[null and void]

They bite and scratch.
They tear up the furniture.
They hiss and threaten each other without actually fighting.
They scratch everything they can get their claws on.
They don’t let us sleep in on the weekends by stomping on the bed and demanding food.
And they do not cooperate, nor do they obey, even for their own good.

This is different than children how?

[TheOldLady]

I would never punish them in a million years.

They respond best to loving kindness, and I truly overlook their foibles and little “errors.”

Midnight slashed me when I was petting him last Friday night. He managed to puncture
not one, but two of the veins on the back of my right hand. I bled like crazy. Saturday night,
he was asleep on my lap again. No fear, and no punishment. He was just a little crazy on Friday.

I don’t know why. And anyway, my first reaction was to get to the bathroom and dab peroxide
on my wounds and then swab them off with 91% IPA. That really helped a lot.

The extremely odd thing is that my wounds were sealed, and one of them was even healed by
Saturday morning. I have two very superficial scratches and one scabbed-over wound.

I love my cats, and I will never terrify them. I don’t find doing that to be particularly amusing.
At all.
Ever.