LadyConstanze
Posts: 9722
Joined: 2/18/2005
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I read that article in Times or Newsweek too, and thought it was a bunch of baloney.
You do understand that the castration happened 2 days ago, even the vet agrees it is not enough time to change the cat, plain and simple. 2 days to flush all the testosterone out of the system? Ain't going to happen unless we change the laws of biology.
I know cats and most pets want security, but you seem to forget that cats usually don't cannibalize each other and the cat wasn't attacking the dogs as prey but simply was highly territorial, possibly because it didn't have enough of a shelter and viewed everything else as a danger, the idea of a cat seeing humans and dogs as food is a bit absurd. Of course if you'd shrink me to mouse size, yes, I would be prey.
The old myth of cats being solitary beings seems to persist, though cats are actually quite happy in a pack and hunt in a pack (lions for example, though I've seen my house cats do it) and they do form packs with humans and dogs, we even have dumbo rat in the pack. By your reasoning the rat would have been eaten ages ago, well for 3 years said rats happily steals the cat food and the cats complain about it. It's not that my cats don't hunt mice or rats (and bring them home) I think when they do grow up with another animal, the animal becomes part of the family (or rather pack) and things shift. I'm under no illusions that if Mr Slinky would run around outside, the cats would hunt him down, however in the pack he has his place and he has dog guardians. Last year we had a blackbird with a broken wing that healed up in our house, once it was established that we feed the bird and it belongs to the monkeys who can open tins (I guess that is how they view us), they showed zero interest in it and we had a hard time keeping Ms Blackie away from the wet food of the cats.
The whole issue is simply that 2 days don't seem to be enough for a cat to change the personality even after a castration, it's not just that he's mellow, I sat outside for a while in the sun and read a book and all of a sudden Greebo snuggled up on my lap. I still got a bite when I applied the eye drops (he's got a bad eye infection and the vet gave me some drops and said while she has not much hope that I get near enough, but in case I can...).
What I think is the case here is, it's the first time he possibly was not sleeping rough, somebody didn't just give him food but petted him and gave him affection, so yes, security. The vet also deflead and dewormed him (sorely needed, he was full of parasites), if I do that to my pets they are usually sick for a bit, but needs must. A cat who possibly never had that is scared shitless what's going on, somebody being nice to it...
But still a shy, feral cat doesn't turn into the big love monster over night or 2 days after a castration and I'm not going to delude myself that I have the magic touch, cats and dogs seem to like me, but still, a feral cat is not going to change literally overnight.
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RE: New cat problem - 
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