Love Bites

Posted on November 19, 2005 in Cats

Last night, Boadicea bit me for no apparent reason. Twice. Once on the nose and once through the left leg of my pants. In neither case did she draw blood. The nasal bite hurt, but the pain faded almost instantly as I grabbed a device called a Thunder Tube and shook out a dry storm. The second nip felt like an itch, as if her teeth had become a tightly coordinated swarm of she-mosquitos that had somehow found their way through the navy blue corduroy.

This time I shoved her off the couch with my leg. She landed on her feet, took three steps that began as a stumble and ended firm and resolute. Her head turned and the Look dropped over her face. What she calls The Look of Love.

“Why did you do that? I’m expressing affection for you.”

My other cats bite. Fiona daily, Virginia rarely. Virginia’s bites are nibbles that she delivers when she wants to wake me up. They come when I have made the mistake of leaving the door open and an arm out from beneath the blanket. My muscular little black beauty steps up and delivers the gentlest of nips to the skin and muscle covering the ulna bone of my arm. I laugh when she does this because she just steps back in the mildest shock when I jump.

Fiona plans her bites carefully so as to deliver no pain at all. They might be better described as “mouthings”. She chooses the most thickly clothed part of my arm, opens her jaws, and carefully teases them with her teeth. The message is “You have neglected to fill my dry catfood bowl and I am hungry.” Or “It’s a beautiful day. I should like to go out on the landing.” If my arm is bare, she uses a different tactic: she rubs me with her head until I can no longer work. The message is the same and she will not cease until I have complied with her request.