A partial list of things Moonpie doesn't like and is deeply suspicious of:

[conuly]

Raccoons
Opossums
Squirrels
Other dogs that she is unfamiliar with which are minding their own business
Other dogs that are NOT minding their own business but are barking at her or approaching too rapidly
Men
Strange adult humans who are in her home
Strange adult humans who attempt to speak to her
People on bikes
People with shopping carts
Anybody who wants to clip her nails

She will bark at all these things. Now, it's a bit situational. She doesn't mind children at all, and is patient with the adults *with* children. If Finn gets to the strange human or dog first and indicates that he thinks they're best friends (he thinks everybody is his best friend who isn't a cat), Moonpie will be shy but curious and certainly will not freak out even if Finn is cozying up to a big dog who is intent on getting right in her face. She is gradually learning not to overreact to the dogs she sees every day. And, oddly, she does better on crowded streets full of people/bikes/dogs/etc than on empty streets where there's only one or two of them passing by.

But it's still a problem and as soon as I can I have to organize proper training on this. Happily, most people actually react positively when a chihuahua suddenly barks at them and has to be restrained (which I am quite diligent about). They wouldn't smile and joke "That's your killer, right?" and say "Oh, she's just trying to protect you!" if she was a pit bull charging at their ankles... though to be fair, if she was a pit bull she'd probably be a lot more chill about people in "her space" (yo, Moonpie, you don't own the sidewalk and you definitely don't own the sidewalk across the street). But it's not right for me to depend on the goodwill of strangers. She's got to stop.

Comments

[mtbc]

I've found it interesting how many pets seem able to tell human men from women.

[conuly]

Why not? Humans can do it too.

[archangelbeth]

At least she's willing to take cues from Finn?

(Smol dogs being So Brave about defending their yards are, indeed, adorable. But it's a lot more barking for you to suffer, and restraining, so... Yeah.)

Good luck!

[greghousesgf]

Most of the pitbulls I've known were sweeties.

[conuly]

1. Yes, it's wonderful! Except when the cue she takes from him is "chase this strange cat and bark at it" and then it's not. (Unlike him, she's got no problem with our cats, because the first two weeks she was here she learned that our cats are our family. He's still working on that one, and doesn't get that he should extend the courtesy to all cats.)

2. She once actually did get close enough to nip some poor woman's ankles, and the woman laughed, but she would not have laughed if Moonpie had been big enough to do some real damage. Since then I've been extra diligent at all times, which probably only increases Moonie's sense that people = dangerous, but she's the dangerous one!

[conuly]

Pits are sweet, amiable, people-oriented dogs.

Chihuahuas, apparently, are sweet to the people in their family. I did not know that before we got one! But they're extremely protective and territorial and aggressive, and that I did know.

[mtbc]

I'd have expected natural selection to hone that sense much more for one's own species than other quite different ones. I'm certainly nowhere near as good at it for dogs and cats and stuff, short of looking for some obvious underneath anatomy (and with cats, probably not even finding that!).

[conuly]

I can actually fairly reliably distinguish between male cats which are either unaltered or were altered after puberty, female cats which have had at least one batch of kittens or anyway gone into heat a few times, and all other adult cats, without looking under the tail. Their puberty-induced secondary sex characteristics aren't as prominent as a beard or boobs, but they're there to the observant.

As for examining their genitals, anybody can reliably sex kittens as soon as they start walking around with their tails up. (Prior to that age, they reflexively close their tails against their bodies whenever lifted, so you can't get a good view. That's not why they do it, but that's the effect.) Males have a distinct round anus, a small gap of fur, and a distinct round hole for the penis. (Adult males which have not been altered also have testicles, which are highly visible. Testicles, imo, are item number one in the case for evolution and against intelligent design, being about the kludgiest thing ever. Any *intelligent* designer, starting from scratch, would simply make it so that sperm developed best at body temperature.) Females have a round anus and, almost immediately beneath, a slit for the vagina. There isn't much of a gap and it's not the same shape.

Additionally, virtually all calicos and torties are female, because the gene for red or black fur is carried on the X chromosome. Being XXY is somewhat more serious for cats than for humans, so there are fewer XXY cats walking around and you can safely assume that any cat that has more than one color and/or white is female.

Anyway, even if you have trouble telling males and females apart, in cats, you must surely agree that it's easier to distinguish between individuals. Humans don't have as much variety in our faces as they do in their coats.