Who Thought Cat Cafes Were a Good Idea?

Re:Who Thought Cat Cafes Were a Good Idea? by mschuster91 on Wednesday January 10, 2018 @06:14AM (#16114106)

> Cats are amazing as long as you know what to expect and how to be around them

It's amazing how many people don't know that rule #1 for a cat is: let the cat be a cat, if she wants to interact with you she will come to you and ask.

Even more amazing is many people don't know that this is also valid for dogs - no, you should not complain that a dog in a subway nearly bit your hand off, when you simply go to the dog and pet it without asking the owner if the dog actually likes being touched by random people and don't first hold your hand in front of the dog's nose so he can sniff it before touching the back of his head from behind. That often enough the dog pays with his life for your inability to respect boundaries is horrible.

Then again, people generally don't respect the personal boundaries of anyone they deem "incapable" of having boundaries, including kids ("give stinky aunt a kiss"), women or old people... so it doesn't surprise me...

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Re:Who Thought Cat Cafes Were a Good Idea? by oneeyedpigeon on Wednesday January 10, 2018 @06:24AM (#16114152)

I usually try to make a point of lowering myself to an animal's approximate height because that feels less threatening, although I don't know quite how much of an impact that has. It seems obvious that the more respect you show an animal in this situation, the better.

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Re:Who Thought Cat Cafes Were a Good Idea? by celticninja on Wednesday January 10, 2018 @06:51AM (#16114286)

what you should do, to dogs definitely,(it helps with other animals too) is to lower a hand toward them, present the back of your hand and allow them to sniff it, only then should you attempt to stroke the dog (if it snarled at the offered hand dont stroke it), and when you do stroke it, dont go straight for the top of the head.

Crouching down to its height could expose you to worse injury as you are now putting your face and throat much closer to the animal.

These are the instructions I give my children, who love animals and are used to dogs and want to pet every dog they see.

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Re:Who Thought Cat Cafes Were a Good Idea? by humanrebar on Wednesday January 10, 2018 @06:29AM (#16114180)

Making yourself smaller is generally less threatening, but making eye contact or getting in their faces can be more threatening. So it depends.

> It seems obvious that the more respect you show an animal in this situation, the better.

It depends. Some animals behave better when it's clear to them that a) they're not the alpha and b) the alpha has everything under control.

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Re:Who Thought Cat Cafes Were a Good Idea? by mschuster91 on Wednesday January 10, 2018 @06:33AM (#16114207)

> Making yourself smaller is generally less threatening, but making eye contact or getting in their faces can be more threatening.

The core point is: move slowly. Hectic movements will induce stress in any animal. Give it time to react to your presence and try to look at the body language (especially if it tries to back away from you or growls/hisses at you)... how often people fail to respect a hiss, it's unbelievable.

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