A cat behavior issue

Cat behavior issue? A cat's paw under a bathroom door. The cat is trying to get in. Cats like to accompany us when we are on the toilet. This I believe is due to the smell which is personal to us and picked up by your cat who is very smell sensitive and whose life revolves around smells. Photo by corypina. There is no connection between the picture and this post except to illustrate it a form of cat behavior.

This post deals with a cat behavior issue that explains nearly all you need to know about how to live with a cat.

A person who made post in a forum (I won't say where) was asking for help (almost pleading for it) with the behavior of his one year old male DSH (domestic short hair cat - moggie or mixed breed cat).

The cat was doing two things that disturbed and upset the person (actually it annoyed the person a lot). The cat was running at full speed throughout his apartment for about 20 mins. In response he locked the cat in a room. At night the person closed his door to keep his cat out of the bedroom. His cat would reach under the door and poke around trying to get in and in doing so would damage the carpet.

Now, who do you think has the behavior issue? The cat or the human? First up, this cat is in an apartment - an indoor cat it seems. The cat is young. What would you expect a young cat to do cooped up in an apartment all day with little I would expect to amuse him and satisfy his natural instincts? Yep, he'd run around. In part due to frustration and in part to burn up energy. The first "cat behavior issue" is then in fact a human behavior issue in not accepting that he lives with a cat (and not a human) and not understanding cat behavior or being sensitive to it.

It surprises me that this person sought help about his cat trying to get into his bedroom at night (the 2nd cat behavior issue mentioned above). It would seem obvious that his cat wanted to be near his mother/father cat (the human). The answer can only be a common sense one - let him in and leave the door open. If this person is unable to adapt to the needs of his cat he should not keep a cat.

No criticism is meant however of this person. It is simply a lack of awareness and understanding and this is rooted, in my opinion, in human arrogance.

In conclusion nearly all cat behavior issues are human behavior issues if we look at the root and underlying causes.

Photo, bottom - by raster under creative commons license - this cat has not connection to this post it is just here to provide an illustration.

A cat behavior issue to cat cat behavior kneading