Cat update

Inkwell the cat and I are moving into a new phase of our relationship. We have gotten past the whole "Oh my goodness, I have a cat!" and "Oh my goodness, I have a human!" thing, and now we're moving into the "Human really doesn't like being bitten" phase.

I have tried numerous methods to discourage Inky from biting, but nothing worked. Yesterday as he started to chomp down on my finger, I instead pushed my finger down into his mouth, so he couldn't do his "crunch" thing. He gagged and jumped away, looking startled. Then he carefully came back over and licked my finger cautiously. No bites.

Later on in the evening, same playing time, he started to bite and I simply gave him more of my finger than he could handle. Again, he jumped back, gagging a little. Again he seemed apologetic and licked my finger to make up for it.

This morning, once more. We were wrestling, he started to bite. Instead of pulling away, like I used to do, I again pushed my finger further in his mouth. Again he backed off, looking startled. He didn't lick me this time, but he seemed a little annoyed. He started to mouth off at me, loudly enough that Eric yelled from downstairs, "What are you doing to that cat?" Funnily enough, I wasn't even touching him. But Inkwell was complaining very loudly that I wasn't playing the game right. I was supposed to pull away so he could chase and nip me. And he didn't appreciate this change.

I arrived home for lunch a few minutes ago and Inkwell wanted to wrestle. So we tussled a little and he started to lean in for the bite... and thought better of it. He swatted me a few more times before getting up and heading off to say he was done, but no bites. We'll just have to see how long it lasts before he starts to bite me and get a mouthful of finger again.

Update: This afternoon I came home and played with him again, and again he tried to bite. I did the finger in the mouth trick and he backed off and like this morning he complained bitterly that I wasn't playing by the rules and he didn't like it. Later, I fell asleep on the floor (don't ask) after playing with him for a bit. He woke me up with a CHOMP on my arm. *sigh* Still gotta work on it.