Afraid of Cats

[SilverSabre25]

I know cat scratches can be dangerous. the cats stay away from the kids, but that doesn't mean they are out of sight. My own toddler loooooooves the cats and has actually never gotten scratched. Three of them were raised with kids (other than mine) and have never scratched...and the fourth is declawed.

The fear is coming solely from seeing them. My cats are well used to my toddler and know to get the heck out of dodge when a child comes calling. They are visible though.

If I thought it was a danger I wouldn't allow them to live here, period. But I can't lock them up in a small room all day, that wouldn't be fair, kwim?

[SilverSabre25]

I know cat scratches can be dangerous. the cats stay away from the kids, but that doesn't mean they are out of sight. My own toddler loooooooves the cats and has actually never gotten scratched. Three of them were raised with kids (other than mine) and have never scratched...and the fourth is declawed.

The fear is coming solely from seeing them. My cats are well used to my toddler and know to get the heck out of dodge when a child comes calling. They are visible though.

If I thought it was a danger I wouldn't allow them to live here, period. But I can't lock them up in a small room all day, that wouldn't be fair, kwim?

actually...two are declawed...i can't believe i forgot that,

[Willow]

I know cat scratches can be dangerous. the cats stay away from the kids, but that doesn't mean they are out of sight. My own toddler loooooooves the cats and has actually never gotten scratched. Three of them were raised with kids (other than mine) and have never scratched...and the fourth is declawed.

The fear is coming solely from seeing them. My cats are well used to my toddler and know to get the heck out of dodge when a child comes calling. They are visible though.

If I thought it was a danger I wouldn't allow them to live here, period. But I can't lock them up in a small room all day, that wouldn't be fair, kwim?

I'm not sure about the set up of your house but mine have my entire basement, which is the size of my entire upstairs. Upstairs there is 5-7 children on any given day, me, toys and equipment along with grabby hand toddlers. Although they love people, including children with grabby hands, they typically prefer the sprawling lower floor that is fully stocked with their toys, posts, hideouts, towers, food and peace.

No reason for them to be stuck in a crate or room while still maintaining that boundary to keep everyone safe

[Willow]

actually...two are declawed...i can't believe i forgot that,

Declawed cats are far more prone to biting aggression though....I have two, one clawed and one not (not by my choice) that don't follow that mold but statistically speaking......

[Scout]

Hope you have good insurance....one swipe of a clawed paw....

Yea, this kinda came of to me as "you don't want to listen to my advice so, here you go!" to me...I am sure this is not how it was intended!

[SilverSabre25]

I'm not sure about the set up of your house but mine have my entire basement, which is the size of my entire upstairs. Upstairs there is 5-7 children on any given day, me, toys and equipment along with grabby hand toddlers. Although they love people, including children with grabby hands, they typically prefer the sprawling lower floor that is fully stocked with their toys, posts, hideouts, towers, food and peace.

No reason for them to be stuck in a crate or room while still maintaining that boundary to keep everyone safe

Mine doesn't work that way. I have two levels and the only area that's not used for daycare is the three bedrooms and one bathroom. There's no way to block them over there except to shut them into one room. Granted, they usually spend much of their time back there or outside...but it's voluntary. They eat in the kitchen and have litter boxes on the lower level as well as the upper level. They have food and water and litter boxes in various places all over the house. I have to for the happiness and territorialness of some of them.

[SilverSabre25]

Declawed cats are far more prone to biting aggression though....I have two, one clawed and one not (not by my choice) that don't follow that mold but statistically speaking......

One of the declawed ones (not my choice either) is a scaredy cat who is rarely seen on the floor or in the open except at night. The other was a destructive scratcher and we had no choice--it was that or get rid of him. He's about as aggressive as a marshmallow, and we've had him longer than we've had kids. he's 7 I think. Believe me--I wouldn't keep the cats at all if I thought they were a danger.

[sly red cid]

cat fears

So why do so many of you have such a different position on having cats around daycare than dogs? Just wondering.Pregnant women are more susceptible to cat born illness than from dogs....we've had feral cats overrun our neighborhood and the preogs were kinda leary bout them being so all over everything outside............and their stink was terrrible.the neighbor feeding them all finally got some help, now all are neutered or spayed, and there are only 3 that I notice now.

[SilverSabre25]

Because cats usually keep to themselves and dogs are usually in people's faces? They are different species, very different behaviors.

And these aren't feral cats. They are VERY domesticated. Judging all housecats on the same level as dogs or feral cats is sort of silly.

[MamaBear]

I used to have a cat and one of my daycare girls were afraid of her too. So I bought a little robotic kitty toy at Target that looked a lot like my cat did... It would meow... walk around and purr. Super cute. So the girl looooved the toy. She'd play with it all the time. Eventually I brought the cat around her more and she was okay with her all of a sudden. I think the toy kinda took her fear away in a way. Maybe try something like that

[Scout]

So why do so many of you have such a different position on having cats around daycare than dogs? Just wondering.Pregnant women are more susceptible to cat born illness than from dogs....we've had feral cats overrun our neighborhood and the preogs were kinda leary bout them being so all over everything outside............and their stink was terrrible.the neighbor feeding them all finally got some help, now all are neutered or spayed, and there are only 3 that I notice now.

I have 2 and they hide almost 90% of the time. They have taken to hiding in my closet or they like to sit in the laundry baskets of dirty clothes in the basement...makes me kinda sad! You can not compare cats with dogs. Cats are solo creatures much of the time, Dogs like to be around people most of the time. And strays are a completely different category as well. They do not usually like to be approached by humans and will run away.

[MsLaura529]

Yikes, who would have thought there was be such nastiness on a thread about cats ...

I am like you Silver, in that there is no way to keep my cats contained and out of the daycare. They jump the gates (or squeeze through, or sit there and meow and meow at me until I open up the gate for them, haha).

I agree with trying to show them funny cat videos, or even getting some books about cute little kittens, maybe doing a cat project one day?

I have a DCB who is afraid of our dog (understandably so, he is a large dog). The dog does not come into the daycare, but if DCB happens to be standing by the gate, and the dog walks up to the gate on the other side, DCB runs away screaming and crying. However, he talks about the dog constantly, "puppy woof" or "hi puppy" ... he just doesn't want him coming near him.

[WImom]

Maybe do a pet theme - talk about all kinds of pets but really focus on cats?

I like the idea of funny videos and books.

I've had kids afraid of my dogs. They don't come in the space but my older dog will sometimes come down stairs if a favorite parent is here. My 9y old beagle/basset used to be allowed in the space until kids kept chasing him so I stopped it. He does remember which parents love him and shower him in petting. It helps too though for the scared kids to see other people not afraid of him. All of the kids I've had ended up liking him a lot.

[Starburst]

No advice, but it's weird that ALL of them are..

Chances are (especially if they are siblings) one of there parents is afraid of cats and projected that fear to the kids (most fears like this are learned, not experienced-based). Sometimes kids also fake having similar fears to fit in. My ex-roommate (worked at her mom's daycare) was afraid of clowns and after the older DCKs heard about it they all suddenly had a "fear" of clowns, they all saw her as a cool older sister and constantly imitated her- she knew they weren't really afraid and were just copying her.

[My3cents]

Wow. That's really judgmental.

I don't know about that more of a reality in todays world we live in. People are sue happy over anything. Animals are animals and they react the way they are supposed to react when scared or feel threatened. Pets pose liabilities-

I would just let the cats do their own thing unless they are the type of cat that won't leave you alone. Most cats will run off and hide if they don't want to be bothered but then you get the ones that just can't get enough attention and want to be all over you all the time. I would not feed into the kids fear and just tell the child to leave the cat alone if she is scared and if the cat bothered her I would shoo the cat away. I wouldn't try to make them best friends either. Good luck-