I have a funny story to share about one of our kitties who is not on the Cat Pawsitive program, but who shares a room with several of our kitties who are. Maisey is a sweet, playful girl, but she has always been incredibly shy and fearful of me. She would always be one of the first kitties in the room to run out and chase a toy if I was playing with one, but other than that she would just hide away in a corner or in a tunnel. I’ve tried many times to reach out to her - encouraged by her playfulness - but she would run as soon as I got too close and I’ve never been able to pet her. Then, out of the blue a couple of weeks ago, she walked right over to me while I was training our Cat Pawsitive kitty Mason (who is Maisey’s brother), rolled over onto her back and let me pet her little belly! I find belly rubs are quite rare for even a very sociable kitty, never mind a very shy one like Maisey. I figured it must be because I have been spending so much time with Mason - who she loves - and she has seen him getting lots of pets and thought she might like to join in on the petting action! Now she will come over to me for a pet nearly every time I’m in her room.

As we have several Cat Pawsitive kitties in the same room, I often find that when I’m trying to train one of my kitties some of the others start trying to join in as well. They all know by now that the clicker noise means treats are coming! On one of my training sessions with Mason this week, I ended up surrounded by 4 other Cat Pawsitive kitties - all looking at me patiently, listening for the click and waiting for their treat. I always try to concentrate on the kitty I’m training, but they were all so excited and cute that I didn’t have the heart to not include them, so I gave everyone a treat! Maisey, watching this, decided that it didn’t look so hard and that she could join in as well, so she joined the line of Cat Pawsitive cats and looked up at me, listened to the click, took her treat, and looked up at me again. Our clever shy girl has taught herself to be more confident and give eye contact without the help of a trainer, but just by observing the training sessions of the other kitties!