Stray Kitteh Displays of Affection
Okay so apparently there are unforeseen (and icky) consequences to earning the love and affection of a previously stray cat.
About a year ago we started regularly feeding and then petting a local cat that had been abandoned in our neighborhood and was sleeping all sad and adorable under the overhang of my bedrooms window seat. My brother had seemingly been petting it when he went out to smoke late at night for months before telling us about him. Eventually this led to us progressively being adopted by our new friend, who now spends a large portion of his time in the house, has a flea collar, food and water dishes, a bed, toys, and his own blanket spread out on his portion of the couch. This is all awesome and I’m really happy to have him, with the exception of his newest habit.
The drawback to him being a formally wild kitteh appears to be that he now wants to give us gifts to show him affection. In the last month we have opened the front door in the morning to find four dead mice. My brother has reported that he has found three more at the door when he gets home (he works nights so kitteh gets nearly 24hr attention in two shifts) he has also recently found “just the good bits” next to his smoking chair in yard. This thought grossed me out, but I didn’t think much of it till this morning when I went to go to work and found “the good bits” waiting for me as well.
I’m honestly not too keen to be gifted with a mouse face with the brains dangling out, a foot and what I think was a spleen. Is there anyway to discourage these gifts without making my cat feel rejected?
About a year ago we started regularly feeding and then petting a local cat that had been abandoned in our neighborhood and was sleeping all sad and adorable under the overhang of my bedrooms window seat. My brother had seemingly been petting it when he went out to smoke late at night for months before telling us about him. Eventually this led to us progressively being adopted by our new friend, who now spends a large portion of his time in the house, has a flea collar, food and water dishes, a bed, toys, and his own blanket spread out on his portion of the couch. This is all awesome and I’m really happy to have him, with the exception of his newest habit.
The drawback to him being a formally wild kitteh appears to be that he now wants to give us gifts to show him affection. In the last month we have opened the front door in the morning to find four dead mice. My brother has reported that he has found three more at the door when he gets home (he works nights so kitteh gets nearly 24hr attention in two shifts) he has also recently found “just the good bits” next to his smoking chair in yard. This thought grossed me out, but I didn’t think much of it till this morning when I went to go to work and found “the good bits” waiting for me as well.
I’m honestly not too keen to be gifted with a mouse face with the brains dangling out, a foot and what I think was a spleen. Is there anyway to discourage these gifts without making my cat feel rejected?