




Most all of a kitten&#8217;s play is centered around honing hunting skills.
Most all of a kitten's play is centered around honing hunting skills. (Jaime Green/Wichita Eagle)


Kitty regularly goes to the vet and she gets quite a bit of praise for being such a docile and, frankly, cute-as-a-button cat. The vet sees nothing physically wrong and suggests a pet psychologist. We're not so much on board with that. Might you -- or perhaps your readers -- have another answer to our otherwise sweet-natured 2-year-old?




DEAR KATHERINE: Here's a realization that may cause a few sleepless nights. Kitty sees you as prey. There's nothing unusual with that. Cats view pretty much everything that way. They aren't planning -- at least not overtly -- to kill us, but cats love to play and all of their play is centered on honing their hunting skills.

I don't think Kitty needs to see a shrink -- she just needs to learn some boundaries, and so do you.

Kittens usually start learning about what's suitable and what's not when they are very young. If they play too rough with their littermates or their mom, they get rebuffed, but sometimes kittens are removed from the litter before the lesson sinks in.




Now for the hardest part. When she acts up, you've got to turn your back on all that cuteness and ignore her.


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