Freebase Dali

What's her name?

Cuthbert

I don't know, I just call her "cat" and she responds, she's not our pet, she lives next door and just visits us a lot, the neighbours don't mind. Friendliest cat ever.

Whiskey

Ever scratched you before?

Scarlett O'Hara

If he was human, he'd be the 'man'. Love his expression like a warriors.

Your kitty is SOOOO gorgeous. Same with yours Trollheart. Makes me jealous!

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Cuthbert

No never, she's a wimp. She just sits in your lap and sleeps.

Freebase Dali

I would imagine that if you're around an animal that has sharp claws, and it being an animal, there would be an occasion in which its claws made contact with a person's skin when he or she was handling such an animal.

Do I think it's a declaration of war? No. Cat claws are basically the equivalent of human fingers. It's how they manipulate objects. It's part of their nature. They can use them defensively, or beneficially. You will know by which measure a cat is using its claws simply by analyzing how you are treating it and paying attention to its body language.

The only reason any cat owner should be getting scratched is if they create situations conducive to it, which often times means they are creating a play situation with a cat that may take it further than you intend, since it cannot read minds. As such, if you don't want to get scratched, you create a contact boundary that extricates your presence from a potential situation that you do not wish to be involved in.

Cat's don't just randomly walk up and scratch the hell out of you. And if they do, you raised it wrong.

Scarlett O'Hara

I used to get my arms ripped up by my besties kitten, I enjoyed it for some reason though....

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Cuthbert

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.

Freebase Dali

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.

Whiskey

Much of what you said is true here. Though my mother raised the cat completely fine and he still scratched her quite often. Do you have a cat by the way man? If yes, I'd like to see a picture of it.