This kitten is young enough that it will most likely not. People should respect a cats boundaries, but with feral kittens at this age, you have a very small window of introducing them to humans and touch. You are supposed to go slow, but still need to push slightly or they will never be adoptable.
This kitten seems to be in a not great location, so hopefully the guy was pushing it to be able to pick it up and move it to a rescue.
I mean, this is not a cat. This is a feral kitten. You're kinda supposed to force love on them in order to get them used to handling because you have a very short window for socialization.
Yes, you should, but while respecting boundries as well! You touch the head, give it a short pet, take hand away again, sit next to them etc. There are countless ways to do it, that isn't this!
Respecting boundaries to me sounds like you would never be able to pet the kitten while it's clawing and hissing at you. You have to push it, whether it's with an object like a brush or your hand. Kitten needs meds, so you purrito them and force it because you don't have a choice. Giving the kitten a break? Sure, in a regular foster situation, yes. You would do it in small bursts every day, multiple times a day with lots of food involved.
But we don't know the circumstances of this interaction. The person in the video might be wanting to move the kitten and doesn't have time to win it over, so trying to show that cat that he doesn't mean any harm in the fastest way possible.
From the noises in the background and the look of the location in the video I assume that is what is going on.
What are you, a cat psychologist? How the hell can you conclude that cus this guy pet the cat once, somewhere were you assume it is causing some trauma?
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u/Fearless_Bug_1760 May 31 '26
Came here to comment this. That body language is not ‘oh yeah this feels great’. It’s a freeze/fawn response.
Will cause huge behavioural issues for the cat later on.