Hi,

Buster is a year and a half old  shelter cat.  He had a home at one
point, lost it (this is a college town, with the usual horrible
college-town pet dumping problems), was in the wild for an unknown
period, and got hit by a car, which ironically turned out to be his
salvation.  He was rescued by animal control, patched up, fostered,
patched some more, and placed in the adoption center for me to find.
They couldn't let him play at will with the other kitties in the
center because he played "aggressively".  This means that when they
let him out of his kennel, he'd make the rounds and beat up the other
cats by pouncing them, wrestling them to the ground, and sitting on
them.  No hissing, no fur fluffing, no angry posturing.  It almost
looked like a hobby to him.  Beating Up Other Cats For Fun and Profit.

He's now in my house, with no other cats.  Plenty of other cat smell,
thanks to my other cat (neutered male) who lived here for 2 years
before going to live full-time with my fiancee.  

He's got one of the best Cat Pedestals I've ever seen - a three level
industrial-weight cat tree made out of very scratchable wood and
carpeted pedestals.  He's got a zillion little cat toys, and plays
with them regularly.  On occasion, I sprout the Magical Feathers and
play chase with him (he chases me.  or really, I guess, the feathers).

He's settled into the house nicely, owns all the High Places, sleeps
on the bed with me about half the time, on the Cat Pedestal or sofa
the other half of the time.  He's not super cuddly -  he's still got a
lot of kitten in him - but he does enjoy being petted and scratched.
Thanks to his time in the wild, I guess, it takes him a second or two
to remember that he likes being petted and scratched - often his first
instinct is to flinch when I go to make contact with him.  I've been
gentle but persistent, and he is now starting to approach me for Kitty
Loving.

OK, he's a complicated guy with an complicated past.  The only parts
we know about for sure are pretty disagreeable, but he's a real
Trouper.  Enough background.

Lately, he's developed a couple of weird behaviors.

He'll hang around in my travel path (we live in a flat) as I'm moving
around - generally, when I'm doing things not involving him, like
getting ready for work.  Then when I get within direct eyeshot,  he
hunkers down and gives me a frightened glare, and when I get close, he
rockets away and scuttles under the bed.

I don't think he's _seriously_ scared, because he'll come right back
out again in less than a minute, and then the scenario gets repeated.
He's almost tripped me a couple of times doing this.  It annoys me
that he's giving me this "I'm so scared" look, since I've never given
him cause to - and he hasn't done this all along, he's just started it
in the last couple of days when my summer break was over and I had to
go back to work.  (I teach at a university and work from home
otherwise, so I'm not usually gone for extended periods.)

So Spazzy Cat Thing Number One is shooting around the house as if
terrified, but doing it repeatedly in a manner that suggests that he's
trying to get my attention for something.  I'm thinking he might be
signalling a desire to play, but I don't want to push his boundaries.
Right now, he considers the underside of the bed to be his private
haven, and given everything he's been through, I don't really want to
threaten that.

Does this sound like an invitation, or is he just recognizing that I'm
about to leave & freaking out on it, or am I not playing with him
enough in general (he gets about 3 serious 30 minute interactive play
sessions - racing around the house, attacking toys, etc per day,
scattered throughout the day).  I haven't had a young cat in 15 years
- is this enough, or should I be providing more?  Or do I need to get
him another cat?

Next,  bedtime.  He needs a lot of playing with, and I've learned that
if I play with the Magic Feather Toy for a good half-hour before bed,
he'll sleep the night through instead of dancing on the kitchen
counters at 3am.

The last couple of nights (roughly coinciding with Spazzy Cat Thing
One) he's started beating up my arm like he used to beat up the other
cats.  I lie down on the bed with a book.  He lies down next to me and
looks expectant.  I pet him.  He grabs my arm (with both forelegs),
pulls it into him, and holds on while he uses one end to kick at it
and the other end to chew on it.  If I try to pull my arm away, he
grabs it again and pulls it back for more.  He'll try to get on top of
it, and will wrestle it around a good bit if I let him.

I experiemented - I don't actually have to be petting him to launch
this.  All I have to do is have my hand out and within 6 or 7 inches
of him, and he'll grab it, etc.  He'll do this over and over until I
hide my hand, at which point he settles down, snuggles up, and goes to
sleep.  Last night I grew weary of this, asserted dominance (not
without a battle), and insisted on rubbing his head while he was
grabbing my arm.  He stayed locked on, but closed his eyes, and when
they opened a slit I could see that his second, or third eyelids were
_completely_ across the surface of his eyes.  They were totally
cloudy.  The only time I've seen cats do this is when they were super
stoned on kitty tranks, or when they were really, really loving
something.

What is up with this behavior??? Should I permit it, or is that asking
for trouble? Is he hating things, or loving them?  It just occurred to
me that he might have decided that I am a Giant Cat and that he's
playing with me like he'd play with another cat.  On the other hand,
is this something that's likely to escalate to a territory battle &
make him spray (he's neutered, but I know from experience that
neutered males can still spray.  They just usually don't want to.)

Or maybe this is all perfectly normal, and it's just been way too long
since I've been around a young cat?

Thanks for any thoughts!

Tiger "Hey, That's My Arm You're Beating Up" Girl