Kitz Forum

Chat => Chit Chat => Topic started by: Weaver on October 16, 2018, 10:08:38 PM

Title: Beaten up by a kitten
Post by: Weaver on October 16, 2018, 10:08:38 PM
A couple of days ago I heard a crash and a tremendous commotion downstairs. I was not able to see what was happening but I could tell from the sound that animals were involved. It turned out that Ciarán, my old greyhound, was running on the spot, skidding in the wooden floor which is slippy for his claws, trying to accelerate to run away because the kitten Pangur Bàn was spitting at him. Pangur Bàn just dislikes the dog for some reason. The dog is too large, walks about without permission and comes up onto the bed without feline permission, worst of all.

I wish I could get the kitten to be nice to the poor old dog as the kitten makes the dog shake. All other cats like the dog. I don’t know what techniques might work. The two will coexist on the bed usually, yet sometimes the kitten will just hiss at the dog if he is standing up. If the dog is lying down, then the dog is ignored thankfully.
Title: Re: Beaten up by a kitten
Post by: Westie on October 17, 2018, 12:28:23 AM
It sounds to me as if Pangur Bàn's fight/flight mode is immediately invoked when he sees the giant towering over him - although it seems more like a fight/fight mode. I've known children like that!

Maybe in time Pangur Bàn will realise that Ciarán is harmless...
Title: Re: Beaten up by a kitten
Post by: Weaver on October 17, 2018, 01:05:11 AM
Pangur Bàn doesn’t seem to be obviously very frightened, as he doesn’t run away, but I do agree that the size of the enormous dog is possibly frightening in some way. The dog does not have permission to be so enormous. All other cats are fine with the poor dog, and Pangur Bàn sees that all the time, but that has not been enough reassurance to put an end to this spitting behaviour.

[Actually, I forget: Tom, the guest cat, is frightened of the dog and avoids the dog in a big way if the dog is on the move, but I have not heard reports of Tom showing any aggression towards poor Ciarán, thank goodness. (I don’t ever go downstairs, so reports are indirect.)]

I just do not know how to sort the kitten out. The dog is shaking at times and this is a day or two later now. Ciarán has cataracts and his eyesight is shot. I hate to think how much it would cost to get them fixed, and I don’t think he would thank us much for the stress of the who,e experience. The eyesight thing probably doesn’t help as it may be he doesn’t know what to do nor exactly what is going on if he gets into a situation involving a problem cat. He often gets trapped, can’t come up the stairs, can’t come into the bedroom various such points where any cat is blocking access. He can’t walk past close by or try to push the cat out of the way or just walk over it because he could get clawed.

The late Orange Cat (our nineteen year old tomcat) would tweak the poor dog for fun with his claws in order to make the dog squeal and bolt when the poor dog went past Orange without saying hello to him formally (noses required) which was a major cause of offence and outrage. (That cat, like some other cats, would tweak a human too if one walked in by without saying hello properly.) Ciarán doesn’t have the brain power to understand the etiquette rule. Caileag, my lurcher, who was far far more intelligent than our two greyhounds, did understand the rules, would stop do noses and all was well, and so did nit get tweaked. Even if something went wrong and Caileag did occasionally get clawed for some reason it was not the end of her world and she would just tolerate it without freaking out at all.

This business of getting tweaked by cats has had a lasting effect on the poor dog. He will sleep happily next to a cat on the sofa. It is when he is walking around that he gets worried. That and getting hissed at by Pangur Bàn on the bed for the crime of not lying down and being too enormous and overshadowing or towering without permission and the necessary licences. Since his eyesight is shot he probably worries a bit, for all I know, when he is walking around in case there are unseen cats.