# Woo Hoo! I can make my cats fight at will! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 15, 2002, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woo-hoo-i-can-make-my-cats-fight-at-will/142831 "2002-12-15T02:36:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sleestak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@sleestak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleestak)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woo-hoo-i-can-make-my-cats-fight-at-will/142831/1 "2002-12-15T02:36:12Z")
I can make my cats fight at will and I enjoy it. My two cats, Gouda and SleeStak, are litter sisters and get along great. But sometimes they get a little fiesty and fight each other. (Note, when I say fight I mean that they swat at each other, growl a little bit and chase each other around. Play cat fighting) Anyway I found out a couple of weeks ago that if I grab, lightly, one of the cats by the nape of their necks\* and hold them for about 30 seconds that they will start a fight with the other cat when I let them go. Dagny, the Mom cat that I lost a while ago, used to chase one of the girls down, pin her and grab nape of the neck with her teeth. It was, as far as I can tell, Dagnys way of stating that she was the head cat. After that the kittens would chase each other around. My guess is that once I assert myself as the Alpha cat\*\* by holding the cats, gently, by the nape of the neck the cat then feels the need to re-establish the rest of the cat hierarchy. So they pick a fight. It’s great fun. Finally, I can manipulate them instead of them manipulating me. 🙂 Slee - When I hold them by the nape of the neck they instantly become prone. They just stop. \*\* All cats think that humans are just big cats that they can bend to their will. Sadly this tends to be true. The bending to their will part that is. ---
**Author:** ![JonScribe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3be4f8/32.png) [@JonScribe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JonScribe)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woo-hoo-i-can-make-my-cats-fight-at-will/142831/2 "2002-12-15T04:49:56Z")
You are the Jane Goodall of the cat world. ---
**Author:** ![sleestak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@sleestak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleestak)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woo-hoo-i-can-make-my-cats-fight-at-will/142831/3 "2002-12-15T05:02:58Z")
**JonScribe** , Laughing…no insulted…no, laughing again…errr… Great post Slee ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woo-hoo-i-can-make-my-cats-fight-at-will/142831/4 "2002-12-15T05:05:00Z")
> [@](#): > > It’s great fun. Finally, I can manipulate them instead of them manipulating me. This will be your first mistake. ---
**Author:** ![fizgig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f04885/32.png) [@fizgig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fizgig)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woo-hoo-i-can-make-my-cats-fight-at-will/142831/5 "2002-12-15T05:31:39Z")
That sounds like great fun. I would try it if I didn’t own the only cat in the world with no ego. I think she has me fooled, she’s really a very small, Himalayan-print golden retriever. ---
**Author:** ![Broken\_Doll](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bbce88/32.png) [@Broken\_Doll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broken_Doll)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woo-hoo-i-can-make-my-cats-fight-at-will/142831/6 "2002-12-15T07:05:54Z")
That is awesome. My dad has a cat who I trained to come to me when I whistle. Only now when I do it she attacks me. ---
**Author:** ![leafrog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cab0a1/32.png) [@leafrog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leafrog)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woo-hoo-i-can-make-my-cats-fight-at-will/142831/7 "2002-12-15T07:19:50Z")
I just turned around and started whistling at my cat, Sy, and he has the most freaked out look on his face now. Carter, the auxillary cat, is nowhere to be seen. ---
**Author:** ![Skeezix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/839c29/32.png) [@Skeezix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skeezix)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woo-hoo-i-can-make-my-cats-fight-at-will/142831/8 "2002-12-15T07:31:32Z")
I take it my ability to summon a cat from anywhere in the depths of the house by snapping my fingers is a rare one, then. I snap twice, and they come a runnin’. I snap once, and tell 'em “get down” and, 7 times outta 10, it actually works. If I’m sitting at the table at the time, my odds of success approach 100% Of course, I’m the food guy **and** the clean litter guy **and** the treat guy, so maybe this isn’t all that impressive a skill, after all. [sub]OTOH, whenever any of ‘em gets in trouble, sure as hell another cat’s about to get an ass-whoopin’, just out of pique.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![night](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@night](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/night)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woo-hoo-i-can-make-my-cats-fight-at-will/142831/9 "2002-12-15T08:05:03Z")
I wish I could get my cats to do that. Zoe my cat needs to be taught a lesson. I get home from Mike’s house only to find Zoe has ate the rose Mike suprised me with Friday ☹ Even though I put it in my room and shut the door so she couldn’t get it. Now I’m pissed at her but all I can do is tell her to go away when she rubs up against me…stupid special rose eating furball…I should shave her… :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woo-hoo-i-can-make-my-cats-fight-at-will/142831/10 "2002-12-15T08:09:10Z")
You can make your cats fight _just by applying gentle pressure to the napes of their necks?_ All these years I’ve _wasted_ on tiny electronic devices implanted into their brains! :smack: ---
**Author:** ![sleestak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@sleestak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleestak)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woo-hoo-i-can-make-my-cats-fight-at-will/142831/11 "2002-12-16T08:28:56Z")
**Larry Mudd** , I tried the implants. They didn’t work. I think that the cats are toying with us humans. They want to confuse us so that we don’t know what the hell to do. I think it is working. Slee ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woo-hoo-i-can-make-my-cats-fight-at-will/142831/12 "2002-12-16T08:32:58Z")
Dude… you need the [new model](http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/15/magazine/15REMO.html?ex=1040533200&en=c75589e06087f8c6&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE).