He’s actually really well behaved lol. Today was the first day I’ve had to scold him in a while because he snuck out of the house when I cracked the door open to leave. But he generally sleeps at the foot of my bed right beside or on top of my feet.

But for the most part, he’s very obedient and kind to me. I taught him as a young kitten to not bite and to instead “ask” for pets. He was an extremely violent kitten! He would always bite. I started scolding him and he would stop and would instead start to just lean in slowly for a bite because he didn’t want to hear me yell and when he would do that, I would scratch his ears or under his chin since his face was already near my hand, which is his favorite place to get scratches. I love touching his paws and he hatesss that. So that was the perfect teaching opportunity, whenever he would lean in to bite, I immediately scratched his chin and he began associating discomfort with redirecting me instead of resorting to biting me. So when he would get those urges to bite, even the love biting, he now just leans in for a scratch and I give him a good scratch under his chin and he goes wild with purring. I also unintentionally taught him to use his paws to grab my hand to ask for pets too, so he does that instead of biting too and will try to get me to not stop scratching his chin. I think that came from me touching his paws and he associated that with scratches so he does that to “ask” for scratches. He often reaches up with his little paws to demand scratches while I’m working from home even in meetings.

He bit me on my foot once a few months ago but I could tell it was because I was petting him with my foot and he wasn’t enjoying it and in hindsight, I think I wasn’t paying enough attention to his warnings to ask me to stop. I can’t remember the last time he tried biting me before that.

He was declawed many years ago by my parents when I lived with them, so scratching hasn’t been an issue. That’s the reason I’m very strict about him being outside because we have owls and coyotes and other cats and he can’t defend himself from them like other cats can. I take him outside supervised for a little while each day which has helped our bond too. I can tell he trusts me a lot and will go in when I tell him to even though he loves being outside. So I think he doesn’t want to bite me because of the bond we have too.