To start out, I'm not a fan of most cats, and I don't have any experience raising/living with one, but I just can't shake the feeling that something is off.
I started hanging out with a former coworker a couple months ago, and she has a very long, pretty noticeably overweight adult cat. The cat seemed to like her and everything, I didn't get the sense that it was an abused animal- but something about the way she handled it when picking it up just sort of skeeved me out.
The only way I've ever seen her handle a cat is with one hand by its chest, literally letting the remaining 75% of its length/body weight rag-doll below her hand. She offered no form of support with her other hand. It didn't seem like that big of a deal at the time because I only saw her pick it up like twice, and she never held it for that long.
Fast forward a couple weeks and she installed a stripper pole in her apartment (That has sense been removed) and I saw her post something to instagram captioned "Gotta take my boy for a spin!" or something like that, once again handling this cat with one hand by its chest, but this time actually twirling around a pole with it. There's nothing that leads me to believe that this is comfortable for an animal.
The thought sort of went away from my mind until a couple of weeks later she adopts a feral (Very young) kitten she found. Now this is where I really start to take issue-
All of the initial stuff she posted of it online seemed completely normal- a scared little animal laying on a pillow/her floor. Then she posted an image that just made me recoil. She's holding the kitten with one hand by its chest- her arm completely outstretched away from her body. The photo and the caption highly suggest that the little thing was hissing at her.
This wasn't the only instance of her handling it like that- she constantly does little photo shoots where she is holding it that way and the thing always seems scared- and she'll say things like "Listen to the cute little noises its making!" and I'm pretty sure they're noises made from fear. This is a FERAL animal (Still within the range of being socialized) who has likely had ZERO human contact before she took it in. It needs to learn that humans can be trusted and they care about it- but all she seems to be doing is scaring it/acting irrationally towards it.
Again, I've never had cats before, but my experience with holding dogs/puppies is to always make sure you are supporting them, especially in the case of puppies, using two hands, and bringing the animal in close to you so it knows its being supported and shouldn't be afraid. It just seems really callous and emotionally unintelligent to hold an animal you claim to love like that- even if she does usually handle her cats in a normal way (Which I've seen no evidence of), it just seems mean to use it like that and cause it (temporary) pain and discomfort for instagram likes.
Should I say something about this, or just keep my nose out of other people's animal lives? Am I just being over reactive to something that's actually normal?
TL;DR: My friend always handles her adult and recently taken in feral baby cat the same way- with one hand by their chest. The animals usually appear distressed while this is happening. Should I, a person with virtually no experience with cats, say something about this?
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/h7ea8q/should_i_talk_to_my_friend_about_how_she_handles/
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