22nd February – They are not humans!

The main cause of behavioural problems among cats is mainly their humans and their human made environment for them, in which they are being expected pets to live and to be happy at the same time. Cats are not humans, cats are not small sized children and they should not be treated or expected to behave as such. Cats need litter either soil or a similar natural texture litter, as they need to dig and cover their scent and they also need their privacy and a safety area for their toilet needs. Therefore cats should not be made to use human shaped toilets because their humans can't be asked to clean the litter trays or want to provide ones to indoor cats because of the smell, mess and effort they require to maintain it clean and usable. A cat that is being trained to use the human toilet is not happy, is a stressed cat since she has being trained to do something that is not in her nature and sooner or later she will start showing the signs of that stress in form of many well known cat behavioural problems. If cat carers think that providing a litter tray and having to regularly clean it is too much of an effort then they should have not cats as pets. Cats like any other pet needs a lot of care and requires a lot of effort and dedication for life.
When we're unconsciously anthropomorphising our pets by giving them human attributes, emotions and expecting human behaviour we don't seem to realise that we are actually treating our pets like humans as most of us see our pets as special, who they understand our thoughts, emotions and feelings and they talk to us back in their own way, while at the same time they seem to be capable of showing us the same emotions.
But of course nobody says that cats and dogs have no emotions and or that they are not intelligent or not capable of symbolic interaction or communication but simply that they are different species and although they have similarities with us at the same time they do see the world differently than they way we do and therefore they will at times behave and respond as cats and dogs in the environment they are sharing with us. So the sooner we understand this the better our relationship with our pets will become as then they will not need to show us in their own way that they are not happy with their environment and with the way we are treating them....