"MaryL" -OUT-THE-LITTER wrote:
"Bobcat" wrote in message
...
Our veranda Mooch our resident stray's home. He not only eats many
meals a day and sleeps in his chair or his Moochhouse, he loves to
play games. His favourite is "GrabTheHand". I sit in a chair and pet
his back, always when he's facing away from me. Suddenly he'll wheel
and leap at my hand, but I nearly always pull it away in time because
he has to turn around to nail me. Occasionally he'll win and I get
nicked by a claw, his wins are infrequent. Here he is, persuading me
to play GrabTheHand.

http://twitpic.com/zd0zg

You may enjoy it, but that's not a good idea. Someday, someone who is not
aware of your "game" may get nailed and seriously injured. And it will be
Mooch that will be blamed, and could even be reported if he causes injuries.
This is the same reason why people should not play with kittens by tickling
their tummies and letting the kitties grab at their hands. It later becomes
painful and possibly even dangerous, and the cat has no way of knowing why
it is suddenly "wrong."

But he's currently a feral cat that's being very slowly socialized. I
think the benefit of the bond the game is allowing them to form, in
the long term, greatly outweighs the risk that the shy Mooch may be
blamed for playing too roughly with another person.

They can also eventually be taught to play gently. I play the tummy
tickle game with Buster, and he's the gentlest bunny-kicker you can
imagine - he feels like you're being massaged with the softest leather
gloves.