personality

A personality test for your cat
 
It happens to all of us. You fall in love with someone's looks... but then he's not quite what you expected. Even, sometimes, if he's a cat.

"People come in and say, I had a black and white tuxedo cat before, so that's what I want," says Jim Monsma of the Washington Animal Rescue League in Washington, D.C. "But cats are not all the same. They have widely divergent personalities."

That's why the shelter is now using the Feline-ality program, developed by behaviorist Dr. Emily Weiss of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Part of the ASPCA's Meet Your Match program, which also includes Canine-ality for dogs, the program assesses a variety of behaviors in individual cats. It rates the animals on confidence and sociability, which Weiss' research has shown are independent of each other.

The program then tallies those assessments to place the cat into nine personality categories, which can be matched with a family's situation and desires.

It's not unlike a magazine quiz to find out, "Which kind of cat are you?"

The program is used at 45 shelters, with additional facilities preparing to use it.

On this day in the Washington shelter, Monsma brings Barnaby the cat into an unfamiliar room and opens the carrier.

Barnaby shoots out and takes charge, checking out the room and everything in it. Monsma uses a stopwatch to track how much time Barnaby spends on social interactions. For example, he adds up how many seconds Barnaby spends trying to get on his lap. He also monitors his noises and blink rate, both indicators of sociability.

Monsma then initiates some interaction, offering a hand, three different toys and hug. Each transaction earns Barnaby some points.

His total comes out high on both scales — he's both highly sociable and highly confident.

All of the types have fun, vivid names and descriptions. Barnaby is "leader of the band." His opposite, a cat low on both scales, is called a "private investigator," who stays out of trouble.

A more middle of the road cat is familiar to many people: the "personal assistant." "You're working on the computer? Let me press the keys. Reading the paper? I'll hold the pages down for you... You'll wonder how you ever managed without me," according to program literature.

Equally important to the Feline-ality program is the fact that people differ, too. Adopters fill out a questionnaire and the results give them a color code, telling them which set of personality types would be best for them to consider.

The program aims to end animal-human mismatches, often a reason cats are returned to the shelter, Monsma says.

Weiss says the program has helped to increase adoptions in shelters that have tested the Feline-ality program, partly because people find the process fun.

Experts may differ on what details of a test can best predict a pet's behavior in an adoptive home, says animal behaviorist, author and radio host Patricia McConnell.

But she applauds these efforts to enlighten people about the differences among cats, which have always been less well understood than dogs.

"They're complicated, interesting animals with rich emotional lives that deserve to be treated well," she says. "Any kind of test is somewhat limited, but it's an excellent idea to be thinking as much as we can about what's the right cat for the right home, and whether we can do some matchmaking."

Weiss says that people still sometimes fall in love with a cat that isn't a perfect fit, but the program can help in these cases too: People who know what issues to expect are more prepared to deal with them.

But as Monsma says, "There are so many cats out there, why not get one that fits?"

As promised in the ad, Floyd is very, very sweet. He's a docile, zen-like cat with the World's Loudest Purr. He loves to curl up next to my head after I get in bed, and once he gets his "motor" going, it's the equivalent of a diesel engine idling inches from your face. I affectionately refer to Floyd as Buddy, Domestic Shorthair California Puma, or just plain Puma. The puma reference is meant to be ironic because Floyd is scared of almost everything and everyone except us. But he's certainly come a long way from the mean streets of Durham, North Carolina where he was rescued as a stray.

Felicia Hardy grew up as "daddy's little girl," idolizing her father. When Walter Hardy suddenly disappeared, Felicia's mother, Lydia, told her that he had died in a plane crash; in reality, he had been incarcerated for his crimes as a notorious cat burglar. Upon discovering the truth about her father, Felicia became inspired to follow in his footsteps. However, another tragic event more strongly influenced a redirection in her life. As a college freshman at Empire State University, Felicia was date-raped by her boyfriend, Ryan. She turned her grief and shame into rage, channeling her feelings for revenge towards intensifying her training regime in martial arts and acrobatics. However, she was robbed of a chance for vengeance, as Ryan was killed in a drunk driving accident.

 

Spider-Man went to Doctor Strange to remove her "jinx". Strange eliminated the hex at the source, causing Felicia to lose her bad luck powers but and also gave her more cat-like powers and abilities. She eventually settled into a life of her own, while still trying to maintain a friendship with Spider-Man. Soon she found out that Peter Parker had married Mary Jane Watson, which had angered her to the point that she grabbed and threatened Mary Jane. To spite Peter, she dated Flash Thompson intent on breaking Peter's friend's heart. Over time, she developed genuine feelings for him, but the two broke up. The Black Cat came to Spider-Man's aid when the Chameleon tricked Spider-Man into losing his powers to lead a normal life. Attacked by the Femme Fatales, the Scorpion, and the Tarantula, the Black Cat enabled Spider-Man to reverse the machine that suppressed his powers - at the cost of losing her own.

She has now relies on equipment she purchased from the Tinkerer to replace her lost powers. During Carnage's mass slaughter through the streets of Manhattan (called "Maximum Carnage" by the press), the Black Cat teamed with Spider-Man again and other heroes to stop the killers. Recently she helped Spider-Man break Norman Osborn out of jail in order to rescue a kidnapped Aunt May. She remains one of Spider-Man's closest confidants and allies.

Recently, she and Spider-Man took on a drug dealer named Mr. Brownstone (Garrison Klum), a low-level mutant teleporter and persuader who used his talents to discreetly transfer illegal narcotics into the bloodstream of his clients. When the Black Cat attempted to confront Mr. Brownstone, he incapacitated her with a dose of heroin and attempted to rape her. Garrison's subservient brother and partner, Francis Klum, killed Garrison first. Felicia was arrested and imprisoned for a murder she didn't commit. Francis teleported her out from prison where he shared his story of abuse. His trust was shattered when Spider-Man and Daredevil attempted to apprehend Francis, making Francis believe Felicia had tricked him. Francis escaped, though severely injured and seeking revenge against Spider-Man.

Later, Felicia aided Spider-Man against the menace of Stegron the Dinosaur Man who attempted to de-evolve the city using the Rock of Life. After that adventure, Felicia and Thomas Fireheart Puma began a somewhat superficial romance.