Cat Shaming – A serious problem?

Lately my posts have been on the sad side of things. I hope this lighter, tongue-in-cheek attempt at humor is appropriate

I have been aware of this trend for a number of years and recently I find I am a participant in this behavior. When I picked out our cat 6 years ago I never imagined my MS would affect my arms as it has. I thought if I keep using them I will not lose the use but MS had other plans. The end result of this I can no longer scratch Macy's chin or ears. For the first 5+ years she was attached to me most of the time and I know she loves getting her chin scratched by my thumb. In bed she slept on me and by me all the time. Last December the worst happened and my hands quit working and I'm no longer able to scratch the kitty.

Silly me, I thought the kitty loves me but as it turns out she gravitates toward anyone who will brush her. Now she pesters my wife or our son Tom who she has wrapped around her paw. I no longer get much attention. My wife thinks it's funny that I said "the kitty threw me a bone" once in a while, like once a week she comes up and sleeps on my shoulder and purrs. This change in her affection has left me feeling empty and angry. I know I shouldn't because that's how cats are but I thought we had a special bond. Not so.

The result is that I've fallen into this behavior where I mock, taunt and insult the cat. I have to confess I'm ashamed of my behavior. The cat seems to ignore me when I do this but who knows maybe she has a shred of emotion inside that I don't see. One day I taunted her and reminded her of where she was when I found her. Even though I felt ashamed I shamed the kitty. She did not seem to even listen to me but that night she slept on my shoulder, my arm and between my ankles pretty much the whole night. Was this because I shamed her? You be the judge.

I think this is a very subtle method of animal abuse and I'm ashamed and confess to all of you that I'm fallen into this awful behavior. The poor kitty. It's hard to believe the indignities this little queen of the castle has to endure.

Another time I had a visitor and he scratched her ears a little bit. When he left she was sitting on the floor looking all Royal like the Princess she is and I could tell by the she was looking at him that she expected for him to come over, bend down and say goodbye in a manner her royalty deserved. When he left without honoring her I taunted her and said "Ha ha he left without saying goodbye to you". That night she slept on my shoulder until I unfortunately coughed and that made her angry so she left.

I have been working on trying to not taunt the kitty. Yesterday I was on the screen porch and she usually comes out and sits on my lap. Was out there for 4 hours before she came out and slept on my lap. She is pretty sweet when she wants to be. If she wasn't afraid of going out on the porch by herself I probably would get no attention whatsoever. But that's the way cats are.