Even shallow scratches can hurt! Yeah, it's a normal human reaction to pull away but of course the cat then comes after you and has another go; I had to learn to keep still with Ali Kat; he had a head like a rock python and jaws like an Ali-gator (one of his nicknames.) His other nicknames were Ali-Bite and 'the Bitey Whitey'. I was studying Urdu at the time and wondered what 'bite' meant in that language...believe it or not, it's 'kat'!
If I displeased him at all he'd chase me and go for my legs - even through trousers he'd bruise. Little git - still wish I had him back though.
It was good training for snake-owning though because, as you'll probably have found, if they grab you and coil round your hand, any attempt to free yourself makes them grip and coil all the harder, instinctively, to subdue the 'prey'. Once my senior royal, Shahi, in a slight misunderstanding over lunch, grabbed me - and managed to coil round BOTH my hands, manacling me. I had to take him to the bathroom, pull the light cord with my teeth, turn a tap on with my elbow, keeping my hands still all the time, and dribble water over the poor guy's head until he stopped dining on my finger lol.
Watched the vid of Cereus striking - he's very pretty, got a lot more contrast on him than my Saffy. I like the new morphs but I like the traditional ones too - the wild-type go that deep copper which is gorgeous. I've got one morph who was sold to me as a Miami but he's not; I don't know what he is, more like a wild-type than anything, but I only bought him because he hatched with only one eye and wasn't feeding well; I was afraid nobody else would buy him. 'What you going to call him?' said a friend. 'Cyclops?' 5 years on Cy with one eye is thriving, and it took years to get him feeding regularly, but now he's a tiger for his grub and can strike and coil with the best of them. Always makes me laugh when they get over-excited and tie themselves in a knot - and then a peevish little face rears itself up: 'Where's me mouse then?'
'Buried underneath you, you silly snake!'
Adonis is beginning to relate to you - the way to a tomcat's heart is through his stomach. Ali would only eat dry catfood but would eat bits of cooked chicken from my hand. It's a shame about the space problem because if Adonis could leave the crate he would probably follow you and start rubbing round your legs and asking - but then of course you'd have trouble getting him back in...
I was lucky with Ali as, although my house is scarcely bigger than your flat, and all the doors have to be left open by order of the cats, my residents knew Ali from the street and were used to freeloaders, owned or homeless, dropping in for a feed, and they took no notice of him, so he came and went where he liked. I had another tomcat then, a very placid resident, and Ali tried to fight it out with him but I fought Finn's corner...hence the bruises - oh boy it was chaos sometimes lol.
Do hope Ali's furever home comes up soon - I'd send him a fuss from me but he'd have you!
Oops I seem to have written a blog, sorry!
