Still trying to nip and scratch!

[Italiangreyhound]

Our beloved ginger neutered tom still tries to nip occasionally when I stroke him. He also scratched my daughter when she was stroking him. What can I do to discourage this behaviour, please?

Thanks so much.

It sounds as if he's being over-stimulated for his particular personallity, Italian. If he nips, put him down and then ignore him - but best to try and anticipate any problems by cutting back on the stroking a little. Some cats don't like too much. (Well they like it and they don't like it and they can't make up their minds - so they nip.)

You should be able to judge by his body language if he's about to do it but if you can't judge, just restrict yourself to a few firmish strokes on his back and then haul off. Hopefully, that will desensitize him over a few days or weeks.

PS - if he nips after just a couple of strokes then best to not initiate any stroking at all. Let him come to you and ask for it.

Thanks so much Cozie. He is very loving and purrs a lot but he also waves his tail which I thought was a sign of a cat being unhappy. He is confusing!

Cats are confusing. He's just mixed up - wants but doesn't want, happy but not happy and so on and so on. He sounds generally like a sensitive soul though so I'd just assume that I needed to keep things calm and measured. Reduce the level of excitement a bit.