I have two cats (and 4 snakes, but snakes just don’t care) but grew up in a dog household. I think it’s highly subjective, but when it comes to my two cats, Cat Primus definitely is a mercenary.
She’ll give conditional love on her terms, but contrary to the OP’s experience, she’ll rush whomever is home first, and indicate that she missed them, because the other cat-parent has never fed, them. Ever. Not even once, and she’s starving to death RIGHT NOW!
So enthusiastic, if quite mercenary greeting.
Cat secundus, is barely motivated by food, but is quite co-dependent, especially with his mom. I can stay or go, and cat is very ‘meh’, but if mom leaves (to another room, to go to work, to go to bed early) the gates of hell open and Bengal shrieks fill the house, as he’s heartbroken.
Mom’s return (from the bathroom, bedroom, or work) is met by happy tail-up cat at the door and new shrieks of love.
Cats can be starved for affection. My mom left for several months to stay with relatives, and I could only go by her house every two or three weeks. Mom got automatic feeders and waterers before she left, so the cat had everything it needed to survive, including a barn for shelter/mouse-chasin’.
When I would show up, I’d hear a questioning little meow from the barn. Then I’d see the cat trotting toward me. And that would be the last moment of solitude I’d have until I left. She’d curl up on me while I watched TV (and I’d have to turn the volume up to compensate for the purrs). She’d curl up on me while I slept. She’d try to curl up in my lap while I ate dinner. She’d even come into the bathroom with me. She was never like that before Mom left.
Piper Cat looks at it, and then thinks, “Well, he finally did that, but it’s a bit early for dining. I’ll come back in a bit for the deuxième service.” Goes to lie down and contemplate life.
Piper Dog galoots in. “Food! Yum!” Munch, munch, munch.
Piper Cat returns, ready to dine. Stares at empty food bowl. “Really, the service in this establishment is going down steadily!” Long series of complaining merows.
Yes. Many times. we had to give all five of our cats baths every day for several days when we were fighting a flea infestation.
Cats do not like baths. None of our cats have ever been declawed.
Pepper mill once gave a bath to one of our cats while she herself was taking a shower (long story). But I want to emphasize that my wife, while completely naked, gave a bath to a cat retaining all her claws. A cat, I may add, who truly hated baths. She did it by taking the beast by surprise and doing it all in a matter of seconds, before the that had any idea what was going on. One moment she was resting comfortably, covered with stuff we absolutely had to get off her before she tried licking it off, and the next she was completely soaked and outside the bathroom, but divested completely of the hazardous stuff. And utterly bewildered.
We had to take Max (our mostly dachshund) to the vet day before yesterday. It was quite interesting. There were a few people when we got there, and there were a couple of dogs in the waiting room. Quiet and calm. They took Max back for his work-up, and it took longer than we thought. While we were waiting, a cat came in, yowling like a metronome. We commented “oh that cat’s not happy.” Several dogs came and went. No noise. Some wiggles if they were going home. But about four or five more cats came in, and every single one yowled when they were carried in and as they went to the back.
It was funny. The only noise from any of the dogs was when one dog’s “brother” came out from the back, and the dog in the waiting room yipped a bit to see him. All the cats were vocal as heck.
Cats and dogs need different nutrient balances and shouldn’t be eating the same thing. (Which you may know, but the above reads rather like there’s one food dish and one kind of kibble for both Piper Cat and Piper Dog.)
I recommend putting the cat’s kibble up on a table. Training the dog not to get up there may be necessary. (I’m reminded of once finding a new dog, who’d joined the household as an adult, balanced precariously on the available space on the cat-feeding table while chowing down. I had serious trouble not laughing until after I’d chased her down from there, she looked so funny.)
Many but not all cats will yowl in protest at being at the vet. Most of mine, however, yowl when going into the carrier and also yowl in the car but shut up once at the vet.'s, possibly in the hope of not being noticed.
I have however had one dog who barked in wild excitement (not aggression or protest) the whole time she was at the vet. The only way to shut her up was to hold her mouth shut.
That reminds me of one time I was in the veterinarian’s waiting room with my Bernese Mountain Dog. Bernie was completely oblivious to cats – sometimes cats would hiss at him from behind bushes when we were on our walk, and he just ignored them. So one guy comes in with his cat, the cat sees Bernie, and the cat throws a fit of hissing and yowling.
The guy came over and accused me of … I don’t know, something to do with having a dog. Bernie was sitting there calmly, ignoring both the yowling cat and its belligerent owner. I informed the guy as politely as I could that I was waiting in a vet’s waiting room with a calm dog who was on a leash, and if his cat was acting up that was his problem and not mine and not the vet clinic’s.
The belligerent guy and his yowling cat reminded me of the old adage that often a pet and its owner are very much alike.
Heh, a previous dachshund used to get up on the dining room table if we left the chairs pulled out. We learned quickly to keep them pushed in! We always called her the little mountain goat. She’d climb up on anything she could manage.
One of our cats pisses in the suitcase before we leave. We have learned, through much trial and error, not to pack until just before our departure and then to lock said cat out of room where luggage is.
My cat Tippy will greet me at the window of my apartment before I open the door. If the window is open, I can hear her myah-ing all the way from the backyard gate. Perhaps she’s looking for dinner, but I think it’s more than that.
Yes: in my (admittedly limited) experience, it’s not that cats particularly mind being taken to the vet; it’s that cats complain about being taken anywhere.
And if usually the only place they ever get taken is to the vet., and to the same vet.: if you proceed to take them someplace else, the complaints may get more vehement, even frantic. They don’t like going to the vet, but they know what’s going on. Taking them somewhere strange is even more freaky.
And they learn the way. Turn in the wrong direction, even when it’s not yet obvious that the trip will be of a different length, and there’ll be at least a startled cat in the car.
– none of that of course applies to cats who routinely go travelling a variety of places with their humans. There are some cats who enjoy this; though I think a lot fewer than there are dogs who like car rides.
My previous cat didn’t love rides, but she wasn’t particularly bothered. She’d start yowling after being in her carrier for a couple of hours, but even people don’t like being cooped up for that long.
My current cat loves rides, whether to the vet or otherwise. But I made an effort to get him used to his carrier, and to rides to varying locations.