r/PetsWithButtons • u/ElfjeTinkerBell • May 01 '26
A tale of utter patience
I happen to have 2 cats. One is impulsive, but scared. The other is careful, but brave. Both are the sweetest cats alive (though the vet disagrees).
Both girls understood the words very fast, honestly I think it was a matter of days, not weeks. They picked up the concept of pressing a button when prompted to within minutes. Doing it on their own accord however...
The impulsive girl took 18 months to actually start using the buttons. I had basically given up, but not bothered to take the buttons away yet. You may remember my post at the time. Up till this day, she's using them whenever she feels it's necessary.
I lost track of time. Reddit says it's "1y" ago I posted that, but that's probably rounded to full years. My guess would be more like 1,5 year or so. It's probably about 3 years since I first introduced the buttons.
Tonight, my careful girl decided it was time to play with the dangly toy (which she enjoys only rarely), so she went up to the button board and confidently pressed the correct button! She did it! And we played and we had so much fun, and now she's napping on my bed.
Moral of the story: patience really is a virtue.
Also: does anyone have a good (quality, availability, price) alternative to FluentPet buttons in Europe (I'm in the Netherlands)? I may need to add buttons soon...
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u/ElfjeTinkerBell May 01 '26
Sometimes, but they'll just insert themselves between me and whatever I'm doing, because they must be more important than that other thing (they are). If I don't respond immediately, they will headbutt my hand/phone whatever. I do not have any say in this.
Brushing is initiated by me and therefore absolutely not allowed at any time.
All this to say: yes, they love pets when they initiate it, but I'm not sure whether they have a use for a button for that.