HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS WITH CATS?

As a dogaholic I'm second to none, and I can give you quiet a few tips to help you make friends with those attention-seeking critters.

But when it comes to cats, I have nothing much under my belt, not to say I start from scratch (sorry for that easy pun).

So, if you have a secret tip to bond with those "mini-lions ", I hope you'll let the cat out of the bag (sorry again!), cause I'd really like to be both a dog and a cat person.

Don't get me wrong, I have already tried, but my attempts have often turned into a flat refusal.

It all started years ago...

Once, a neighbour asked me if I could look after her cats for a couple of days. I accepted heartily, and to get ready for the job, I read a guidebook about how to be the perfect catsitter and get the key to a cat's mind.

Poor me, just wishful thinking!

My first steps into my neighbour's flat triggered arched backs, puffed hair and flattened ears. No way to confuse her cats' hissing reception with my dogs' tailwagging welcome.

All the time I was cleaning their litter and preparing their food, they played the off-ground tag game, but I didn't try to be the chaser.

The next day, when I opened the door, I immediately realized they had let their hair down (both literally and figuratively).

They had spilled their water bowl, kicked the litter ot of the litterbox, and to top it all off, they had had a manicure session on the leg of a wooden stool.

Perched on a cupboard, my two " employers " were staring at me as if saying : "FIRST WARNING! ".

The second time I challenged myself to look after a cat was none the better, it was just a sort of " Close Encounters of the Third Kind "...

Snuggle never showed me she deserved her name. She simply ignored me all day long, but never failed every evening to let me know who ruled the roost.

After dinner she always managed to take a French leave in the garden, and then I had to spend hours on the terrace, shaking her box of favorite treats to plead with her to come back home.

Once I even imitated a kitten's mews for help. In vain! Either Snuggle was not the motherly type, or I was a poor copycat, I still wonder.

Since then I have tried to bribe all the stray cats frolicing in my garden, with tiny bits of tuna, fishbones, and other yummy snacks .No way!

Those cheeky scroungers always polish off my presents, but never thank me with any head-rubbing around my legs, let alone the least purrs.

Maybe the poor dead little mouse I found on my door-mat was a love-token from an anonymous Tom cat? 

just for fun

Come on, don't laugh! Being persona non grata among cats is really frustrating, but how to become a cat person?

I give my tongue to the cat!!