STORY

Catbook

by Kenton deAngeli

Q: If your cat is scratching your furniture, shredding and destroying your home, you need to realize that your cat needs to scratch and climb. Scratching and climbing are highly enjoyable feline activities and are part of the essence of being a cat. Since your cat will want and need to scratch, provide her with a variety of scratching posts and teach her to use them. Cats do not like to snag their claws.

Not long ago, M- and I were cuddled together; his gentle kneading and rhythmic purring locked me in a trance of relaxation and contentment. The picture of a savage, wild animal never entered my mind. M- is a neutered, male domestic house cat with nothing especially unique or different about him. He is just a normal, everyday real cat.

Cats are predators. They are not farmers. It is in their instinct to hunt down and kill. Predatory behavior is often characterized by long periods of lying in wait and stalking followed by an explosion of activity - the attack. It's common for a cat to creep up to a sleeping owner and attack them in bed. Other cats lie in wait under furniture until a foot passes by, then their claw reaches out and grabs.

A: If you carefully measure cat paws, you will find that practically all cat paws are significantly larger than a typical keyboard key. When a cat first places its paw down, the cat's weight plus the momentum of the cat's movement exerts pounds of force on the keyboard, primarily through the cat's paw pads. The cat's paw angles and toe positions also undergo complex changes while the paw lands on the keyboard. This forces keys and often key combinations down in a distinctive style of typing which includes unusual timing patterns. Cats' patterns of overall movement in walking or lying down also help make their typing more recognizable.