Cats Aren’t Taking Sh.t

Everyone who has cats know what I am talking about cats don’t have a boss or owner, they are the boss and own you.

We first had 4 Lady cats sadly one past away, but dealing with 3 lady cats is more then enough.

Okay why this subject ?

My profession is Handyman/Painter and a couple of months ago I had an encounter with a cat on the job.
I was at this job painting some doors, and the owners have 2 cats one called Ninja and the other Nixon.
At a certain point Nixon ( a female, weird name for a cat who is not  male) Came a bit to close to my just painted door.
So what I usually do is to “ shuuu “  the cat away with a hand movement and sound, now in normal circumstances a cat just backs away and go somewhere else.
Well I came in for a surprise this grey striped little kitten started hissing at me with her teeth, showing ears back and one paw up stretched out with the longest nails on it I ever saw.
Astonished and flabbergasted about her vicious reaction I for two seconds got really scared.
But my thought on this was that you can never show to a cat or any other animal that you got frightened by them.

So my natural reaction towards this hot headed feminine was to raise my voice to let her know I wasn’t pleased and I got some water to throw at her to cool her off . And yes she ran off.
To come back 15 minutes later with BIG black eyes and following me with every movement that I made, so yet again water, resolving in an attacking mode moving both paws towards me with claws that really could injure you.
My only out here was now to stump on the floor and put my vocals way up, that I was not accepting her attitude. She settled, (for now)
Meanwhile Ninja the other cat just observed us with a look like
“ you guys figure this all out, just don’t bother me”
He was the opposite from his sister, he loved to be Pet and just did his own thing, that was sleeping. 90 % of cats their live is sleeping.
So to come back to the crooked cat “ Nixon” ( is it in the name ).
I figured if I would try the soft nice side of me  we could come to  a ceasefire. I gave her some chicken from my sandwich what she liked and pet her on the head that she let happen for a short moment, to come right after my fingers with a biting movement.
Pointing at her not to do that made her more and louder snake like hissing then before. The only wise thing here was just to ignore this cat, I blew it in the beginning with her and that couldn’t be solved anymore.

When the owners came home and I told them about my encounters with Nixon they both mentioned, “ She just wanted to play with you. “ Believe me I like to play with a woman
but not like this.
Meanwhile my 4 cats live their life, I mention 4 but now we only have 3 left as One ( Sage ) was found dead on the road hit by a car, may she rest in cat heaven.
The names Jewel, Mother of Maggie who is the mother of  Sage and Mina. Jewel is the oldest, not the boss but she stands her ground if needed, likes a lot of attention and love cuddling. Maggie has more authority although getting on age she mellows more often, for a long time I had a love/hate relationship with her but now we are on better terms with each other.  Then we have Sage and Mina 2 sisters they totally don’t like each other hissing and screaming at each other like two chickens who just got beheaded and don’t know which way to go. Since Sage is gone Mina mellowed a bit more too. Guess the universe solved this problem for us. Mina could be described in her behavior like Nixon but she accepts me more as authority, lucky for me. So cuddling is what she likes also but only on her terms when she has enough she will let you know and if you don't respect that you will find that out. Her sounds that she makes then is a good sign to stop for me.

The essence of this all.

Cats can be very cute lovely and therapeutic, but when they have their attitude on you better watch out and move out of their way.
Sounds a lot like our humans huh.

Last word; So what possessed “ Nixon “ to be so aggressive?
It was me, I invaded her space and she stood up for herself.
Was this the right way for her to react, I don’t know, but what I do know is that cats have emotions and feelings and are more human then we think. Next Job with cats around I will just let them be.

Thanks for reading,

Frank