Boyfriends And Cats

Check out your boyfriend to see how he relates to your cat. If he gets on well, all is well. If your cat snarls and hisses at him - dump him!

Well not quite. But it is going to cause problems if you, as a cat loving girl or woman, love your cat companion but your cat companion simply does not get along with your boyfriend. And if that is the case, your boyfriend may make things worse by reacting to a less than friendly cat in the wrong way. He (the boyfriend) may be intimidated and be slightly aggressive towards your cat. The cat will sense this making things worse and there is only one winner in the long run - the cat!

If he likes cats, keep him! Photo dr burtoni (Flickr)

As the male human tends to prefer dogs, being a pack animal that he is, and as the female human tends to prefer cats, being an independent type creature that she is, you may get a bit of conflict between boyfriend and cat. What to do?

Well as I said earlier you could just dump him and start again. If he hates cats, do it! But if he is a decent sort and is unsure around cats, it may be more constructive to teach him to get on with your cat. Of course the whole thing depends on whether you want to keep him.

This need not, though, be a question of whether you get rid of your cat or your boyfriend. If your boyfriend does things that your cat likes and at a simplistic level this can be something as easy as feeding your cat, or playing with your cat, gradually your cat will come around to being more friendly with your man and vice versa.

So to recap. Your boyfriend should:

• not look at your cat directly in the eyes. This can be construed as a threat to your cat.
• feed your cat with his or her favorite food.
• play with your cat using his or her favorite toy.
• be relaxed around your cat. Be passive and easy going and move quietly and talk softly. Its about gently does it. The male human can be intimidating to a cat that is living with a women who is gentle and relatively quiet (that is not always the case of course!).

It's important that the man in a partnership gets on with an existing cat companion and the above common sense thoughts should help. Go easy and don't force anything with a cat. If a cat doesn't want to do something that you want done, he or she won't do it. Forcing makes it worse.



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