As an animal shelter volunter, I hear this thing a LOT.
Usually, it’s from someone who’s just met the cat. This doesn’t make a great deal of sense to me, but it happens all the time.
Sometimes the cat is meowing. This could mean it either wants attention, is hungry, or is trying to greet the person. It could mean it’s upset because it was just abandoned at the shelter by its former owner. It could have a health problem that hasn’t been discovered yet. It could want to play with the cat in the next cage. It could mean quite a few things, most of which have nothing to do with hate.
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Sometimes the cat is just sitting in its cage watching the person. This could mean it’s tired or hasn’t made up its mind about whether it wants attention. Again, the possibility that the cat is displaying hatred is remote. Chances are, the cat has yet to make up its mind how it feels about you, or it could be getting ready to nap. Cats like to take awhile to weigh their options.
What about if the cat is hissing or growling? That’s a sign that it’s scared. It might have to do with you, or it might be just general unhappiness and fear. That’s when you should step away and not try to engage the cat. It’s in a bad mood, again probably having nothing to do with you.
Some cats don’t like people in general. This could be because they were a former feral, or were abused. Some are extremely timid and can’t handle a lot of disruption in their routine. If this is the case, the cat will act this way with all strangers, not just you in particular. It’s not something you should take personally.
When you encounter a cat, it will be giving you signals as to how it feels about its current environment, and it’s up to you to figure out them correctly. If you come away believing the cat dislikes you, when you’ve done nothing invasive, you’re probably wrong. It may not like the way you smell or the pitch of your voice, but to translate that into “hate” is foolish.
Take a moment and consider things from the cat’s perspective. How friendly and receptive would you be feeling if you’d just lost your home and family, and had to live in a strange place with lots of noise, new odors and people? Not to mention which, you’re not allowed to leave at any time, and you have no idea what’s happened to your former family.
People find all kinds of reasons to “hate” someone on the first meeting. Animals usually don’t.
This post first appeared on Cat Matters | Musings On The Adorable But Enigmati, please read the originial post: here
