Quote:
Originally Posted by Fluffy Kittens
The only thing I don't like about cats is when they do that thing where they press your chest with their paws repeatedly. Sometimes her claws would get stuck in the material of my t shirts and I'd have to untangle her, or hold her paws and tell her no, then she'd just look sad and deprived.
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You can't discipline that away. It's a very natural instinct for cats to "knead" or "pedal push". It's an evolutionary product that enables kittens to instinctively press on a mother cat's milk sacks in order to extract as much milk as possible. In the wild, this probably matters more than it does at home.
However, that instinct doesn't just go away. And when a cat has been domesticated and falls into that sense of safety and protection, and doesn't need to fight for its survival in the wild, those kitten instincts still rule.
To admonish a cat for being itself is obviously not going to net results.
An interesting fact about cats is that they rarely purr or meow when completely wild. They have adapted these instincts to their own benefit while being domesticated and interfacing with humans, because it works to their benefit. But in reality, cats are extremely close to the domestic line. It's why they're so adaptable. They can live with or without us. They just choose to have an easier life, and such an easy life parallels a kitten's life in many aspects, so it is not unreasonable to assume that the very instincts that benefited them as kittens will do the same in such a lifestyle where those instincts will no longer serve to their benefit, but environmental circumstance does not require maturation of behavior.
So, I think it should be pretty obvious that they're just being the result of their environment, and responding to it. If you don't believe me, try to get a wild cat to pedal push you and purr while you pet it. You'll only be successful if you consider large gaping flesh wounds to your face "pedal pushing", and low, gutteral growls "purring".
But the beauty of these animals is they can, in their own lifetime and in a very short period of time, adapt to become as tame as a lifelong house cat. To me, that's amazing.