Teaching a child how to handle a cat correctly will ensure the safety of both, but may be difficult to drum into young children, who will probably be beside themselves with excitement at the arrival of a feline playmate. (And it’s kinder to the new cat to arrange for them to be out of the house when you first introduce it to your home.) In fact, it’s best to discourage children under the age of six from picking up your cat at all: kittens’ bones are still relatively soft and fragile, and an overly enthusiastic hug from a child could easily cause a fracture, while a small child will certainly not be able to bear the weight of an older cat, and in any case could end up being badly scratched as the infuriated cat tries to escape its well-meaning tormentor. Be warned that if a cat suffers consistent mishandling by children, it could develop either exaggeratedly aggressive or timid self-defensive behavioural patterns.
Kittens, who will not be able to resist the lure of a game for long, will usually get on better with a child than an older, more self-contained cat, who will be set in its ways. Even so, try as best you can to explain to your youngster that a kitten can easily be injured, that it needs to be left in peace to sleep when it is tired and that its tail is not a plaything. Although the feline nature is markedly different to ours, it may be expedient to humanise your cat when laying down feline-friendly laws to a young child: for example, ‘You know how cross you feel when you’re tired? Well the kitten feels just the same, so let’s leave it alone for a while to have a sleep and you can play with it later’. In the case of older children, involving them in aspects of your cat’s care will give them a sense of proud responsibility, but be vigilant about your feline’s welfare and never delegate its overall care to them — assume a supervisory, if hands-off, role instead.
Finally, there are certain rules that you must abide by if cats and children share the same house.
Never leave a sleeping baby where a cat could sit on it: the cat will be attracted by the baby’s warmth and could inadvertently smother it.
In the interests of maintaining both your child and your cat’s health, discourage your child from human—feline face- rubbing, allow neither access to the other’s food and, most importantly, ensure that your child stays away from the cat’s litter tray to avoid the risk of taxoplasmosis infection.
A Great post on Pets here dude, I own a cute little puppy and she is the best of all.. Takes me to the olden times when she used to be so small she used to fit in my palm