available permanently, but yesterday, they had changed place. We naively followed treats up to the bottom, and Claire treacherously closed the door behind us ! I was not even able to tell her that I needed to do a wee !

After 3 minutes of car, I mewed all the same to tell it to her. I mewed even one or two times to protest against the trip by car. 10 minutes later, we had arrived in front of the veterinary office, but it was too late : hardly taken out of the vehicle, I roared ” I don’t hold any more ! ” and I flooded the attractive pillow of my PTU. Fortunately, Claire was on time, and the veterinarian also : he posed me on the table, Christelle, his adorable assistant, put my pillow in a plastic bag, she took paper towels, she wiped my PTU, and the veterinarian wiped my paws and tummy. After this entertaining interlude, the medical examination really began : I came first, and Pixie later.

What is a routine visit at the veterinarian ? For us who are young healthy cats, the (annual) visit consists of the following points :

Weighing
Control of the ears
Control of the eyes
Control of the mouth and the teeth
Control of the coat (to see if we have fleas)
Listening of the heartbeat with a stethoscope
Vaccines
Vermifuge (because we go out and go hunting from time to time)

Claire also asked the veterinarian to trim our claws, but he disadvised her from doing it. He explained that it was indicated for indoor cats who don’t use enough their claws or for old cats who could have embodied claws, but not for us. We have scratching posts inside, we have tree trunks outside, we don’t normally need a pawticure. The fact of cutting regularly the claws of cats can modify in the long run the way the claw grows. She can become more thick, and annoying for the animal.

Result of our visit: I weigh 5,5 kg (12.1 lb) and Pixie 3,2 kg (7 lb), and we are in excellent health.

Back to home, Claire wiped my paws and my tummy with a wet wash glove and put at once my pillow to be washed. She gave me a big cuddle, I played with Pixie, and the “wee-wee » incident was fast forgotten.

And you, how do your visits at the veterinarian take place ?

How to protect your sowing from gardening cats ?

Two weeks ago, Claire began the kitchen garden. She sowed radish and salad; she knows that cats adore scratching freshly turned ground, and thanks to the active collaboration of our Angel Loupi, she developed several strategies to protect her sowing :

Build a frame and cover it with wire-mesh for hens to make a cage to place on the sowing.
Use a mini-greenhouse from the store (also for the sowing inside).
Place a sowing veil and fix it solidly to the ground with big stones or small pickets.
Place crossed sticks (supports of bamboo for example) on the zone of the sowing.

And you, what are your human’s tricks to prevent us from gardening ?