xiphias: (Default)
[personal profile] xiphias
A couple days ago, I was asking Lis about the fear of cats, because it's something I just totally don't get. I don't even understand how someone possibly COULD be afraid of a cat. So we looked it up, and apparently, some people are afraid that a cat will jump on them and scratch them.

I thought about how ridiculous that fear was. . . and then I looked at all the scars on my hands, arms, and shoulders from our cats jumping on me, and falling off, and scratching me . . .

Honestly, I bet that, if you laid all my cat-scratch scars out end-to-end, you'd be at somewhere around a foot/30 cm. Yeah, I guess I can't really call that an irrational fear, can I?

(no subject)

Date: 2012-03-03 03:51 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] erin-c-1978.livejournal.com
Heh, when you put it like that, it sort of makes me wonder why I'm not at all scared of being jumped on by a cat and yet terrified at the prospect of being jumped on by a camel cricket, even though the former could do me far more damage. The power of cuddles?

(no subject)

Date: 2012-03-03 04:28 am (UTC)
bluepapercup: (Default)
From: [personal profile] bluepapercup
When I was younger I was scared of cats. We didn't have a pet at home at the time (other than fish) so my only experience with animals was with my grandmother's dogs. She trained them extremely well so that they did not bite, jump, bark too much, or behave aggressively toward humans. I assumed housecats were the same way.

I was over at my friend Becky's house and one of their cats was sitting under a bush outside the house. Becky reached down and patted the cat and said "hello cat". Then she asked me if I wanted to pet the cat. Petting a cat was a novel experience and seemed fun. I reached out my hand and while I was trying to pet the cat it jumped up, scratched my hand, yowled at me, scratched me again, and then ran off. I was crying, Becky was confused, and her mom was sure that one of us must have done something to annoy the cat. For years afterward I was skittish around cats and didn't want to pet them or have them near me.

Despite having had a cat in the house from age 13 to 20, and having lived with other people's cats, I still sometimes get that "don't scratch me, asshole" feeling toward a cat and will avoid it if it's near me. I don't LIKE being scratched by cats, and cats that have not had their random, non-play, human-scratching behaviors discouraged are cats I make a point to avoid.

(no subject)

Date: 2012-03-03 04:51 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lietya.livejournal.com
Yep. My arms currently look like I lost a war with a shredder, because we have a kitten who is very sweet but not always careful, along with one easily frightened cat and two clumsy ones. :) None of them are deliberately trying to hurt us, but even with *clipped* claws (they're very good about that) they can do damage. Probably doesn't help that 3 of them are over 18 pounds, too!

I can sort of see the urge to call the fear *overblown,* but hardly unreasonable. Also, frankly, pound for pound I'm more afraid of vicious cat than a dog - more total pointy bits, the fangs are designed to puncture deeper, and both claws and teeth are going to leave all sorts of bacteria in deep puncture wounds. I'm not afraid of *most* cats (obviously), but one which is irrationally aggressive... yeah.

(no subject)

Date: 2012-03-03 07:11 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] felis-sidus.livejournal.com
Um, isn't ailuorphobia irrational by definition? It is a phobia, after all.

That's not to say that everyone who's afraid of cats suffers from ailurophobia; some folks have completely rational reasons for fearing them.

(no subject)

Date: 2012-03-03 11:32 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cafemusique.livejournal.com
I'm glad you came around, so I didn't have to yell at you for closed-mindedness. :-)

Fortunately, exposure has worked: my parents got cats after I left home, and my wife and I are now proud yet humble servants to two cats.

(no subject)

Date: 2012-03-03 01:16 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] nex0s.livejournal.com
My Mom has a cat phobia. She knows it's irrational, and she knows what event caused it, but she still has it.

When she was about 9 years old, there was a rapist preying on women in the neighborhood. Her mother was a single mother (widow) and so she warned her daughters about it, and told them not to use a certain alleyway to get to the local shops.

About a day later she sends my Mom for bread at the store, and Mom uses the alleyway. She is scared already because she knows she isn't supposed to. As she is creeping through the alley, a big ol' black Tom cat just jumped out of nowhere and scared the crap out of her. Ever since? She can't abide cats. She literally screams if they brush up against her and she hasn't prepped herself.

I had my cat Buster for 10 years, and it was a HUGE thing for her that she petted him once. (One pat on the back, once in 10 years.) She was amazed at how soft he was. She said the only reason she could do it was because unlike most cats, Buster kept his distance from her.

N.

(no subject)

Date: 2012-03-03 01:53 pm (UTC)
redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)
From: [personal profile] redbird
I don't have scars from my cats, past and present: but I did once have to take a benadryl after [livejournal.com profile] julian_tiger scratched me, because he'd gotten something (I don't know what) on his claw and the scratch got it into my system. So there's also an allergy risk even for people who aren't allergic to cats. (Small, I'd say, especially for an indoor cat like Julian, but nonzero.)

(no subject)

Date: 2012-03-03 02:56 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] xiphias.livejournal.com
Even indoor cat scratches are significant infection risks -- those paws that they accidentally scratch you with are the same ones they bury their feces with. We go through a fair bit of triple-antibiotic ointment.

(no subject)

Date: 2012-03-03 11:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] arib.livejournal.com
I spent much of my early childhood scared of dogs, based on my neighbor's dog growling at me once when I played with his squeaky toy. I was... maybe three when that happened. I'm still a little leery of large dogs, but it's getting better.

(no subject)

Date: 2012-03-05 05:09 am (UTC)
richardf8: (Default)
From: [personal profile] richardf8
I'm afraid of Dogs.

I fear that they will jump on me and soak me with their saliva.

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