peeps with cat allergies

[Nomak666]

i have always been allergic to cats. my eyes start itching and nose starts getting stuffed. but recently, i went to a friends house who has 2 cats and i didnt get allergic. im on cycle so the only thing i can think of is that the juice strengthens your immune system. wierd but thats all i got. lol

 

[binö]

i have always been allergic to cats. my eyes start itching and nose starts getting stuffed. but recently, i went to a friends house who has 2 cats and i didnt get allergic. im on cycle so the only thing i can think of is that the juice strengthens your immune system. wierd but thats all i got. lol

meh dunno bro i think you just got lucky
the sacs inside your lungs, i forget the name but mine swell up and restrict airflow and breathing is terrible

 

[canadianhitman]

I have six cats, five of them came from the shelter and one was semi-feral and picked me. My biggest baby, a cat I'm positive never set a paw outside a door, adores hunting and torturing the prey to death. It's impossible to get her trophy from her, she'll eat it first (eating the prey, believe it or not, is not instinctive. The killing bite is, but eating what you've killed is learned). So I came downstairs today and there was a murdered mouse in the middle of the living room floor.

Okay, my $0.02, essentially, cats have retained that self-sufficiency because they have always been solitary. Dogs are pack hunters. Dogs, inherently, need to be in a group structure to function and be happy, which is why they work so well in our households. Essentially, dogs are good soldiers. They are like us, we're pack animals, too. Believe it or not, dog body language translates over easier to humans than cat does.

Cats don't really need us but they like comfort and they are opportunistic. It's a bigger stretch for a cat to "learn" human society because they aren't really wired to operate in a group, so there may always be that element of aloofness that some people find off-putting, it depends on what they learned in the nest from mom and how much exposure to humans they had from the time they were tiny kittens.

Think of it this way, cats don't have the desire to grovel to gain your approval because there is no concept in their mind of moving up in a heirarchy, it's just not there. In a cat's mind, humans are people they live with. Dogs, however, are all over their humans because (ideally) the human is the pack leader and it's beneficial to seek the leaders approval because that will make your life better and move you up in status.

Taken down to it's essence: dogs see us as superior to them, whereas cats, inherently, see us as their (slightly clumsy and retarded) equals.

That part about the dog seeing us as the leader...that's the way it is when they have been trained properly and the animal doesn't display ridiculously high 'alpha' traits. I'm sure in your past rescuing of animals, you have seen the tragedy that happens when people get a dog that has the potential to be very alpha (ex. rottweiler, german shepherd, doberman) and don't bother to put in the hard work to socialize them and teach obedience. Eventually, that dog challenges family members to try and climb in the pecking order of the pack...with terrible concequences. It is almost always labeled a 'bad dog', but more often than not, it's a case of a 'bad owner'....one that got more dog than they were able/willing to properly train.

 

[chris302001]

meh dunno bro i think you just got lucky
the sacs inside your lungs, i forget the name but mine swell up and restrict airflow and breathing is terrible

alveoli

 

[Mr. dB]

alveoli

Al Veoli, appearing every Wednesday at the Riverfront Holiday Inn Lounge.

 

[musclemom]

That part about the dog seeing us as the leader...that's the way it is when they have been trained properly and the animal doesn't display ridiculously high 'alpha' traits. I'm sure in your past rescuing of animals, you have seen the tragedy that happens when people get a dog that has the potential to be very alpha (ex. rottweiler, german shepherd, doberman) and don't bother to put in the hard work to socialize them and teach obedience. Eventually, that dog challenges family members to try and climb in the pecking order of the pack...with terrible concequences. It is almost always labeled a 'bad dog', but more often than not, it's a case of a 'bad owner'....one that got more dog than they were able/willing to properly train.

I've never done dog rescue, too complicated on too many levels. As you observed, their heads can get very screwed up. Frankly, IMO, a large messed up dog is sort of like having a gun lying around the house that can spontaneously go off for no reason and remember, I was doing rescue with a kid and lots of small animals around the house.

What you said about teaching obedience is crucial, and it's not just teaching the animal, it's teaching the person. If you think about it, shitty discipline is virtually 100% of the problem that dog whisperer and his ilk deal with (the rest usually being really, really bad breeding that creates congenital neurologic problems, some of these inbred pedigreed animals are so high strung they're hopelessly neurotic).

Shit, if you think about it, it's the main problem supernanny and nanny 911 fix, too. People don't get that to raise a healthy animal, whether it's a child or canine, you have to be consistent, predictable, firm. Why are people such utter pussies about taking charge of things in a direct manner? Since when did parents start getting the idea they need to be buddies with their children, and then they go and do the same shit with their pets.

 

[nefertiti]

Raccoons are vicious. I had one chase me from my trash can to my front door growling the whole way.

I loled at this mental picture.

 

[nefertiti]

Cats don't really need us but they like comfort and they are opportunistic. It's a bigger stretch for a cat to "learn" human society because they aren't really wired to operate in a group, so there may always be that element of aloofness that some people find off-putting, it depends on what they learned in the nest from mom and how much exposure to humans they had from the time they were tiny kittens.

Think of it this way, cats don't have the desire to grovel to gain your approval because there is no concept in their mind of moving up in a heirarchy, it's just not there. In a cat's mind, humans are people they live with. Dogs, however, are all over their humans because (ideally) the human is the pack leader and it's beneficial to seek the leaders approval because that will make your life better and move you up in status.

Taken down to it's essence: dogs see us as superior to them, whereas cats, inherently, see us as their (slightly clumsy and retarded) equals.

Tell that to the kitty I fostered a couple of weeks ago who I literally could not get off my lap whenever I was home (and she was rescued from an abusive home, so it certainly wasn't learned behavior). Each cat has it's own distinct personality but I've known plenty who really needed human companionship. Not to live, maybe, but to be happy, yes.

 

[jnevin]

I loled at this mental picture.

lol

I don't think my feet touched the ground I took off so fast. I don't recall 100% of it, but I wouldn't be surprised if a womanly shriek echoed through the woods too.

 

[musclemom]

Tell that to the kitty I fostered a couple of weeks ago who I literally could not get off my lap whenever I was home (and she was rescued from an abusive home, so it certainly wasn't learned behavior). Each cat has it's own distinct personality but I've known plenty who really needed human companionship. Not to live, maybe, but to be happy, yes.

In any demographic you're going to get extremes at either end of the spectrum but as much as I like cats and enjoy their company, I can't believe they need me, on an emotional level, either to be happy or to be complete animals, it's not the way they're wired. The fact is, dogs are inherently more "loyal" animals. If I was to give away just about any one of my cats to a kind home I don't think it would pine for me or my husband. It's abnormal for a cat to be emotionally clingy. I own one who is extremely clingy and I'm the first to admit that she's "tetched," but I would still expect her to transfer her clinginess to another person with a minimum of trauma (incidentally, the cat I own that's overly clingy came from a shelter and my husband and I can't prove it but we believe she came from an abusive home, too. Maybe a kitty version of Stockholm syndrome?)

Anyway, they shouldn't need us, it's not natural. They're wired for independence. We artificially override that behavior but it's still there, it's in their genes. I've seen cats who have always known a loving comfortable home and then had the chance to start getting out and hunting. Very quickly, given the opportunity the majority of cats come to prefer the hunt over being a lap cat. Killing is just about the biggest rush there is for them. They come back to us for a scratch or an easy meal, but in the end, they're hanging with us because they like us, not because they need us.