Login
You're viewing the mastodon.obdev.at public feed.
  • varvevarve@weirder.earth
    Oct 22, 2021, 4:57 AM

    But the things that he's doing on his own are the really cool part.

    He has done cat science on me - behavioural experiments, not gravity testing.

    Breakfast comes in a forage ball, and while they're eating I'm making my lunch and getting ready for work. One day he accidentally rolled his forage ball into my foot, then scrambled back. Oh no, his food is right by the scary human! What to do? I picked the ball up, and put it down where I usually feed him. "Here you go."

    1/2

    💬 1🔄 0⭐ 0

Replies

  • varvevarve@weirder.earth
    Oct 22, 2021, 5:00 AM

    Well. For the next few weeks, *every* breakfast included at least one, sometimes two, times where he rolled his forage ball up to my feet, then backed up and waiting for me to put it back to the start for him. He even rolled it all the way around the kitchen island to leave it on the other side of me a few times.

    After the first one, it was clearly not an accident. He was testing me.

    Then when he had gathered enough data, the tests stopped as abruptly as they started 2/2

    💬 1🔄 0⭐ 0
  • varvevarve@weirder.earth
    Oct 22, 2021, 5:09 AM

    I've seen several times where he has flinched as if about to run, then chose instead to stay put.

    The only interpretation of all this (and other things harder to describe in 500 characters) that makes sense to me is that this cat has confirmed to his satisfaction that I am indeed a safe person, knows intellectually that I will not hurt him, and is trying to retrain his own reactions, push his comfort zone, so he isn't controlled by his PTSD triggers.

    💬 0🔄 0⭐ 0