The second and third reasons are that your cat may have one of the following handicaps:

a. It was born a feral cat, (wild cat) or was born into a bad or teasing home at birth. Cats like that learn to fear creatures as big or bigger than they are, almost as soon as they are born. It becomes a very strong instinct, so the fear of being “held” down and not being able to escape may last for life.

b. Your cat might also have been born autistic like Forest Gump. (Yes, cats do suffer from many of the same handicaps and illnesses as humans. In that case it may never be able to relate to you well.

If your cat won’t hug, you can sometimes help it overcome its fears by making sure that you never “force” it to hug you. That is, the very second you feel its head pulling away, put it down so it always knows that it can get away anytime it starts to get nervous. It can learn to trust you.

Feral cats often have the hugging fear burnt in their minds very deeply so it could take years to overcome that fear, but one day they may in fact do so if you are always kind, loving, and patient with them.

If your cat was born autistic, he may never hug you, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t love you. He just doesn’t know what hugging is, and doesn’t know how to connect. That’s a bit of a brain disorder or personality flaw that he doesn’t know how to deal with. Think of it as a “personality” disturbance that may be with him for life. Every creature on earth has a personality disturbance of some sort, (including even you) so just love and accept him for who he is, realizing that he’s very cute anyway, and he’s so lucky he found a good home like yours. Some people might not treat those types of cats well, so will really appreciate having a good owner like you. Even some autistic cats may come around eventually, but it could take years of patient training and a whole lot of love and understanding in the same way.

Cats suffer from many of the same illnesses and even psychological problems that humans do. Yes, they get old and suffer memory loss just like humans, so they may not be able to remember how to get to their litter box, either, even if it’s nearby. Or someone may have hurt them inside or may have some physical problem or other problem that bothers them a whole lot, so they will try to tell you all about it by messing the house. They don’t have any other way to talk, so their mess is just a way of communicate with you.

They aren’t doing this to be rebellious. Rebellion is more of a human trait versus an animal trait, so if people think they are doing this to be rebellious, it’s usually just another sign that humans are not very smart, and are trying to convince themselves that their cats are human.

Such cats need to be taken to a vet. They shouldn’t be scolded or hit, but rather helped. You wouldn’t like to be scolded or hit if you got old or sick either.

Many cats won’t even know why they are being scolded or hit. Sometimes their owners will rub their noses in their poop or pee thinking that the cat will learn. But it’s the owners who are often dumber than their cats because they are forgetting that cats aren’t human and can’t necessarily associate the crime with the punishment. So when they rub their cats noses in their poop, the cats know its their poop, but many won’t know why their owners are being mean and doing that. They will just think you hate their owners for simply being “mean people.” That could make them really insecure and pee and poop all the more.

Remember, pooping and peeing are natural things for an animal. It’ humans who taught cats to use litter boxes, which are unnatural, so it’s important to deal with their problems in the same way you would hope other people would deal with yours.

Sometimes cats may mess outside the box because they feel threatened by another animal in the house. When their owners punish them for that, they then feel threatened by “everyone in the whole house” instead of just the other animal, and may become worse! So if they do things like that, it would be best to prove to them by treating them as “special” and making sure that the other animal doesn’t threaten them or take away their food. You may even have to feed them in another room, and make sure that they always have a safe place to drink. Maybe you could put their food and water under a bed or something, that the other animal can’t under.

Cats really are loving loving creatures and if you treat them with a whole lot of love and respect, they will adore you tremendously, even if they can never overcome their problems and even if they can’t show it. Even if they don’t hug you, most of the cats with those problems will always want to be in the same room with you if you have shown them that you love them.

Oh, and don’t be upset if your cat doesn’t want to sleep with you either. Maybe you turn around too much at night so the cat is scared you will roll over top of it. You might be scared of the same thing if you slept with a wrestless giant 20 times your size too.

Again, animal get many of the same diseases and disturbances as people. They even get things like Alzheimer’s when they get older and may not remember how to get to their litter boxes even if they are in the same room. Or, like a lot of older people, they may not be able to hold themselves long enough to get to the box, or they may even be sick sometimes. So if they suffer from any of those things, in order to help them they need to be not punished, but shown a lot of love and taken to a vet.

Cats that are over 15 year old could well be suffering from one or more diseases of old age, and the vet might recommend that they be put down. It would be so awful to hit an animal like that when it can’t help it and would only wonder why you’re so mean. That meanness could make it even more depressed than it was before.

All in all, cats should never be hit or teased. Most are very moldable, even if they once had psychological problems, and will love you so much if you love them in the same ways.

They really are beautiful animals overall!