The bond of trust I have with Goldie the Cat is weakening. Goldie has seen that Gary and I are saps and is taking advantage.
To his credit, he isn't playing us against each other. I know of households when one person wakes up, feeds the cat, then minutes later the same cat insists to a different human that due to an oversight there was no breakfast, someone has dropped the ball, take care of this.
Goldie doesn't play Gary and I against each other because there is a division of labor. I never do Gary's feeding task, Gary never does my morning play and brushing tasks. Goldie jumps on the table, gets brushed, jumps down to the mat, we play until he growls, and then we're done.
Only lately, I'll return to the table after an hour and Goldie rubs his face on the brush, or he rolls himself into a cat burrito on the mat. As if to say, "You forgot! We do this every morning. I can't brush myself."
This has gone on for a week, and I won't play Goldie's game. Now Goldie has added a new con: it is called Cat Alien Abduction, in which Goldie tries to convince me that he has vanished into thin air. Twice in as many evenings I have hunted for the cat in every closet, on every level, and twice, after I have searched everywhere, I turn around and the cat is right behind me, sprawled on the floor.
I think he thinks I enjoy it. I do not enjoy it. I don't enjoy being tricked.
Perhaps Goldie is saying "I would enjoy being brushed and played with more than once per day" rather than "hm. you are old. Perhaps I can convince you that you've just forgotten to do this today yet..." Maybe; I would not bet on it, though.
No explanation for Cat Alien Abduction, though. BUT in general you get more of what you reward, so thinking about Goldie's possible rewards schemas might help there. Or, now that you've talked about it, Goldie may just never do it again...
Posted by: KC | May 06, 2024 at 10:23 AM
KC - as I understand it, cats in the wild sleep almost all of the time. The only time they don't sleep is when they are hunting at dawn and dusk. Goldie, as a feral, has this schedule baked into his bones. Kill, groom, sleep, kill, sleep, repeat. When I try to play/kill at sleep time he bites hard. If I try to ignore him at play/kill time, he bites softer. When I brush him at any other time he jumps off the table. He calls the shots.
So I now think the "extras" are him just training me. When he's rolled up in the rug, I get the toys, but he won't play. He just wants to reinforce that rug = toys because it's train the human time. Oh, and when he vanishes, I now think he's training me how to hunt ... him. I still don't enjoy it.
Posted by: theQueen | May 06, 2024 at 06:17 PM
Well, I mean, one normally doesn't enjoy corporate-mandated training, right?...
Posted by: KC | May 07, 2024 at 10:24 AM
KC - Corporate-mandated training is the entirety of my job! And no, most of what we make is not enjoyable.
Posted by: theQueen | May 08, 2024 at 08:30 AM
KC - Corporate-mandated training is the entirety of my job! And, no, we try to make it enjoyable but yes, you are right. It is hard to enjoy.
Posted by: theQueen | May 08, 2024 at 08:37 AM