Cats' Daily Purrs & Meows

11th June – My other...cat!!

2008-06-11T07:35:00.001-07:00

As a cat behaviourist I'm in generally rather proud for my own cats behaviour as I have managed to train them to behave in an acceptable for their home environment way but at the same time in accordance of course of their natural instincts and behaviour as cats. As a result I have encountered personally very few behavioural problems, only once to be exact and this small problem that I have to deal with was from the ex-stray cat we decided to adopt who had some health issues before and who used displacement behaviour to alleviate the discomfort he was feeling. As a result of this 'good' and acceptable behaviour that all my three cats are showing I often use them as a good example when I advise on cat behavioural issues.
But of course there is always the issue with the neighbouring cats and in particular one that lives near by and who after she lost her sister seems to have shown a preference for my house than her own and a rather serious attachment to me and my partner. As a good neighbour and caring cat carer I have given free advice to the people that they are looking after the cat but of course I do not know whether they have taken it into account or whether they believe that they know better and that I'm a noisy neighbour who should mind her own business... Wherever the case I know for certain that their cat spends hours outside our front door, enjoying the little treats I give her because she is extremely skinny for her size and age and she seems to prefer to follow me than her human carer when she is being asked to make a choice.
Since I've always being the kind of person that children and animals seem to like I understand the cat's choices and the fact that she has overcome her timid personality when it comes to dealing with my own and my partner's attentions and behaviour but at the same time I feel a bit confused when it comes to my own planning attentions. Should I play again the role of the interfering and noisy neighbour and talk to the cat's carers about their cat and offer once again some advice and hoping that this time they will pay some attention or should I just come straight to the point and suggest to take care of the cat permanently myself if they are not so keen on looking after her themselves or simply should I just carry on feeding and giving her attention like before?
Sometimes people think that they are doing what they believe it is best for their pets and some other times they simply don't care and it is difficult to know in which situation you currently are without hurting feelings or offending people that they are friendly and social in their own way! Unfortunately it is really difficult when you care about the world and creatures around you to play it neutral and not to take a stand....

May 6th - How natural is our cats' behaviour

2008-05-06T06:44:00.000-07:00

The old and very common question or dilemma among cat carers is of course whether they should let their cats roam free outside or whether they should keep them permanently indoors especially since the dangers of being outside are often greater than having the freedom to come and go wherever they feel like. Plus there is the other issue as well since cats are predators after all and they seem to prey on many garden birds and small animals and according to some they seem to be responsible or at least contribute to the extinction of many bird species or to the small numbers that they are living now. Of course this is questionable and for some this is a natural behaviour from cats which we can't really change.
Although it is true that cats were originally domesticated to keep the numbers of rodents down and therefore to protect human food resources and infectious diseases that were originated from rodents from spreading now, after all that time, they are not anymore what they used to be before they were brought 'home' by humans, wild that is.
The belief that the cat should be allowed to go outside even if she was born and lived almost all her life indoors because it is cruel and against her nature instincts it is only the belief of those irresponsible cat carers who are not capable of looking their pets properly. They seem to fit perfectly the profile of those cat carers who will easily accuse dog owners of being irresponsible if they don't keep their dogs 'under control' at all times but at the same time they don't want to know what their own pets are up to when they are outside.
A cat that lives with humans, sleeps and rests on chairs, beds, eats food that it has being bought especially for her, taken to the vet every time she sneezes, given shots to boost her immune system and protect her from illness, wears collars to be identified as a domesticated one, plays with plastic mice on a string, is not the same natural behaved cat that lived in the wild so many years ago. She has changed, evolved to a more human way of life and she depends now more and more on us for her survival. A domesticated cat therefore can live happily indoors and does not need to be outside if she there is danger and threats from cars, humans or other animals. She has adapted after all this time to live with us and she doesn't need a 'natural' way of life, as she is already have one, living with the creatures she knows, us humans. A cat is not a wild animal, is a social one like her carers, the humans.

17th March – Cat vs Human – the cat wins...

2008-03-17T10:52:00.000-07:00

All cat carers know that cats are stubborn and they will normally get what they want when they want it. In many cases it is the humans' fault as they seem to underestimate the thinking capabilities of the cats. Cats not only have a large brain comparing to the rest of their body but also they have good short and long term memory and also they are easy to train (when they want to and there is something to gain) and they will learn from us!
When my cat wants to eat he will go through a long list of things that he will do to get his dinner or breakfast more likely, things which he knows will annoy us and make us eventually give in to his demands.
So the first thing he will try in the morning it will normally be the usual feed me now, I'm starving, 'having eaten for days...', 'meow', in many different begging and rather pathetic tones to loud and demanding ones. Then when this doesn't seem to work he will go to phase two: the litter tray. Digging and covering in the cat tray it can be really annoying when it is consistent and goes on for what it seems to be forever...and at the early hours of the morning, the sound can easily drive you off the bend! If this doesn't work then it is phase three the climbing of the rails at the staircase and the mad chase of himself... At this point my partner has already given up and has decided that it is time to get up and feed the cat which of course results in the cat's mind as a total success since he got what he wanted, getting up one of the humans so they can feed him....of course there is always phase four which never fails, the chasing of the other two cats which ends up in a lot of growling, hissing and meowing and which of course never fails to get up both the humans!

22nd February – They are not humans!

2008-02-21T17:50:00.000-08:00

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....

January 28st – Separation anxiety for cats and their humans.

2008-01-28T12:07:00.000-08:00

Often the problem of separation anxiety appears prominent in some relationships of cats with their human but the problem in some other cases becomes even worse when the humans are the ones that they actually are suffering from separation anxiety, when they are away from their pets even more, even if it is only for a few hours and such choices or decisions such as going on holiday and being away from home and their cat become impossible to become ever reality...
When the cats are suffering from separation anxiety the advice that it is often given is simply to allow the cat to spend less time with their human and more on their own by being provided with alternatives such as play activities and toys, encouraged to keep some distance occasionally and even in some cases by getting another companion and generally try to wean to cat from the constant human company. But unfortunately in some cases it becomes more and more difficult to treat such an anxiety particularly when the cats' human(s) is at home all the time and that human is extremely attached to the cat and treats her/him like a surrogate child, being overprotective and pampering the cat at all times. People who spend a lot of time indoors with few social relationships with other people and who are depending on their pets for company and emotional solace are in need of advice and perhaps help as much as they are their pets. In such cases you need to treat the human's before you try to treat the cat's anxiety as it is also possible that this human separation anxiety will then pass easily to the cat as every other emotional imbalance when the humans and the pets in the household are very closed.
So by running to find out what is wrong any time the cat makes a noise not only will make the cat very spoilt and demanding as she will as a result learn how to get what she wants when she wants it but also will quite possibly lead to also physical along with psychological problems as any possible disturbance in that environment will end up be disastrous for human and cat e.g the human needs to spend some time away from the cat).
Cats are by nature independent creatures and they need to be treated as such. They need to have their own space and to be occasionally left alone even when they live permanently indoors and to also have a routine and discipline if they are to stay emotionally and psychologically healthy and that applies to their humans too, they too need to keep some distance from their pets and to remind themselves occasionally that they live with a cat and not with a small human.

January 16th – I am a Cat!!

2008-01-16T10:11:00.000-08:00

It is a very common human tendency to see human attributes (to anthropomorphise) in our pets and to treat them as little 'humans'. But cats are extremely intelligent creatures as their humans will tell you and they can easily learn behaviours from us which sometimes will surprise us, make us wonder and even in some cases will annoy us!
It is well known that cats can be really stubborn, or very persistent and in some cases their persistence will even surpass ours...A good example is when they want something and have learned how to go about getting it... In most cases we will simply give in, with no much fuss as we can' be asked or bothered or we can't bear the thought of our cat seemingly being unhappy by not getting what she wants, food, attention, play time, etc. But then again there will be other occasions when we have to say no and try to ignore them as what they want they simply can't get and can't give them and this can be the hardest bit as they will keep on begging by either meowing, staring and generally using any method they can think of till eventually get what they want.
A good example in my case is Ripley's persistence to sit wherever I have sat before and in particular on my special spot in my sofa, the only one where I can sit comfortably and work on my laptop...but Ripley wants to sit there and she won't give in...She will just stand next to me while the rest of the sofa is empty and available and just stare at me with her big begging eyes (they look as begging to me anyway) for hours and she will refuse to move or sit to the empty and available place. Of course the moment I move from my spot and without actually have got up fully, Ripley will jump to the nearly empty seat and I'll have to be careful not to sit down again and squashed her.
Normally in such situations and other places I will give in and sit somewhere else but when I'm working I need to be in the right place, the right side of the sofa so I will have to push her gently away so I can sit down again with the whole process being repeated again and again, till finally I stop working and go downstairs leaving her to enjoy my own empty seat. But Ripley being Ripley and a cat the moment I leave the room she will decide that she doesn't want to be in that room as well and she will go to the bedroom and jump on the bed where she will stay till I come back again for the battle of the stubborn minds to begin once more!

January 12th – Accidents do happen...The conclusion...the stitches are off. .

2008-01-12T13:41:00.000-08:00

Finally, yesterday was the day when Ripley had to go to the vet's to have her tail stitches removed. In generally she has being a really good 'patient'. Ripley always has been the best cat when it comes to not causing any problems, she will eat anything you giver her, wet food or biscuits, she is quite happy to sleep on the sofa, bed, chair, etc wherever there is a space available without causing any fuss (except from her recently preference for the sofa upstairs, my seat, but this is a different subject for a different day), she will play on her own when she feels like and she will appreciate any kind of attention she is given, when it is given and of course she has never caused any kind of problem in the few occasions when she had to have stitches (when she was spayed and the very recent accident with her tail) which made the collar she was wearing a waste of time and caused a lot of unnecessary stress. During the period of two weeks that she had the stitches she didn't try even once to pull them off and she was only licking the area around the wound (although the first time I saw her licking around the stitches I panicked as my first thought was that she was trying to remove the stitches, but of course that wasn't really the case...). So I was pretty confident that her tail was healing perfectly and I was also pleased that the fur had started growing again and soon the tail would look like a proper one again, minus a couple of inches or according to the vet, minus one and a half inches. But nevertheless I was still worrying and was looking forward to the removal of the stitches day as I wanted to be reassured by the vet that everything was fine with her...On the other hand the stitches were really small and they looked so tempting to just try and remove them with a small pair of scissors on my own than having to put Ripley through the entire stressful situation of catching her and putting her into a basket and walk to the vets' to have the professional do it .... But I know better and I want the best possible care for my cat that I went of course for the best solution possible, well at least I thought I was, anyway. It has always being my strong belief through personal and working experience that stress can play a great factor in the wellbeing of a pet not only the psychological one but also the physiological one too and unfortunately in many cases far too often vets do not pay the required attention to the pet's level of stress or they see it as important as they should do which can lead to dire results. If the cat/pet is stressed will be less likely to recover quickly from any kind of illness and in some cases it can even contribute to make the situation worse or even cause an unexpected death. Therefore it is important to make certain that stress levels are always being taken into consideration along with any illness symptoms and every effort is made to relive that stress and comfort the cat to help with a speedy recovery.
So having to catch Ripley and put her into the basket was again a very stressful situation not only for her but for us as well and for Sheng Chi who is more attached to Ripley than Choo Choo and everything that seems to stress her upsets Sheng Chi too.
But at least this time the journey was only a couple of minutes just down the road and the whole 'operation' lasted a couple of minutes in which time the vet checked the condition of the now almost closed tail wound, which was doing fine and Ripley was fine when she arrived at the vets'. A behaviour that is quite common for many for many normally timid cats who seem to get in a panicking mode when they are first put in their basket and sometimes during the journey to the vet but the moment they arrive there and the vet takes them out of the basket they become the friendliest creatures ever and they allow the vet not only to handle them like they knew him/her for years but also they will go back into their basket with no problems whatsoever! Ripley has always being a timid cat who doesn't like strangers, people she doesn't know but she seemed OK with both vets that they examined her, she wasn't scared or made any kind of sound to show fear or any form of being scared, not even a bit...
But the good thing was that at least the stitches were finally off, her tail is healing fine and the fur has started growing again and the end of the shaved tail looks again like a cat's tail and she was safe and sound back home. All in all it took less than 15 minutes from the moment she was put into the basket till the moment she was out again looking for her bowl with biscuits... Although she has lost a little bit of her tail she is just fine and doesn't seem to care about the missing bit at all, happy to be in her familiar environment again, crunching away her favourite biscuits...

January 7th – Obsessive compulsive behaviours

2008-01-07T07:33:00.000-08:00

When your cat shows symptoms of obsessive behaviour disorder it can then become a really difficult situation to cope with and as a result it can cause a lot of problems and stress to the cat and humans. Especially in cases when the disorder is caused by stress and anxiety which are difficult to figure out and any attempts to use some form of medication to help with the situation causes more stress to the cat. It becomes a vicious circle as the cat will continue lick or overgroom and bite the area to relive the stress the use of medication caused as licking and grooming is the way their use to calm themselves if they feel stressed and are in pain and therefore they will make things worse. What is normally required to stop them is usually trying to distract them or calm them so they can relax and get sufficient rest and sleep as sleep helps them boost their immune system and therefore get better sooner.
By of course the other difficult part along with treating the disorder is trying to figure out what has caused that behaviour, whether it is just stress or some other external cause such as skin irritation and reaction to products used in the house, food that they are allergic too, etc. It is often easier to pin the cause if it is just an allergic reaction but becomes more difficult if it is just stress as sometimes cats they would get upset by things which do not think or believe that they will upset them in the first place. In such cases when the cat shows the symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder it becomes difficult to treat her as the vet will normally prescribe some form of medication to ease the symptoms but he/she won't tell you what has caused it and as result the cat will either get used to the medication and soon will have no effect or the medicine will have some unwanted and unpleasant side effects.
So what is a solution? Of course you should have your cat checked by the vet to find out possible physical causes. But obsessive licking and overgrooming parts of the body in most cases will require for a cat to have a relaxed and safe environment, to be distracted wherever possible and to be given an alternative to use instead of grooming him/herself. Figuring out what causes her to behave that way it is also important as for any treatment to work it will require first of all the removal of the cause. Therefore it is better if the human carer tries to figure out what stresses and upsets her/his pet and not to depend on the vet to tell him/her.
He/she knows better the cat and he/she will be able to figure out what in her current environment upsets her/him as not always the cause is something that might have suddenly changed. Cats that are left on their own at home for hours with nothing to do on their own can easily start show signs of obsessive behaviour because of boredom as well as cats that become over attached to their humans. Sometimes our cats will need a lot of help and understanding from us but of course they worth it and therefore we should do whatever we can to help them.

January 4th – Accidents do happen ....Cats know best!

2008-01-04T07:23:00.000-08:00

After seeing Ripley getting to her tail and being able to lick the shaved area despite the collar she was wearing and not really wanting to put on another one, bigger and probably more uncomfortable and causing a lot more distress I was left with not many options to what should have been the better solution for my cat. There was no way that I could have taken her back to the vets to have another collar fitted and I didn't really want to take off the one she was wearing despite the fact that it didn't seem to do what it was supposed to do in the first place. I wasn't totally sure that it would have being for the best if Ripley was not wearing the collar for at least a few more days as it was too soon, as only four days have passed since the 'operation' and the healing was still in process.
So the only thing it was left for us to do was to just leave her be and to keep an eye on her at all possible times and to try to prevent her from licking or getting to the stitches wherever possible and to keep an eye on the wound to see if it was healing or getting worse.
Of course as Ripley wasn't so keen with her new piece of neck wear she was trying to get it off any time she had the opportunity which meant that the ribbon that was wearing to keep the collar in its place was getting lose, she was pulling it and the knot was getting undone all the time and at the same time she was eating any piece of thread that was coming from the ribbon. So as we didn't want to tie the ribbon again and make it perhaps too tight and cause an accident the only thing we could do was to cut anything that it was hanging and it was out of place and to tie it up again and again and again...The whole thing seemed to turn to a nightmare as the collar seemed to cause more trouble than done any good and I was now counting the hours till the day we could have being able finally to take it off. To make things worse my other half had to travel to London the following day for business which meant that I wouldn't have being able to take Ripley to the vet if something gone wrong unless I had some extra help...as she won't go inside her basket willingly and now with her injured tail it would have being more difficult for one person to even try!
But of course things not always going according to plan and our cats won't always do what we want them to do! So Ripley had a different opinion of how long she was going to wear that stupid collar and as cats are very intelligent and can figure out things for themselves it wasn't long before we found out on the same day the collar lying on its own under the bed and Ripley sitting happy and finally relaxed on the bed without a collar. Despite the fact that the collar was tied and very narrow at the end for her head to pass and that it was also tied up with the the ribbon she still manage to take it off without 'damaging' it. Unbelievable! Her tail seemed OK, the stitches were in place and Ripley was as happy as she was before the dreaded day of her accident, some four days before. To celebrate that new freedom she visited her bowl of biscuits a few times and she was able to eat without making a mesh and scattering all the biscuits outside, drunk plenty of water, ran freely in the rooms upstairs without bumping at doors and furniture and found her catnip cushion and had a good roll over on the carpet...
She was again a happy and relaxed cat, she could do all the things she couldn't do for four days. Even Sheng Chi finally decided to come upstairs without being scared of the black cat in the white collar anymore as now upstairs it was only Ripley sleeping on the bed and not hiding under it looking miserable and stressed.
As for her tail, well it has being now three days since the hood 'accidentally' came off and we have taken off today ourselves and she has not attempted to remove the stitches herself or seems to be bothered about them or the state of her tail anyway. Which it seems to support my beliefs once more that vets not always know what they are doing...as they would have simply told us to keep the hood for a few days and to observe the cat's behaviour if she was trying to get to the stitches to keep the hood for the whole week if not to simply remove it earlier. Besides they do not know Ripley as much as we do, she is not an adventurous cat and she have never needed a collar when she was spayed as she didn't bother with the stitches then...if the vet had simply asked me about her normal behaviour she wouldn't have to put her through this whole bad experience... a really stressful experience not only for Ripley but for the other two cats and of course us. So it seems to be true...not all vets are to be trusted and believed...

January 2nd - Accidents do happen...what's the point, really!

2008-01-02T10:36:00.000-08:00

Cat carers usually trust their vet as they believe that they know better and they will do what is the best and suitable for their cat. But unfortunately this is not always the case. In many cases vets simply don't care, as for them your cat is one of the many animals they treat and if they get it wrong is not the end of the world! You can always replace him/her with another pet, it is only after all a pet..... These kinds of vets, and I'm not say here that all vets are the same, and hopefully these mentioned here are only the minority, do not really care for the animals they treat or they do not seem to have the passion that a vet needs to be able to do his/her job as he/she should. Vets that they are working in a place for only a few months and then they move to another place or even country are the worse people to treat your pet because they now that then next time you will visit they won't be there and of course they do not get the opportunity to somehow get to know and become familiar with the pets they are treating, particularly for these pets that they need to be treated regularly because of perhaps a chronic illness, etc.
Unfortunately my personal experience and the experiences of quite a few of cat carers I met due to behavioural issues have not being the best to restore my faith in the capabilities and knowledge of pet physiology and psychology in vets. We've lost three cats, the latest one being the one I was really attached to and whose loss was and still is a big shock and caused me a lot of distress, and all the three deaths were the result of either misdiagnosis or mistreatment of the cat.
So as you understand having to deal with vets again for the latest accident with Ripley's tail brought back stressful memories and for me reasonable doubt to everything that the vet said and done. I wanted to do the best I could for my cat but at the same time I wasn't sure that the vet did, especially when I've originally received conflicting opinions on how to first treat the damaged part of the tail (do, don't do...). But when we took her to the vets and we saw that there were quite a few there and we were asked to see one and then another performed the operation and somebody else informed us on the treatment and what was left for us to do I started to feel worried and very uncomfortable with the whole situation...
But as I said I simply wanted to treat the injured tail and do whatever was required to prevent further problems with the injury and of course to take her home as soon as possible as the whole experience was a very traumatic for her and had caused her a lot of stress and of course pain. So I accepted the idea that she will need to lose part of the tail as it was really damaged (this is the point that I gave a really really nasty look to my partner again as this was all of his fault as he was careless and closed the door without checking whether there was a cat near by and as result damaged Ripley's tail and made it necessary to have to see a vet), that she would also have to wear that very uncomfortable Elizabethan collar for a week so she couldn't get to her tail's stitches and therefore allowed the wound to close up quickly. But of course I didn't like the idea of her wearing something that looked so uncomfortable and make it very difficult for her to eat (a very messy busy business and also made it impossible for her to eat her favourite food, pate flavoured meat or fish as the pate would got stuck in the collar and she will have to carry food that she couldn't even reach with her 'hood' along) and even getting biscuits from a very wide bowl was extremely difficult for her to do as well as drinking too and let's not discuss how difficult she found it to move around as she was constantly bumping into furniture and miscalculating distances and of course she couldn't sleep properly as she couldn't curl up as she will normally do. The whole situation was very unpleasant and stressful for her and the other cats too who saw her as a strange outside creature and kept their distances from her and as a result she spent most of her time under the bed hiding and only coming out occasionally to try to eat and for us to scratch her neck and other areas which she couldn't get to on her own, while she was wearing that silly collar. But I thought, what the hell, it is only for a week and it is for her own good!.
But what is the f****** point of putting an uncomfortable collar to a cat for an injury that she can get to it with or without the collar? The tail is after all an easy place that cats can get to it and lick it particularly when that area has being shaved and there are stitches hanging from the end area, they only have to turn around and to start licking without being stopped by that stupid collar. Do the vets really think before they recommend solutions to such problems? It would have made some sort of sense if the wound was next to the head or neck area so she can't get to them to lick or an area in the face so she can't scratch it, although cats are pretty clever, intelligent and they can always figure out ways of doing things. But putting a silly collar on a cat and stressing her more than she has to it it is a rather careless and unprofessional method of treatment from the vet's part.
So when we phoned the vet again, now worrying that she will manage to get the stitches off before the wound has the time to heal properly, what do you think that our 'professional' vet did suggest? He told us that we should take her to our local branch (the one that opens strange hours) on Monday and having a new and bigger collar fitted so it could stop Ripley from getting to her stitches. Of course the thing that our clever vet didn't think of is that a bigger 'hood' will also mean more discomfort for the cat who she won't then be able to get to her food or drink at all or she would be able to move through furniture, as she has already problems with eating, drinking and moving and let's not forget the inconvenience of being unable to lick and scratch herself, and every time she is trying to lick herself with her tongue she ends up licking the surface of the hood instead.
A bigger collar will not solve the problem, it will simply make it worse as the cat will be more stressed, unable to eat, drink , move and sleep and the healing process will take longer as the cat will be more stressed and of course it is also possible that during this period that she might get dehydrated and malnourished which won't help the healing process at all. And of course we should not forget the other two cats and particularly Sheng Chi who has freaked out with Ripley's appearance and she hasn't come upstairs since the day Ripley came back from the vet's with her new 'garment'.
So taking Ripley to vet's so soon to put another bigger collar was definitely out of the question and the only thing we could do was to keep on the one she was already wearing (although I was very much tempted to take it off but my partner said that we should keep it on even if it wasn't doing its job as well as it was supposed to do) and to try to distract her and stop her when we saw her licking the end of the tail with stitches, creating a bad association with licking the tail will stop her from wanting to lick as she will then consider the action as not rewarding. But of course as many cat owners would know things not always going according to plan when you are dealing with cats because cats have their opinion and mind when it comes to what they should and shouldn't do....(to be continued).

30th December – Accidents happen: Part 2

2007-12-30T07:26:00.001-08:00

Apparently damaging part of the tail or limb in this fashion is a rather common accident for many cats and dogs, but unfortunately for Ripley because of the nature of the accident and the severe way the tail was injured an inch and a half of the tail had to be amputated. To perform that simple operation the vet said that he would had to use anaesthetic for the operation, and due to the fact that Ripley is one of those cats that it is almost impossible to give medication in the form of pills he had to give her instead a two's week injection to avoid infection, and of course she will had to have stitches (which they would have to come off in 2 weeks time which of course this will also mean another visit to the vet for the removal but at least this could be done in our local vet, which is only a couple doors away but opens at strange hours and for a very limited period only on week days) and finally and worst of all she would also have to wear an Elizabethan collar for a week.
Unfortunately when such accidents happen (because your partner was careless and didn't check whether there was a cat near by when he tried to close the bath door despite regular warnings about and particular Ripley's habit of following any human when going to the bathroom) the result is discomfort and pain for the cat or human who has the accident but also stress for everybody who lives in the same house (cats and humans), but at least after the wound has being treated, you then know that there is no immediate danger for the health of the cat anymore and you can relax a bit. At least now you know for certain what kind of injury your pet has suffered and what you need to do and how long it will take for your pet to fully recover. Losing a bit of a tail it is quite bad but at least it was only a small part which hopefully will not make a lot of difference to her behaviour. And of course it is also that kind of relief then that also helps us recover pretty quickly from the shock of the bill that the nurse presents you with. A bill of £150 for cutting a bit and shaving a lot of the tail and for a stupid and uncomfortable collar which could have probably made it yourself pretty easily and even made it to look a bit more comfortable and better looking than it is but then again at least your cat is insured and hopefully you'll get some of that money back. The important thing is that your cat has being treated and the injury wasn't that bad as you thought it was or was it?
So after a couple of hours of worrying while the operation is being taking place after all they are cutting off part of your cat's body and she is under anaesthetic, which can be dangerous in some cases, your vet tells you that everything is fine and your cat is ready to be taken back home. She looks a bit dopey but of course this is an expected effect of the medication.
So the journey back is not that bad either as the cat is still asleep and she hasn't realised yet that she is wearing a stupid and uncomfortable collar or that she is missing part of her tail while the rest is being shaved and stitches are hanging where the end of the tail used to be.
Finally you arrive home, you get her out of the basket and you then sign with relief. 'The worst is 'over', you think.
But of course you seem to have forgotten in the mist of worrying and stressing about the other cats who are waiting rather perplexed and a bit freaked out at home that the new appearance of till now familiar and friendly cat, the new smells that she brings with her of medication and strange place and people and of course the missing part of the tail with the stitches, the shaved rest and of course that funny looking and probably smelling collar will definitely freak them out and make them worry of Ripley and at first of you too. So to add to your already built up stress you have also to deal with Ripley's reactions when she finally realises that something is missing, something is different and something has being added to her neck and head.... So the first reaction as it was expected was that of panic when she got of the basket and struggled to stand to her own feet and then she attempted to free herself of what it looked and probably felt like a very uncomfortable neck wear...
Of course it is expected to take some time to get used wearing that horrible collar, to avoid pumping into things and miscalculating distances and spaces where her head now can fit in and of course to eat, drink, move, sleep, use the tray, etc while at the same time I will try to help her adjust with providing wider bowls for feeding and drinking and give her more attention and help her scratch in places where she can't reach any more while at the same time I need to try to help the other two cats realise that she is still the same cat they knew before the vet visit. It is going to be a very stressful week for humans and pets, but at least for now the stress of the day and the effect of the anaesthetic which hasn't worn off yet have helped her to finally go to sleep in her familiar, favourite spot which gives everybody else a feel for normality for a while at least.
(to be continued...)

29th December - Accidents do happen!!

2007-12-29T11:48:00.000-08:00

No matter how much doted and careful cat carers might be by keeping for example our cats your cats indoors to keep them safe and healthy and to avoid serious accidents and illnesses that they can be caused when venturing outside from other pets, humans, cars and wild animals, still not always, seem to be able from preventing some accidents from happening. You might keep your wires hidden, having in the house only cat friendly plants, keep away or locked poisoned substances but even so you can't always avoid some accidents from happening, stupid accidents, like having for example the tip of the cat's tail being caught by the door because you didn't see the cat before you've tried to close the door.
The worst case scenario is when such an accident does occur then you don't seem to really know how bad your cat might have being injured until the moment when you've seen the amount of fur that has come off from the tail or the state of the tip of the tail when you have finally managed to coax your cat to come out from hiding since she has freaked out and she is now terrified of you. Unfortunately cats are very good in hiding till at same cases is really late, any form of pain and physical discomfort that they might be feeling so in some cases you can't tell how much they have being injured or how serious that injury might be and of course vet's emergency calling numbers are not that useful in many cases with their conflicted diagnosis and advice. 'Yes you should put some form of natural antiseptic cream on it and the cat would be fine', or 'Do not put anything, just let her be as the stress will make the bleeding worse, the bleeding will stop eventually'. So you are usually left confused, feeling really guilty because your cat got injured mainly because you were careless and decided to close the bathroom door, while you've already known that cats don't like closed doors and you will always find one where there was a shut door...and worried that your cat is seriously injured and you are not doing anything to actually help her.
So first thing in the morning you ask a closed relative who has a car (and who, poor soul, was working night shift) to take you to the near town before 9 o' clock in the morning as it is Saturday and the vet's only opens between 9 and 10 for emergencies on Saturdays. So you get up early in the morning after you've have spent the entire previous night checking on the cat every half an hour because the tail looked bad and the bleeding didn't really stop and you dig out the cat basket and then you will spend the next hour or so trying to put her in the basket without further stressing her and make the bleeding worse. Of course it doesn't help with the situation the fact that the injured cat is the most timid of the three who doesn't like going outside or even sniffing the air outside when the window is open for that matter, or she likes people and other pets in general. So after an hour of trying to catch her and get her into the basket without causing her too much stress and provoking defensive attacks from the cat and obtaining yourself unnecessary scratches and bites she is finally inside and ready to go to the vet. Of course by now you are worrying sick because she looks that she is in distress as well as in pain, while at the same time you are in pain yourself as well as your hands are now covered in scratches and bites and have turned a red colour, but at least she is in her basket.
At least the journey to the vet's is not that stressful and the cat seems quite relaxed and not as stressed as you thought she will be (of course natural remedies and Feliway have helped too) and even the waiting in the vet's is not as bad despite the consider number of dogs and cats in the waiting room.
Finally you see the vet and the diagnosis is not that good... (to be continued).

December 12th – Cat Carers mistakes

2007-12-12T08:15:00.001-08:00

It is true that the behaviour of a cat would be at least 50 per cent down to the influences of the environment she grew up and the one she now lives in. A timid born cat if she is living among other pets and people she will eventually become a lot more confident than she would have been if she was living on her own with only one human carer. The same applies to cats that they might have shown traits of exploratory behaviour and were also shown to be in general rather extrovert and although in their home environment they might appear to be brave, curious and in some cases a bit of a bully when strangers are visiting their house or when for an example an opportunity appears for them to explore unfamiliar territory they will quite possibly show an unexpected timid behaviour and they will more likely go into hiding or they will simply refuse to explore. These are behaviours which the cats have learned under their current living environment. But of course these types of cats that they have already the traits of being rather fearless are much easier to train to overcome their fears than cats who are timid by nature as they are going to be rather conscious when it comes to any kind of changes.
Of course fear and weariness of anything new and unfamiliar it is a natural trait for predators small as the cats and vulnerable to other larger and more dangerous ones, a trait which they need if they are to survive. This is why quite often cats that they are rather scared of people and other pets and who spend considerable time outside tend to survive longer than the ones that they are very friendly and trustworthy. In which cases it might be better if the cat is going to spend time outdoors then not to be trained to lose all her fears if possible. A bit of aggression and defensiveness might be required for survival.
As cats are generally weary of changes and other pets invading their territory it isn't also unusual to have regular confrontations with the new member cat and often to take a long time for one cat to get used to another. Cases of cats that they finally learn to tolerate the presences of other cats vary from one month to two years plus. Cats that they grew up in an environment in which only humans were around find it really hard to accept another pet in their territory as quite often have a difficulty to understand the other pet's body language. So while the other cat might be inviting the older cat to play, the older cat then wouldn't find really difficult to understand the younger's cat body language and as a result she will more likely interpret it as an imminent threat and she will then try to defence herself. Those cats that they have not grown up among other cats are more likely to understand better humans' body postures and even human voice tones than other cats. So this is why introductions and acceptances in such cases take a long time, the cat needs not only to protect her territory from a new unknown cat but also to make sense and communicate with that cat, she has to learn more or less a new body language.
Unfortunately in many cases humans seem to run out of patience and to expect things to settle down in a few days and the two cats to become the best of friends in a very short period of time. But of course this doesn't happen with many cats as some cats are more trustworthy, friendlier and have perhaps lived with other cats and have learned the important body language while others are the totally opposite and therefore they will as a result require a longer period to trust and understand.

November 27th - Where is my mouse?

2007-11-27T10:01:00.000-08:00

Watching a cat playing can be really entertaining and very insightful. Cats is believed they use play as a way to practice and improve their hunting skills as predators. This is why it is believed that kittens play a lot, through play they learn. But of course play in cats doesn't stop when the cats have grown and have mastered or not their hunting skills. As many cat carers will tell you cats like playing and pretending, well into their adult life and even in their senior years. For cats that they do have the opportunity to actual hunt and catch prey, playing and pretending or even treating a fake toy mouse as a real one, not and quite clearly knowing that it is not a real one and it is not going to move or try to escape, is a behaviour that often has us puzzled. What is the purpose of that behaviour if not for just having fun? If out and about hunting what is the need to pretend chasing a furry toy that it doesn't even look like a real mouse after all or more important smell like one (and not all toys have catnip)?
Sheng Chi, my youngest and very playful cat has a little play 'ritual' which she does on a regular basis and includes hiding her little black mouse toy under the box, which she uses for rolling, skating and sleeping, on purpose and then she pretends that she doesn't know where that toy mouse has gone and she looks around trying to find it. She plays a form of hide and seek with the little toy mouse and she spends some days a lot of time engaging in this activity like she would have done in a real situation with a real mouse (something that my other cat used to do – he passed away last year and he is still very missed – as well although when he was faced with a real mouse he has actually afraid of it). The fact that she hides the mouse, the fact that she knows that it's not a real mouse and the whole engagement in playing seems to show that she is doing it because she wants to entertain her self and have some fun. Another regular play activity for Sheng Chi and Ripley is to pretend that they are being chased by another 'invisible cat' and then to run in the house on their own or even playing hide and seek with an imaginary other cat. This behaviour is more commonly observed on my two female cats who never learned to play and interact with other cats but only with us despite the fact that they were never only cats in our house. Even Choo Choo who was used to interact and play with other cats, now after two year he has finally learned that if he wants to play he can play only on his own, either by chasing himself in the staircase or upstairs or by getting us involved in his playing as the other two do not want to play with him. But for all our cats play is a chosen activity and there is full awareness that this is just that, playing and not real, an activity for having some fun and to entertain themselves, something very similar to human activity, despite the fact that their after all a different species!!

November 19th – Cats and us

2007-11-19T06:59:00.001-08:00

Some times it is really difficult, well at least most of the times, to know for certain which is the best way to behave and communicate with your pets. People normally consider their pets as members of the family and in some cases when there are no children in the household become the 'replacement' children. We normally care, pamper and quite often spoil our pets and we are at the same time convinced that they understand us and return, in their own way, the love and care they get from us.
There are many examples from cat/pet owners in which they describe situations when their pets have comfort them when they were unwell, or under stress, unhappy, etc. There are even examples of pets that they have even saved their human carers when their lives were in danger. Our cats seem to know when we are coming home, when we want to play and be entertained and when we just want some company. They never complain or get annoy with us and they are always there when we need them.
But sometimes we are told that we seem to forget one simple fact of life. That our pets are not humans, they are of a different species and that perhaps their behaviour might not be what we think that it actually is. Questions often have being raised (and answered for us) on whether our pets see things the way we do and whether we are just perhaps too 'enthusiastic' and we just put too much 'meaning' on our pets' behaviour. There seems to be a lot of disagreement on whether pets and other animals have similar cognitive capabilities and emotions with us and whether our pets can have a 'theory of mind' or self consciousness. A subject which is really hard to prove or disapprove since animals do not have the capability of language as humans so they can answer our questions about them.
But beliefs of simple 'natural' or innate and just evolutionary behaviour from our pets are just too hard to be easily accepted from most of pet carers since we strongly believe that our pets know and understand us and even in some occasions 'talk' to us as we are too attach to them and we have stopped long ago to just see them as 'stupid animals' and instead we see them as our bets friends, children, companions, etc.
Our domesticated pets have spent far too many years in our social environment to have not being influenced by the human behaviour and way of thinking.
No matter what scientists have found there is no way that they can convince me that when I'm ill and stay in bed and my cat decides to stay next to me all the time, and not even wants to eat till I finally I'm well enough to get up myself, that this is a natural cat behaviour wired to his brain from birth. Cats and of course dogs will often do things because they simply want and not always because there is something for them to gain. My cat knows that the little black mouse that she plays with is a toy and not a real one but still decides that she wants to play with it and have some fun when she feels like. My other cat also knows when my partner is coming downstairs as he can recognise him from the sound his footsteps make on the stairs so he can rush and sit on my partner's chair first. He also knows too well that my partner is the one that he will give in to his begging for food when it isn't dinner time and he will look for him instead of me when he wants a snack.
If all these actions do not show a self consciousness and awareness and a capability of mental representations and symbolic interaction then perhaps we need to redefine all these concepts. And if pets do not use language why cats always use different meows with their humans and not with each other, if this doesn't mean that they are aware that humans use and understand better sounds than body language and therefore we seem to be able to understand the meaning of their different meows? Who is to say that all these meows are not words and that our cats are capable of using a simple form of cat language with no syntax and grammatical rules perhaps that they just use to communicate with us?
The fact is that we don't a lot about our brains and we are in most cases assuming how it it possible might work and how it might affect our behaviour and that we know a lot less about other species brains to even assuming anything.

November 14th - Responsible cat owners or not!

2007-11-14T07:31:00.000-08:00

Having recently seen in a local newspaper an article about the rehoming of a cat that was not looked after properly by his owner as he was left for three weeks with a broken leg because the cat owner couldn't afford the vet's fee (we should have a NHS for pets to avoid such situations as vets can be really expensive without necessary providing the required care for the pets) and then after I saw on BBC South news and read on the website also about Sgt Podge, the cat that is being left to roam all night and then he is being picked by the 'proud' owner at the same spot and at the same time every morning after he has wondered for nearly 2 miles away from home, it kinda made me feel very sorry for the apparently very stressed cats and also wondering whether these people should have allowed to have pets in the first place.
Particularly the 'baffled owner' of Sgt Podge (what kind of name is this for any living creature anyway?) who can't seem to be able to figure out why her cat got into this habit.
Maybe because she has allowed it to become a habit (cats can be trained to follow routine and schedule)? Or perhaps because the cat shouldn't be outside at night in the first place or even simply because Sg Podge is not really happy with his current 'owner' and home? Since the lady has already another 5 cats it is quite possible that Sgt Podge doesn't like living under the same roof with so many cats and has found another more suitable home where he doesn't have to compete over territorial and hierarchical issues?
Cats that are being neutered and they are happy with their home environment and particularly cats of that age do not wonder that far away, it isn't a normal behaviour for a domesticated cat (my own ex-stray cat doesn't even bother to look at the door when it is open let alone wanting to venture outside and wander...)...and I speak from experience as I advise on cat behavioural issues.
The lady instead of phoning the BBC to have her story told and filmed she should acted like a responsible pet owner and she should have instead asked an expert for some advice on her cat's behaviour and have tried to keep her cats indoors at night and not allow them to roam at night time, a time when many cats are known to face many dangers in not only in big cities and towns but also rural areas as they are frequently seriously injured or die from traffic accidents animal attacks and human cruelty during the dark hours. Cat owners should be responsible for their pets' actions and behaviour and they should not just behind common beliefs of independent and hard to train or control cats as cats like dogs are domesticated animals who live in our environment whether we like it or not.

November 12th – Night cat visits

2007-11-12T07:53:00.000-08:00

I'm one of the many cat carers who prefers to keep her cats indoors and in particular at night time since domesticated cats are most vulnerable and in danger at night time, independently from whether they live, in towns and cities or countryside. Cats are not safe outside at night time!
People often believe that it is cruel to keep cats indoors as they need to be free to wonder any time they like. No, that is not true. Cats can learn to live to any environment they find themselves into and the fact that they have adapted to all our living conditions all these years is a good example of this statement. Cats that they were born indoors and lived all their lives indoors they don't miss the life outdoors because they don't know what is to live outdoors and they have adapted to an indoor life. For these cats outside noises and smells are overwhelming and extremely stressful. Just imagine a human that had lived all his life in a city and all of the sudden he/she finds him/herself in the middle of a jungle with all the scary noises and wild life to cope with.
My cats do not feel the urge or the need to go outside when the window or patio door is open and if they accidentally put their head outside to sniff the air they get scared and start growling and hissing at the strange smells and noises and go to hiding till the window or the door has being closed. The same behaviour exhibits my ex-stray cat who doesn't show the slight interest to go outside when the door is open. They are all quite happy living indoors as they get all the attention, food and stimulation they need (our house is a cat friendly environment with more cat toys and furniture that human accessories and furniture).
But my cats do get upset when neighbouring cats are visiting our garden in the middle of the night and in particular when the neighbour's un-neutered tom cat visits the garden and sprays everywhere and even scratches at the door outside and hisses at my cats inside. Which behaviour quite understandable upsets my cats. Of course I could easily just pull the curtains and block the outside view to my cats but that would not be fair to them as they enjoy watching the life outside and in particular all the birds or small mammals that they are frequently visiting.
No, I don't think that blocking their view outside is the best solution. I think the ideal solution would have being if the visiting cat(s) was kept indoors at night for his own good and that his carer took responsibility and have him neutered which could make him less aggressive, not keen on roaming far and not wanting to spray all the time and to mark territory.
When cat carers would finally learn that they need to take responsibility for their cats actions like dog carers? They are responsible for the well being of their cats which means neutering them and keeping them indoors at night time to avoid get them injured and even dying from traffic accidents, other pets and wild animals attacks and even human cruelty. Cats are not wild animals, they are domesticated and as such they need to looked after appropriately by humans, they need to spend more time indoors for their own sake and for the wellbeing of the wild life that is visiting our gardens which includes small birds and other animals.

4th November – Sudden aggressive behaviour

2007-11-04T08:48:00.000-08:00

For some people and of course cat owners/carers it is difficult to simply accept the fact that cats like people, can easily get stressed particularly when they are not feeling well themselves and as result to start behaving differently than normally. Although most cat owners seem to understand and accept that some situations such as for example when there have been significant changes in their cat's environment can lead to changes in the normal behaviour of the cat, such as sudden toilet habit changes, spraying, scratching, etc. But when the behaviour suddenly changes and a friendly cat starts behaving aggressively towards the other cats in the household and in some cases towards the human and even their playing behaviour becomes a bit 'rougher' than normal then it is often quite hard to accept and believe that this behaviour can simply be the result of an illness and often the cat is being accused of being 'unreasonable', crazy or vicious.
But this sudden change in the behaviour could simply be the result of something quite understandable and normal, a possible illness such as earache, paw or some other part of the body itchiness or discomfort, or even something more serious...
We seem to forget that when we do not feel well ourselves and some part of our body aches we more than often change to very grumpy and easy irritable persons and we can be quite rude and sometimes aggressive towards other members of the family who might happen to be around. Therefore it is quite understandable when our cats start behaving in the same way when they are not feeling a hundred per cent well. As they don't have the opportunity and knowledge to know or even being able to ask us to give them some form of medication to relieve the pain they will then do what they can themselves to relieve the discomfort they feel which means quite often just trying to find a quiet place to hide till they are feeling better or in some other cases and when they are other cats/pets/humans around by being aggressive towards some other member of the family who is close by, normally at another cat, someone that they can easily pick on without fear of repercussions, a displacement activity. So quite often when two cats who until now they were seemingly OK with each one's presence start having rather rough fights and one seems to chase the other for no apparent reason it is quite easily be that he is either annoyed with somebody else, another cat/pet/human to whom he cant get to direct or also quite possible simply because he is not feeling that well himself. Sudden aggression therefore should be treated not only as a behavioural problem but also as a result of physical discomfort and it should always this factor taken into consideration and the cat if required should be checked by the vet as soon as possible.
Of course on the other hand consideration should also be taken for the other cat, the 'victim' as this form of sudden aggressive behaviour from the other cat can easily end up creating a very uncomfortable and stressful situation for her which could quite possibly might end up to a physical and psychological discomfort situation. The cat who is being chased therefore it is quite possible to begin showing sighs of such a physical and psychological discomfort (for example she might end up start spraying, visiting the litter tray frequently, scratching and overgrooming, etc as well of developing a sudden fear and refusing to come out of the hiding place or even wanting to come downstairs to eat, etc.)
So it is imperative that any forms of such sudden and unexpected aggressive behaviours are not allowed to become a common thing, or a habit and the cats are wherever possible kept away from each other and prevent the fights or chasing from happening by distracting the bullying cat while at the same time a relaxed environment is being provided for both cats and the cause of that sudden aggression is found and treated as soon as possible.

October 26th – The same old play thing!

2007-10-26T07:34:00.000-07:00

After all these years of learning, observing and getting educating all the time about cats and their behaviour I still found some black holes in my knowledge as all that experience and learning can't seem to help me figure out their playing or rather their toys preferences.
As a dedicated cat carer who wants only what is best for the physical and psychological well being of my cats I'm not only trying to find them things which they can use to play but also things that they can keep them entertain and stimulate them. After all you want your cats to be happy and entertained and at the same time to save the birds and some of the small mammals they are visiting your garden. As two of my cats they were born and stayed permanently indoors cats (while the third has shown his own a preference for the indoor life) they were always have being happy to play with toy mice and birds and they've never showed any incline to chase the real thing (although they like watching them from the window and some times they do get a bit excited, they are not that much bothered though as chasing a real bird would actually involved a lot of energy which my cats can't be asked to use for something that small...). But it is a hard and in some cases expensive work trying to find toys that your cats would like and they will play with them for a few days. As every cat carer would know cats do get bored with their toys very quickly and they tend to lose interest after a few days even if the toy is still in one piece. But that would have being fine if at least they showed some interest for the toy you've just got them and you spent hours on the internet trying to find and spend double the actual toy's price in delivery charges and charged 'accidentally' twice for the same silly thing.
But of course your cats (and it is even worse when you have more than one with different and peculiar preferences) don't see things the same way as you do and their preferences in toys always seems to be totally different to your own. Even when you think that after all these years you know what they like they seem somehow to be able to surprise you!
So you look for something interactive and more expensive of course that it will move and therefore will provoke some interest from your cats or something that other cat owners are raving about that their cats can't stop playing with or something that it has good reviews. So when you finally pick something and it eventually arrives (after a week of delays in getting to you the just out of stock item because of its popularity and the failed efforts from the delivery company in finding your house) you discover that it looks totally different to what you were expecting it to be and that your cats either don't seem to be interested in it or for some strange reason (smell perhaps?) they are scared of it. What a disappointment once again!
Then when you finally start accepting the idea that once again you wasted your money (twice) in something that your cat is never going to play with and you are getting ready to stack it up in the attic or spare room, or in the cupboard, in the box with the many other cat toys that your cats don't like or want to play with (even when you are showing them occasionally hoping for some small interest perhaps and not wanting to give up that easily or accepting the fact that these toys where not really tested on real cats, perhaps on their owners only) you find out that your cat loves the box that the toy came in instead and she can't stop chewing or sitting in it or that she has just discovered the freebie that came along and loves it ( a very cheap plastic horribly blue ball)!!!
If only you knew what they would have liked instead you would have saved all that money and time trying to find them something that you thought they would like to play with...but then again even if you did know you would still have spent that money after all as you want to keep your cats' happy and you'd rather deep down seem to enjoy spending money on your cats, makes you feel better, and it shows that you do care a lot about your fur babies and you don't mind spending a lot of money as they worth every penny! Now of course this could easily lead to another subject of how we actually see our pets, as a different species than us or as small humans and treat them as such...??

October 22nd – The 'hard to get me' game

2007-10-22T06:47:00.000-07:00

OK, it is true, very true. Cats are clever and some might even say perhaps too clever! Sometimes I just wonder if they like and enjoy wind us up! They probably think: 'Those stupid humans, who think they are, believing that they know everything, well, we'll show them then, who is the intelligent species here!'
It is true though. After years and years of looking after your cats and thinking after you have observed them day after day and nights that you know them pretty well, they do something completely new and unfamiliar and they will shatter all your theories of how cats usually behave in certain circumstances.
The worst case scenario is when they pretend to hate each other and then to unexpectedly find out that when you are not really watching they are not really the worst enemies after all, on the contrary the best of friends more likely. They simply do not follow their own rules.
My two females cats always acted with pure dislike and contempt towards our male one, who used to be a stray and they only tolerate him and they never wanted to get too close, play or sit and sleep next to him.
Their attitude always has been: 'You sit over there while I sit over here and you won't come near me!' But at the same time they do love to tease him by exposing their belly (especially Sheng Chi) who will sitting really close to him, almost at a touching distance but who at the same time will not allow him to come closer despite the fact that she will be exposing blatantly her belly and she will allow me to rub her belly but not allowing Choo Choo to come a bit closer. If then Choo Choo tries to be friendly too and comes a bit closer while he is exposing his belly too he will then more than likely get 'biffed' on the head for not sticking to the rules of keeping a certain distance between them. Yeah right!
Not fooled anymore as all these are just a good act, just for the shake of us humans as when they are on their own they tend to sit a lot more closer to each other, even touch and sniff noses and even share the same bed for sleeping and showing exposed bellies to each other! It is only when they know that we are watching that they start 'behaving aggressively' towards each other.
Well, if they think that they are fooling us then they are very much mistaken. Now we know that they are only acting after all!

October 11th – It is a sleeping thing!

2007-10-11T06:31:00.000-07:00

One of the things that cats know to do well and at the same to seemingly annoy humans is finding strange places to sleep and hide. Of course cats are not really doing things to annoy us but simply they do what their logic tells them to do.
But it can be annoying and sometimes really dangerous if you don't see the cat and then trip over, particularly when they decide to sleep in areas in the house that you would not normally accept them to do so.
A very good example is one of my cats, Choo Choo who was a habit almost to obsession, of insanely liking the staircase which he uses to play (it is really fun when he chased his paper ball on the steps and watches it bounce all the way down and then will bring it back up again to push it down again!!!), to sit and wait for the next victim to come down (human or cat) to attack and grab tails or legs and of course as a sleeping area. I mean the steps on the narrow staircase are not the most comfortable place to sleep but as you can see from the photo, Choo Choo thinks otherwise. Of course I had found them, all three of them in the past, sleeping in really obscure places, e.g Ripley on the top of the door! How could she balanced let alone sleep up there it is a totally mystery to me. Of course everybody knows how flexible cats can be and that they are having a good 'sense of balance' but sleeping on such a narrow space like the top of the door it is a bit extreme for my understanding...
The other thing that it can be annoying is their tendency to find secret places or hard to find for us, to hide and snooze. The times, both me and my partner, have spent wondering around the house, searching every possible corner to find a missing cat there have been plenty and even now they still manage to find such places, even when we think that we know all their hiding places. It could be anywhere; among your 'black' clothes on a shelf, inside the wardrobe, in the washing machine because it is cool then, on the top of a wardrobe or cupboard, inside the cardboard, inside a box, in the bath tub, sink, etc...the places are endless.
The other thing of course is that like with their toys they can get easily bored with their favourite sleeping areas and then they would look of course for new ones which means or us going around the house looking for them again...
Oh well I guess it is part of their charm and what makes them unique and adorable....well maybe, most of the times!

October 1st - Play behaviour and a little toy mouse

2007-10-01T06:55:00.000-07:00

It is often suggested that kittens learn social behaviours from their mother and other siblings. This is why it is recommended that they are weaned and taken away from their cat families at least when they are eight weeks or even older for some breeds

My two female cats Sheng Chi and Ripley they were both adopted when they were very young and although I was told then that they were 7 seven weeks, they both seemed far too young physical and emotional to be away from their mother. This of course resulted as it was expected to become very attached to me as they will quickly saw me as a replacement for their mother and although this has some disadvantages as it makes them prone to separation anxiety behaviour when I'm not around at the same time it has also made them accepted me as the top cat, the one in charge who they obey and listen to.

Cats might not seem to need like dogs do an obvious and in charge alpha human to obey and follow but when they live with other cats and humans they will still soon learn that there is somebody else higher above in the hierarchy ladder if that somebody makes certain that he/she is in control and do not allow the cat to be in charge. With other words cats still need to learn discipline and to obey the rules in the house they live and that the humans are in charge in the home territory so there are no future behavioural problems developing.

But of course cats also can learn through observation, trial and error, imitation and instinct. Despite of what some seem to believe, cats often learn by imitating our own behaviour but more amazingly they also seem to learn on their own as well.
A good example, very interesting and of course entertaining to watch is my cats' behaviour and in particular Sheng Chi's play antics.
Funny enough and perhaps for their own not yet fully understood reasons cats seem to prefer some toys than others. Often we humans think that the size or smell and texture might make a cat to prefer one toy over another but more than often our judgements prove to be very wrong. The amount of money that it has been spent and the vast amount of toys that they have being passed through our home is remarkable and scary to even think about it but at the same time it seems quite necessary for the physical and psychological health of our cats.

You're experimenting with different sizes and shapes of mice looking toys but still you can't understand your cat's preferences. Some times it is a big mouse and sometimes it's a tiny mouse, none of which seems to actual resembles a real mouse.

In my case I can always justify my cats' preferences as they haven't ever seen a real mouse or play and even catch one so their preferences in they toy mice is....understandable?

Sheng Chi has found a tiny little black mouse which I picked up from a pet shop in town when I was buying cat food and which I saw and only got because it was only 35p and I thought that it looked cute (in human terms) and if they didn't like it the price was insignificant to make me feel bad about it or make my partner whinge. I really didn't have much of a hope for that mouse that any of the cats will show an interest as it was too small and 'insignificant' but of course my cats soon proved me wrong. Both the 'girls' they found it really interesting and exciting and three weeks after I brought it home they both still spend quite a lot of time playing with it.

In particular Sheng Chi seems to make the most of it by carrying it around in her mouth, throwing it away and then running (yes Sheng Chi is running...) to catch it and even hiding it (like a real mouse would perhaps do) and then trying to find it (her best hiding place is inside the what it once was a cardboard box and now it is half eaten and very flat cardboard box...)

But what I find really intriguing is the fact that she plays with that little toy mice like she would have played with a real mouse. So how did she knows how to chase a mouse? She has never seen a real one let alone catch one and she was weaned pretty young, too young to have been taught how to catch a mouse. Her behaviour becomes even more playful after she had a little catnip roll around on the carpet which it seems to

September 28th - Play Cat Behaviour and Human woes

2007-09-28T06:43:00.000-07:00

Cats are strange creatures and no matter how hard we try to study their behaviour they will always do things that they will break the ground rules that us humans might have established as general rules to explain their behaviour.

One of these 'grey' areas that they seem to be really difficult to undestand why they behave in certain ways is their playing habits.

The fact that they actually know that they are playing and not for example that they are hunting is one of the things that for me can be seen as proof of the fact that they are really intelligent. They are using play to amuse themselves and to keep themselves busy so they don't get bored.

The fact that they can catch real mice or birds but still decide to play with toy mice and treat them like they were alive it is a sign of a similar behaviour that children exhibit, using playing to entertain themselves and to learn about the world they are living.

Also cats can easily adapt to their humans' environment and routine with very little training and effort required from the human part.

My cats will get up when I get up in the morning and they will be willing to play with me or on their own in the middle of the day when we are moving about. They are very prompt on the daily schedules and they have certain times during the day when they do things.

For example Choo Choo's playing time is between 11 and 12.30 in the morning, when he will use the staircase as his base for his playing behaviour, chasing balls and mice up and down or chasing the light from the laser light if me and my partner can provide it. After he had his playing in the staircase he will start playing hide and seek in the paper bag and boxes he will find around. After his play time he will be ready for his lunch and after that he will find a quiet and depending on the weather sunny or warm spot where he will go to sleep making sure that he will not be disturbed for a few hours.

Sheng Chi on the other hand she will wait till Choo Choo has gone to sleep before she goes into playing mode herself usually starting carrying around and playing with her little toy mouse and then moving into paper and other balls which she will hide into the tunnel or paper bag or cardboard box. After her playing she will climb on her box by the patio door and she will wait patiently for me to brush her fur before she have her afternoon snooze.

As for Ripley being the oldest and the one that she can't be asked to do a lot of running and chasing she will be at the top of the staircase around 7 o clock in the evenings waiting for one of us to bring upstairs the feather toy so she can chase it downstairs. This s is the only toy that she likes playing with and of course she also likes finding catnips spots on the carpet so she can roll around or she will just use her catnip cushion.

But what it is really puzzling is the things that they find interesting and want to play with. As a responsible and caring cat 'owner' you do feel obliged to buy them toys that you see either being advertised or you see them on pet shops (like buying gadgets for yourself but instead you feel less selfish by buying gadgets for your cats...).

And of course pet shops know how you feel about your cats and that you want to make sure that you buy them the latest and more entertaining toys available which of course is not what your cats more than likely think.

So you end up spending an arm and a leg so you can buy a nice cat entertaining centre for them to play and they chose the box it came in instead. They give a very weary and puzzled look to your expensive entertainment area and then they just jump inside the cardboard box in which their new toys has just arrived to spend hours of having fun while you are spending hours regretting the money you've just spent on another never going to be played again toy. Of course this doesn't mean that you've learned your lesson and that you've never going to buy them another expensive toy, no, no of course not. You will stay away from expensive cat toys at least till you see again something new and fun for them to do (while at the back of the room your cat is chewing the new box she has just found....)