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Q.: My cat has just turned a year old, and we've had him since April 20. (9 months). At first he liked to be taken up, and you could hold him for an hour (if you bothered to).
But now he doesn't want to be taken up anymore. At least not for very long at a time. Some times he'll purr and, at the same time, bite me in the arm. Why?
P.S. If it matters, he had lived for a month at a rescue, when we got him.
A.: Some cats may develop a little complicated relationship to being taken up, when they grow up, even if they have liked it when they were smaller. It is probably due to the fact, that it doesn't feel so nice, when you're a large, grown cat, as if you're a kitten or a youngster.
It may also have something to do with his coming from a rescue, for at a place like that each cat doesn't get so much contact as a family cat, even though staff and volunteers do everything they can to make it "homelike" for the cats. Therefore he needs a little time to adjust to the increased contact.
Try if he feels better if you come to him, where he is, and pet him without holding him. Then he might end up for example coming to lie beside you when you're sitting on the couch or a similar place.
It is quite usual that cats in a "petting situation" may feel so good that it sort of becomes "too much", and then you may get a gentle bite, if the cat doesn't have the option of simply walking away.
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