Oooo! I can feel a soapbox moment coming on! This is one thing that really, really sets my arse on fire (which is kinda scary on account of, I've got a big one).
I have a sister-in-law who visits occasionally. As soon as she arrives, she's on the hunt for our cats because she is a 'cat lover'. This means, she likes to hold them and pose them in human-like positions and tickle them and tease them and rub their fur the wrong way till they hiss and then seize hold of their muzzles proclaiming them to be 'nasty' and not at all like her own long-suffering cat.
I used to try and be polite and once even tried to excuse the cats' reluctance to come to her. I no longer do that. Just once, I blew up at the woman and told her these were *my* cats and they'd be treated like animals, not like animated stuffed toys. I told her not to handle them ever again and to please ignore them if they crossed her path. She was rather miffed by that and left soon afterward. Since then, she still seeks out the cats, but it only takes one look from me and she leaves 'em alone.
Since I got the Beaks, she's been making noises about coming over and handling them (she has budgies - poor little things - and thinks she's forgotten more about birds than I'll ever know!). I'm kind of thinking I might allow it just once. It'll only take one time for the Beaks to munch on her and then she'll leave 'em alone. LOL! Poor Beaks: I bet she'd taste like a cross between saccharine and asphalt!
In line with this thread, my niece has just had a premmie baby. She's having the exactly the same problem! Everyone wants to paw and maul at the poor child, who only weighs five pounds. What *is* with people wanting affection from something which is not theirs?
haha. they know I don't mess around with certain things.
