Psycho Kitty? Understanding Your Cat's "Crazy" Behavior

PSYCHO KITTY? UNDERSTANDING YOUR CAT'S "CRAZY" BEHAVIOR

By Pam Johnson-Bennett; The Crossing Press, 1998; $12.95.

My friend Tim went everywhere with his little terrier, Almon, riding importantly in the front seat of the car, navigating. One day he hurt his paw, and when Tim's friends saw him with his big bandage, they couldn't stop giving him sympathy. But no sooner had the paw healed (and the extra attention stopped) than Almon began to limp again. "Poor baby," everyone crooned again, until they realized that the injured paw and the paw that Almon was holding limply up to them were not the same paw.

Had they read Your Pet Isn't Sick, they would have known that Almon was just playing the "Pet Game": feigning illness (or injury) to get love and attention. Almon's limp was gone after a few days of extra attention from Tim--a mild case of conning compared to some of those Tanzer describes in this frequently laugh-out-loud-funny book. Often the cats and dogs he treats are not simply craving attention, but are acting out behaviors their owners can't, or won't, own up to--for example, the German Shepherd who knocked down his owner's mother-in-law, an act the owner later confessed he wished he himself had performed.

To understand why our cats do the things they do, feline behavior consultant Pam Johnson-Bennett, in her book Psycho Kitty?, recommends looking at the world as they do. In one instance, Johnson-Bennett used this thinking to discover why an older cat named Gretchen suddenly and inexplicably refused to use her litter box. During a house call, she discovered that the location of Gretchen's box prevented her easy escape from Domino, a cat the family had recently acquired who was prone to stalking and jumping Gretchen. While this behavior was in fact Domino's misguided attempt to engage Gretchen in play, Gretchen felt she was being cornered and attacked. The box was moved to a room that provided a choice of exits, and the problem was solved.

Despite her sometimes awkward prose, Johnson-Bennett provides keen insight into the lives of household cats--for instance, their need (like ours) to control their territory--and her book is filled with solid, practical advice.

COPYRIGHT 1999 Weider Publications
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning