Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I work with a girl who has 2 two yr old spayed and declawed male cats. She also has a 11mos old son who is active and learning to crawl and walk. Yesterday she said she was going to get rid of one of the cats if he bit her son again. She said that her son corners the cat and the cat bit the childs face. She also said yhe cat will go after the boy to bite him if he walks (or crawls) away. I told her that she should not leave the baby alone with the cat or cats at any time. Her reply was "well what should I do lock the cats in a basement '' Does anyone have suggestions about what to advice her in a gentle way since she has an explosive attitude. As for a second thought it amazes me how stupid people are...she should not leave the 11mos old boy with any pet. I told her that the cat was threatened by being cornered and will bite since her is clawless. It is a matter of time before she asks me to take the cat.

There is no way to tell this kind of a person about the proper way to mix cats and toddlers. Here are some articles about cats and toddlers you might want to print and give her. However, the cat is probably better off being re-homed. If you can even foster one or both for a bit, then this may be the better part of valor.

-----
Smile, it will make them wonder what you are up to!

I have a 3 yr old and until recently 3 cats....sadly one passed away. Now I am home all day and normally right there with her. But as a parent who also has a house to take care of, I am not always in the same room with our daughter. That also means I'm not always in the same room as the cats. I have never locked the cats up. We have taught our daughter from a very young age how to be nice to the cats. She is usually very good but occasionally forgets. Instead of getting mad at her, we decided on natural consequence for this........if she corners a cat and a cat bites or scratch then, as horrible as this may sound, our daughter deserved it. At a young age (11 months) it didn't phase her. But now that she's older and she comes crying to us we can explain that she hurt the kitty first so the kitty defended itself and hurt her more. That usually gets her to leave the cats alone for a few days. All the cat is doing is defending itself and I believe it should not be punished. I think your friend should take the time when it happens to talk to the toddler each time about being nice to the cat. Yes she will have to do it numerous time but in the next few years it really will start sinking in. Also he is young still. Not even a year old. From the time my daughter was 11 months until she was 2 was the hardest on the cats. Then it started tapering off. Now at 3 1/2, almost 4, it is rare to have her do anything mean to the cats. And now one of the cats (the one who has always given her the most chances to learn to be nice but yet was always the biggest biting/scratching offender) will come up to her on his own to get petted by her. Maybe if your friend just changes her way of thinking a tiny bit and realizes it's just a passing phase then she won't get so upset. She just needs to make sure both baby and cat are up-to-date on shots because if a bite gets infected then the child will need antibiotics. (I know from experience, once a bite on a finger got soooo swollen that our daughter was in tons of pain. One of the first questions the doctor asked was if both were current on shots. They were so our daughter didn't need anything more than antibiotics.) Good luck in talking to your friend. Feel free to share my experience with cats and a toddler with her. And if it makes her feel any better you can add that I'm expecting baby #2 in a few months and I plan on doing the same thing all over again with the natural consequences for a young toddler learning to be nice to cats.

Oh yeah.....let me add that once our daughter hit the age of 3 and we knew she understood what it means to be nice to the cats, if we catch her really doing something mean (like sitting on one.....what possesses her to do this we don't know) we now just skip the natural consequence and give her a swat on the butt and then give her a time out. She's at the age now that this is more effective than natural consequence when it comes to the cats.

Kathryn

Hi there!!!
I'm new here and registered cause i have a 3yr old daughter who begged for a kitten. Let me tell ya.....what i nightmare it was for a while. But now the kitten is used to my daughter and the novelty of the kitten has worn off (just a bit). We all have to keep a close eye on the two of them though. This is the first kitten we've had and i'm learning quite a bit through the internet. I figured maybe the best way to find things out would be to join a message board and talk with people that have cats. I was searching on the net to see if it's actually better to have 2 kittens instead of one. Does anyone have any info on this?

A lot of people swear by two kittens - they sort of keep each other amused and leave the house alone! However, bear in mind that in a while the kitten crazies are going to die down!
-----
Smile, it will make them wonder what you are up to!