Thursday, January 15, 2009

My Cat Has a Hormonal Imbalance

For years, I've lived with a cat who's a snuggle addict.

Unlike the other members of his normally standoffish species, Monte is always leaning all over me, pushing his body against mine, lying on top of me no matter how many times I shoo him away.

Before I had a baby, I used to joke that I was going to have to buy a Snugli and wear him around the house.

I may still have to do that. If this video is any evidence, I may even have to breastfeed him.





Fortunately, now I realize this is all a hormonal imbalance. See, I was reading this article about hormones associated with mammalian pair bonding, and I found out that in males, vasopressin creates urges for bonding and nesting.

Monte obviously has an excess of vasopressin in his system. Now I just have to find a drug that will correct this. Is there a vet in the house?

2 comments:

Goody 2 Shoes said...

what about girl cats? my female cat (velcro cat) has the same imbalance, except she is picky about who she wants to cling to

Joan Novark said...

She probably has an excess of oxytocin, the hormone that's released in females during orgasm and also childbirth, making us bond with our lovers/babies. A synthetic version of oxytocin, Pitocin, is often given to jump-start labor.