My Cat is a Dog

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v81/zzydny/Daisy.jpg

My white and black beauty Daisy was adopted several times but returned to the animal shelter as incorrigible before I visited the shelter one day when she tried to pull my hand into her cage and just insisted on coming home with me.

The people at the shelter told me that I was Daisy's last chance before she was to be put down. They warned me that she was hard to handle and that she had to be in a single-cat home. I figured "no problem" since I'm accustomed to dealing with difficult cats and have cared for more than 40 abused, abandoned, and feral cats during the past twenty years or more.

Daisy, however, is a completely different from any cat I have ever known.

It was immediately obvious that, although she was nicely house trained and had been taught home manners, she had no "kitten training" so I could that she had been taken from her mother at an extremely early age (probably before she was two weeks old). Daisy simply doesn't know how to behave like a cat or how to respond to the training that I would normally give a cat.

Some very strange un-cat behavior became obvious right away. She sits up and "begs" at mealtime, and won't ever eat alone. She rolls on her back and offers her tummy when greeting family and friends. She wags her tail when she's purring. But it wasn't until she met my feral cat that the penny really dropped about what the problem with Daisy might be.

Although born and raised wild, my Tuppence is very gentle and motherly; she welcomes other cats and has even brought strays to me for care. So she was really pleased to met a new friend when she started visiting with Daisy through the screen door of the porch. One day when I went out the door with a supperdish, Tuppence slipped through to meet Daisy. Cats always greet politely by touching noses...Daisy, unfortunately, sniffed Tuppence's bottom instead. This did not go over well at all.

It finally dawned on me that Daisy had been raised by a dog, and that most of her learned behavior is canine rather than feline. This must be why I can't get through to her.

Daisy also has some very bad behavior when it comes to biting and chewing--she chewed the end right off of my solid-wood antique coffee table, and she chews the wrought-iron legs of some other furniture. A trip to the vet confirmed that she had blisters in her mouth, and she took antibiotics for that. But her chewing problems continue; I've given her some rawhide chews to compensate. This is not a teething issue because Daisy is 18 months old.

Daisy also has Irritable Bowel Syndrome and has been in some pain because of it, so that very likely also plays a role in her negative biting behavior. Her back and tummy often bother her, and she needs to be handled very carefully. We're dealing with the health issue on a food level for now.

Because she doesn't understand cat corrections, a tap on the nose is lost on her. Because she has also obviously been abused, she responds very badly to any correction (even to being told "no")and attacks. One of the workers at the shelter routinely played a "punching" game with Daisy and used to playfight with her (a practice I deplore), so she sees hands as weapons and as toys.

Daisy is bright and adaptable and extremely active but it is still exceptionally hard to get through to her because she is also stubborn and terribly confused. For now, I can only assume that time and lots of tolerance will do the trick.

I really love this special kitty, and I would really like to hear from anyone who has had a cat who was raised as a dog because I want to understand Daisy better.