Cat Discipline

Almost 10 years ago, as my brother was about to have his first child, I decided to go to the pound and get mine. My sister had a one-year-old. I am the oldest child and I knew it was going to be quite some time before I had any human children of my own. So I went to the humane society and inspected all the cats and asked if they were mine.

One cat talked quite a lot, and made a strong argument that she was mine. No one had named her. She was called "Little Kitty." She was about a year old, and the reason listed for turning her in was "new baby." I took her home and called her Diva. For many years, it was just me and her.

I traveled a lot with my old job, and Diva had her little ways of expressing her dismay when I was gone too long. She'd sometimes take a nip at me. It was clearly an expression of displeasure and discipline, and was not intended to hurt. Once after I'd been gone quite a while, she actually leapt up as I was getting ready to shower and nipped my bare backside. That made me laugh, though I know her intention was not to make me laugh.

Diva always hated kids, and hid when they came into the house, so I was surprised when she adjusted well to the babies. The dog was actually more traumatized by the baby. Diva was more upset when she had to move in with the dog when I got married. She has always been opportunistic about asking for affection, so she'd just wait for us to put down the baby and then jump up.



When S. was young, Diva stayed well away from her and S. quickly learned to pet the cat gently. But now we have a new problem. Diva does not differentiate between L. and S. and will toss herself down in front of either of them for some petting. S. pets gently. L. delightedly grabs a fist full of fur. And Diva is surprisingly tolerant.

But L. did a little too much hand waving in front of Diva one morning last week just as Diva was due to be fed, and Diva went for the disciplinary nip. At first I thought she hadn't broken skin, but on diaper change I found the merest scratch. As a precaution I called my sister, a pediatrician who said "antibiotics." So I called my pediatrician, who also said "antibiotics." Did you know that cats have bad mean bacteria in their mouths? Everyone I've asked has said "oh yes," so I feel like the only one who didn't know this. I can now report that giving a 10-month-old antibiotics is actually worse than giving medicine to a cat. Thank goodness that week is over.

I'm also curious: why did I not learn about the mean bacteria years ago when my cat bit me on the a$$? No one mentioned antibiotics then. Too busy laughing to think about bacteria, were you?