me and neptune

we had some communication about biting

he bites for several different reasons

sometimes
he doesn't want to be touched
sometimes
he doesn't mind to be touched, generally
but, specifically
he doesn't like the part of his body being touched
sometimes
he gets over stimulated and he needs to bite
sometimes
he expresses affection through biting
[my cat moon was like that]

so
we determined how hard he can bite me
without it freaking me out
he promises to try not to bite me harder than that
if
i don't touch him in ways that make him uncomfortable

which consists of
it is always ok to pet his head/face unless he is actively upset
which he will try to visually display before my hand gets into biting range

the over stimulated situation
is a bit trickier
he tried to make it clear
that he isn't good at controlling himself
when he's all riled up

he did this really amazing thing
where he attacked his face with his back legs
i was worried that he was gonna really hurt himself
after he got all riled up and was biting me
hurting me
and i'm screaming
let go let go

so
clearly
i'm gonna have to monitor for that myself
and he's got a short fuse
so
tricky

he's a very smart cat

i choose male cats, mostly
largely because i kinda like their dumbness
female cats are smart and manipulative
tenacious
and good hunters
in my experience
[kitten, amurr, harvey]

male cats are beautiful
sweet
and dumb
in my experience
[moon, piglet, midnight, weebo, shmee, buzz]

amurr wasn't actually smart
she was kind of crazy
but she was the other things

weebo was multiple personality, i think
because
sometimes he would look at you
and he didn't know who you were
so sometimes he was scared of me
but
otherwise he was sweet

he told me his name
or at least it seemed like he did
telepathically
i might have been high at the time
weebo zap zebo
was his full name

kitten
ended up being kitten
and
harvey
ended up being harvey
because they learned their names the first day
and they subsequently could not be changed

i was sure neptune knew his name
was answering to it
when i first got him
but
he doesn't answer to it now

so either he's setting boundaries
i do not come when i'm called--  i'm a cat
or
he was just responding to summons without understanding his name before
and
same thing--  boundaries


anyway
he wants to be friends
he likes me
i think
eventually
we'll work it all out