Clever non-verbal teenage girl identifies as a cat

NEWS AND COMMENT-MELBOURNE PRIVATE SCHOOL: A year eight student at a Melbourne private school who is described as being 'phenomenally bright' but is non-verbal has decided to identify herself as a cat. There's been a trend of adopting a furry animal identity and there is a kind of a culture among some kids in some schools to do this. People take a different attitude towards it.

School kids. Pic: Getty Images.

Those who support the woke movement are very sensitive towards it and the school is providing support staff to deal with a range of psychological issues. The school said that some students were presenting with a range of issues including mental health, anxiety and identity issues. These sorts of issues are present in a sizeable percentage UK school kids according to reports. Self-harming comes to mind as well as a manifestation of these pressures.

The school in question is tackling the issue gently and their approach is to always take matters on a student-by-student basis and seek professional advice.

At the opposite end of the spectrum are the right-wing types such as Sen Ralph Babet who has criticised the Melbourne schoolgirl in a tweet (see above). He said that the girl identifying as a cat is:

"...a symptom of allowing the woke radical left in society to run rampant, unchecked. Can we just put a stop to this garbage right now. You go to school to learn reading, writing and arithmetic. You are not a cat. You are a little girl. The end".

That, it seems, would reflect a lot of people's views who don't believe in the woke movement.

I do not think that it is appropriate to talk to a girl who identifies as a furry like that. I don't think people should either encourage them to be furries or criticise them. You have to address the underlying cause of it sensitively. That is the only way forward in my view. From the child's perspective it is very real. You can't just shout at them and criticise them.

There was a recent story, in January, when a group of students at a Michigan, USA school identified as furries and the news went viral because there was a report that the school was providing litter trays for those kids who identified as cats. This was denied by the school.

RELATED: School accused of installing cat litter trays for students who identify as ‘furries’.

Psychologists, Judith Locke, living in Brisbane, Australia, said that she wasn't surprised at this trend of young girls and boys identifying as animals because they romanticise them in their lives and through television and film. And a lot of kids have difficulties in accepting themselves. Comment: Facebook does not help with influencers presenting perfect bodies thanks to photo-editing. Kids are going to hate their bodies.

Another Australian psychologist, Michael Carr-Greg, said that he had a patient, a boy, who identified as a dog but once stressors in his life were removed, he resorted to identifying as a human being. He has only dealt with one patient with this sort of psychological problem.

Furries tend to be teenagers and young adults although there are some in their late 20s and 30s. You even find some 70 and 80-year-old furries.

Comment: I feel I've got to make a comment about this. I'm not a psychologist or psychiatrist. But if a child, a 13 or 14-year-old in a school in Brisbane, Australia, commits to identifying as a cat and behaves as a cat as best they can by, for example, being non-verbal, this has to be a mental health issue and they clearly don't want to be themselves. They want to be something or somebody else.

And that desire must be based upon the fact that they don't like what's happening around them, it seems to me. They want to escape the human world and transition into the animal world where perhaps they think that they will be treated better. I sense a desire to escape the human world which places unacceptable pressures upon some teenage students. Arguably adults - the grown-ups - are creating a world that is unacceptable to our kids. And this does not surprise me because it is also unacceptable to the grown-ups too!!

If that is correct then the adults have to do something to improve the lives of teenagers. And I wondered too whether the woke movement encourages teenagers to identify like this. There is a massive discussion about children identifying as the opposite sex and in the UK, there's been a scandal about an NHS clinic (The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust) providing the permanent means for children to transition from male to female and female to male without doing proper research and taking a more holistic approach. 

They took what is called the 'affirmative approach' which means that if the child affirms that they want to be the opposite sex that was enough upon which to provide them with life changing treatments. That clinic is going be sued by about a thousand people because they ruined some lives.

And the argument is that the woke movement encouraged the so-called experts to go down the wrong path and encourage opposite sex identification when the patients were not ready to really know what they wanted and needed. I think this case is a bit similar to that. Teenagers don't really know how to cope with life's pressures. 

The cure it seems to me would be to alleviate those pressures and teach schoolchildren how to cope with the pressures that remain.

Can cats catch kennel cough from dogs?

YES, is the answer to the question. The phrase "kennel cough" refers to a respiratory infection caused by both bacteria and virus but the most common cause is the bacteria Bordetella bronchiseptica. Cats can transmit this disease to dogs as well but my feeling is that this is rare. How many cats have bad coughs? Rare, I would say but I don't live with a cat and a dog. The disease transmits both ways. And between other species of animal. It is highly contagious. Cats and dogs in kennels, hence the name, are the most vulnerable because they are close together, confined to one place.

Image: Warren Photographic published here with his permission.

Both cats and dogs can acquire kennel cough from a variety of microorganisms including parainfluenza virus, adenovirus, reovirus and the distemper virus. They might get it from mycoplasma. But as mentioned the most common cause is the Bordetella bacterium and if a cat is exposed to it in direct contact with an infected animal such as a dog, they might catch the disease.

When a cat gets it, they shed rod-shaped bacteria in their nasal secretions and saliva and when they sneeze, they shed fluid droplets containing the bacteria. Any other cat or dog nearby main inhale the infected droplets.

This is a highly contagious disease because if a dogs sneezes on some bedding a cat might then pick up the bacteria from that bedding later on. This is indirect transmission. In fact, indirect transmission is a common method of getting the disease. The bacteria can survive for 1-2 weeks on objects unless the area is rigorously disinfected under protocols suggested by your veterinarian.

Kennel cough affects the lungs, windpipe and voice box. It is not usually dangerous and it clears up without treatment within a few weeks but I suspect that veterinarians prescribe antibiotics.

Dogs with the disease might feel ill. Kennel cough has an incubation period of 2-14 days. Puppies and elderly dogs and animals with an existing condition may develop complications such as pneumonia.

A kennel cough vaccine is available and dogs staying in kennels are often required to take the vaccination.

Kennel cough sounds like a forceful hacking cough as if something is stuck in a dog's throat. It can be dry and hoarse and it might be followed by a gag and swallowing because of the production of mucus. A similar sound is made by reverse sneezing to which certain breeds are susceptible.

There might be associated sneezing and mucus discharge. The animal should retain their appetite. A veterinarian might prescribe cough suppressants and anti-inflammatories to make the animal more comfortable.

Veterinarians diagnose kennel cough by the symptoms and the circumstances under which they live. Swabs might be taken to determine the virus or bacteria.

Sources: numerous on the Internet but mainly veterinarian's websites for which I am thankful.

Is my cat going to remember me when I come back from college in three months' time?

The woman asked the following: Do cats forget their owners? I’m leaving my cat for three months cause I’m going to college and I’m gonna miss him so much:,) is he going to remember me when I’m back?

This is the loved cat. Photo: u/Cloutlordcatto on Reddit.com

She asked the question on the Reddit.com website. My response to her question is as follows:

Provided that you have a very good relationship with your cat (you clearly have), he will remember you immediately you talk to him because he'll remember your voice and he will be pleased to meet you again. I can guarantee it. Domestic cats have good long-term memories. There are stories of cats remembering their owners when reunited after years apart. The link below goes to an article which I wrote some time ago about the long-term memory of domestic cats. Cats have good long-term memory. He is a super-looking cat by the way. Good luck at college.

Perhaps the obvious point to make is this: there is no reason why cats should not have decent memories. Anatomically speaking domestic cats are very similar to humans. You will not have to go far on the Internet to find stories of cats remembering their owners after being separated for months. 

And, of course, domestic cats need memories in order to 'survive'. Their ability to form memory comes from their wild cat ancestor. The North African wildcat, needs the ability to form memories in order to survive by, for example, avoiding places and animals which are hazardous to it. Domestic cats can for example smell the fading scent of urine that has been deposited by another cat as a marker on their territory. In order to make this work they have to be able to memorise the previous scent to make a comparison.

And, of course, cats allowed outside remember their home range. They remember the markers and major objects in their territory. They remember cats coming into their territory. And of course, they remember visitors to their home, often by the body odour of the visitor. Once a domestic cat knows that a stranger is safe, they will attach the body odour of the person to the knowledge that they are safe. When the person visits again even months later, they will smell the person and recognise them through their body odour.

And sometimes cats been missing for years and are finally reunited with their owner because of a microchip in their neck. And when they go up to their owner, they show through their behaviour that they recognise them. And they settle in to their old home within minutes. It is as if they never left so, yes, domestic cats have good long-term memories and it makes sense that they do.

On a personal level, years ago, I left my then female cat at a boarding cattery when I went to America to do some research on cats and when I came back, she recognised me immediately. She recognised my voice before she saw me. This was entirely expected. I had been away for two weeks.

Quick update: I have just bumped into a study which talks about cat short-term memory. It's interesting for this reason: when cats walk through and over obstacles, they have to memorise the positioning of those obstacles to allow their hind legs to avoid them. And you may have seen those astonishing videos on TikTok of cats navigating many obstacles placed in a corridor. They walk through these obstacles without knocking any of them over. They are employing their short-term memory to prevent their hind legs making contact with the obstacles which are quite close together.

I have written about domestic cat working memory. CLICK HERE TO READ IT IF YOU WISH.

I would be pleased if you would share your experiences of your cat's powers of long-term memory!

The article ends here

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I have been trying to find out how memory in a person or cat's brain works. I'm not sure that people know precisely how it does work. The answers that I have found on the Internet are rather vague. But one scientist says that "long-term memories must literally be built into the brain's synapses". Synapses are those areas where neurons are connected. They say that to build a memory which can last years, neurons must manufacture new proteins and expand the docks, as it were, to make the transmitter travelling run more efficiently".

The University of Queensland Australia, says that "Memory is the reactivation of a specific group of neurons, formed from persistent changes in the strength of connections between neurons". It seems, therefore, to me, that memories are embedded into neurons perhaps in protein molecules and the memory is recalled when the neuron is reactivated. I am simply interpreting what I read and don't take what I state as verbatim truth!

Cat owners don't need to abandon their cats during the cost-of-living crisis

There are reports online in the news media websites that cat owners are abandoning their cats to shelters as the increased cost-of-living bites. This refers to the UK but I am sure there are inflationary pressures and cost of living pressures in other countries. This is the big discussion at the moment: how to reduce your living costs in order to cope with the dramatic rise in gas and electricity because that megalomaniac Putin is holding the world to ransom by stopping the supply of gas. 

Please note that I'm referring to standard, typical households. I realise that there are many households where costs have already been cut to the bone and I have great sympathy for these people. But I have to talk about typical family homes in this discussion.

I have probably waffled a bit too much in this article but the point of this article is that cat owners need to do all they can reduce household expenses other than those expenses to do with maintaining a domestic cat and providing them with excellent care. This is because it is far easier to shave off costs on households running costs then it is to cut corners and skip on the funding needed to provide excellent cat caregiving. 

Cat owners don't need to abandon their cats during the cost-of-living crisis. Think thermostat! ✔️

The reason why electricity goes up when the price of gas goes up is because there are gas fired power stations generating electricity. And the reason why the cost of wholesale gas has gone up dramatically in the UK even though we do not import gas from Russia or at least very little of it is because wholesale gas is priced internationally.

I don't think you need to abandon your cat to a shelter. What cat caregivers need to do is sit down and think very seriously about how they can reduce their household expenses OTHER THAN those relating to cat caregiving. 

They may surprise themselves that great savings can be made. And the key in making savings to household expenses is this: the price of gas and electricity has risen about fourfold i.e. it is four times as expensive now as it was about a year ago. This is shocking to many people but because it is so expensive small changes in reducing the amount of gas used can bring equally dramatic reductions in costs.

On the conventional formula (at previous gas and electricity prices), it is said that if you turned down the central heating thermostat by 2°C you can save £200 a year. That's based upon the previous costs of gas. If the cost is four times higher the savings will be four times greater. Also, I am making a presumption that you will be turning down your thermostat from about 22°C to 20°C or from 21°C to 19°C. 19°C is perfectly acceptable if you wear warm clothing indoors.

Therefore, you might save £800 a year by simply turning down the thermostat and putting on a nice warm dressing gown! You will then be able to keep your cat because the cost of keeping a cat is about £1500 max. per year.

Reducing your heating costs, in effect, halves cat caregiving costs. And you can turn off the thermostat in the room that you don't use in your home. Or you can turn off the central heating completely and use a small bar heater to heat the area around you.

There are other aspects of living which can be adjusted to save costs. You can turn off all your appliances and devices, which are usually on standby, at the socket save around a hundred pounds a year potentially. Just these two aspects of living should be able to allow you to keep your cat.

And I don't think people should be skimping on the cost of food and veterinary care. Also, there are some good aspects to this cost-of-living crisis as it is called. It will make people think harder about how they live and where their money goes. It will cut some of the fat out of their lives. It will make people more resilient. It will make people more self-discipline, hopefully.

It will help reduce food waste. There is an awful lot of food waste in the UK and other countries. If people bought food more carefully and ate all the food that they bought they would save hundreds of pounds annually. This would offset the cost of keeping a cat. Do you eat all the food that you buy?

I do not want to sound like a saint but I eat 99.9% of the food that I purchase. And I do not think that it is that difficult to achieve this. It's a question of building up habits. People become deeply entrenched in habits and don't see how they can change them. But the trick is to make the change, to make that first step and then you set up new habits which become perfectly acceptable but which seemed unacceptable beforehand.

The conclusion is to think hard about surrendering your cat and before you do so work out how you can reasonably cut household expenses, particularly with respect to gas and electricity because it is here that the best savings can be made.

Lone tusker takes on 14 lionesses and wins

Astonishing and difficult to see but it is nature. Thankfully the size of the elephant and its thick hide protects it even from a marauding pride of lions. This is not a particularly large elephant but large enough to survive this attack. He walks into the river which helps to shed the attackers but he turns back to attack the primary attacking lion which allows more lions to rejoin the attack. Anyway, the elephant wins. But sometimes young elephants are brought down by a pride of lions. It can be done.

RELATED: Lions and elephants revolt against poachers in South Africa.

Lions are not very fond of water as you can see. It stopped them attacking the elephant. 

RELATED: Are lions good swimmers? ‘Quite capable’ is the description.

RELATED: Do lions eat elephants?

You may have to click the play button twice to get the video to run. Google reduces the image quality automatically so it is not great but good enough.

Adults creating a world unacceptable for many children who become furries or self-harm

Social media can create pressures on kids. It needs to be controlled by parents and the government and kids need to use it to good effect and not bad. Image: BUPA.

I've written two articles about children adopting the identity of animals, specifically cats. They call themselves furries. There is a high-profile case currently in a school in Melbourne, Australia and several months ago I wrote about a school in Michigan, USA where the kids had decided to be cats and there was a viral story about the teachers providing cat litter trays for the furries. The school denied it but the press was all over it as it created an interesting story.

Kids identify as furries to escape the world created by their parents. Image in the public domain

But the underlying story is far more important. I see children as providing a window on the kind of society that the adults are creating. The distorted behaviour in children is a symptom of a world that they find unacceptable and which has been created by their parents. And the truth is that the parents don't like it either. But is out of control.

It seems that the grown-ups have lost control of their world, their creation. And it is a human world. Everything below adult humans have to suffer the world created by the grown-ups. That includes animals and the kids. In this regard they are in the same bracket; a world imposed upon them by out-of-control adults.

It isn't just kids who want to identify as animals - because they think that being an animal will distance themselves from the human world which they don't like - it is kids who are self-harming. There are some astonishingly distressing figures in the UK about self-harming schoolkids. And what about eating disorders in children? That mental health issue is growing, worryingly.

It took me about a minute to find an article from UCL about high levels of serious mental health difficulties among 17-year-olds in the UK. A survey found that 24% of young people report self-harming and 7% report self-harming with suicidal intent by age of 17. This is an expression of a rejection of the world that their parents have created for them.

It is a scream to the world from the kids that enough is enough. They don't like what they see. They are embarking on a life which stretches out before them and which, to them, looks uncomfortable and which is unacceptable to a substantial percentage of them.

This out-of-control adult human behaviour causing an instinctive out-of-control response in kids is resulting in the destruction of the planet through global warming caused by greed and the lack of self-discipline. 

There is also an element of bad parenting in the story. Today, Saturday, August 27, 2022, in The Times newspaper, there is a headline "Rude pupils driving out teachers, says strict head". The man, Barry Smith, 54, nicknamed person's strictest head teacher has said that children's habitual rude and aggressive behaviour was causing teachers to lead the profession in droves.

Stupid adult human behavior has caused the Covid pandemic which started in China in the wet markets where wild animals were slaughtered indiscriminately without regulation resulting transmission of a zoonotic disease from wild animals to person. The Covid pandemic was nature's way of telling the grown-ups that enough is enough. You can't go on abusing nature and animals that live within nature without consequences, dire consequences.

And the kids see this and they hate it. And the isolation caused by the Covid pandemic exacerbated the mental health issues. And then there was mismanagement of Covid. I don't mean the time during the pandemic in terms of protecting people. I mean the amount of money that was printed in order to jack up the economies of countries. This is called quantitative easing. But it means printing money which causes inflation.

And then after the pandemic we have rampant inflation across the globe in many countries because of financial mismanagement by governments. They borrowed trillions of dollars and gave it to people for doing nothing while on furlough. This has left countries in severe debt. Rising inflation and interest rates on that debt has created an enormous national burden. In the UK the government is paying over a hundred billion pounds annually to service their £400 billion debt acquired during the Covid pandemic.

This is going to destroy welfare services. The kids see this. They might not understand the full economics of it they see a future which is going to be far less enjoyable than it was for their parents. 

And then we have Putin and his invasion of Ukraine which has caused massive inflation as well because he's cut off gas and oil supplies to the West. This pushes up prices dramatically. This is a man hellbent on a legacy of expanding Russia as if he was Stalin expanding the USSR. It's an illegal war and its causing masses of damage to property and people. Tens of thousands have been killed both civilians, Russian soldiers and Ukrainian soldiers. For what? To satisfy the pipedream of a tyrant.

The kids see this. They see the death and destruction. They see the killing of animals. I reported 300,000 animals killed in Ukraine by Putin's forces over the past six months of the war. Innocent victims. Sometimes specifically targeted. Utterly disgusting and utterly unacceptable to both adults and kids.

And the schoolchildren will have to find jobs in the future. They will have to work and find a property to live in and pay their outgoings. They don't see a way of affording a property because house prices have risen in the UK because of mass immigration. I'm not against immigration but it needs to be controlled. Illegal immigration across the British Channel from France has reached utterly unacceptable proportions but these people are coming from places like Albania or Syria and so on.

I don't blame these people. I would be one of them if I lived in those countries. These are mismanaged countries. They want to go somewhere where life is better. You can't blame them. But once again it is the adults, the grown-ups who screwed up in managing countries causing mass emigration from those countries and mass immigration into northern European countries which causes enormous amount of pressure on the infrastructure and the resident peoples of those countries.

And also, in The Times newspaper of August 27, 2002, there is a story about "Record numbers flee failing Tunisia for Europe's shores". Tunisia's economy is crumbling which is prompting record numbers of their citizens to attempt to sail to Europe. People smugglers are reporting children and white-collar workers as well as female fans of émigré influences risking deadly boat trips across the Mediterranean, in the words of the Times journalist Tom Kington. There's an exodus from Tunisia. It is a country which is badly managed due to a range of problems including high levels of corruption.

The same issues are occurring in America where there is a huge immigration problem from Mexico. We see pictures of columns of people in their many thousands marching from Central America to Mexico up into Arizona over the Mexico/American border. The same problem as in Europe. But these people are leaving those countries for a better life. You can't blame them. But it signals mismanagement of countries. The solution is to improve these countries.

This all feeds into a negative impression of the future. And the future is for children. Many children don't see a great future. This causes stress. The stress is expressed in desire to be something or somebody other than that they are, which means identifying as a cat or dog. And it means self-harming as a means to control their lives.

The grown-ups need to reflect on what they are creating for their children. And when a country borrows billions of pounds or dollars, they are mortgaging their country's future. It is the children who will have to pay it back. It is the children who are burdened by this debt. It is short-termism by adults which is causing a deteriorating future for their children. It is time for them to take stock of this and change their ways.

Animal charities swamped due to UK's cost-of-living crisis

There is another report today in the news media about animal charities being swamped with abandoned cats and dogs because of a double whammy of major problems. Firstly, there was the surge in cat and dog ownership during the pandemic with those owners now giving up their pets because they've decided they can't afford to keep them which has been exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis. 

In isn't just the cost-of-living crisis which is causing this abandonment of pets. People adopting pets during Covid now see the reality of cat and dog caregiving and have decided that they were unprepared or uncommitted for a lifetime of cat or dog caregiving.

RSPCA shelter. Image: RSPCA

The RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) has reported a 25% increase in abandoned pets during 2022. They say that their employees are overwhelmed at their call centre from owners reporting that they are struggling to feed and care for their animals.

During the first seven months of this year, they recorded 22,908 cases of abandoned pets paired with 18,373 during the same period last year.

They have reported such events as a terrier dog being thrown from a truck travelling at 50 miles an hour and 20 puppies being abandoned in a box in a layby in Essex.

They put most of this problem down to the extraordinary number of 3.2 million cats and dogs that were bought or acquired during the lockdowns coupled with the increased pressure on the finances of many cat and dog owners in the UK who are facing extraordinary bills to heat and power their homes this winter. 

Some economists have predicted 22% inflation in the UK thanks to a projected £6,000 annual bill for a typical family home to provide gas and electricity to that home beginning in the early part of next year.

Cats Protection has seen a rise of 46% in the number of animals on the waiting list in July of this year compared to last year. Peter Shergold, the head of operations at Cats Protection said: 

"This is the worst situation in organisational memory in terms of the pressure on our services to take in cats. The rise is directly linked to the cost-of-living crisis."

I can also see, by the way, problems with the cost of running animal charities. There are reports of numerous small businesses going under because the cost of gas and electricity is just too high so their overheads become unbearable. I can see some small animal charities having to close at least potentially because of the extraordinary rise in the price of gas which has a knock-on effect on the cost of electricity in the UK.

Pet owners are struggling to afford basics such as food and litter for their cats. The extreme cost of gas is due to Putin's attempt to force Europe to loosen their sanctions against Putin. It's blackmail basically. He doesn't care about killing thousands upon thousands of innocent Ukrainian citizens and he doesn't care about the dramatically negative effect that the price of gas is having upon so many organisations and individuals in the UK. In fact, he wants the Brits and Europeans to suffer.

I can remember reading an article about a man who said that he has to use the dregs from his shampoo in order to make ends meet. He could then, and only then, maintain enough funds to look after his cat. But it occurred to me that most people add some water to the bottom of their shampoo bottle in order to get out the last bits because by doing this you can get two or three more washes. I don't think that it is a particularly clever thing to do or something which indicates that a person is on their uppers.

I can remember reading an article about a man who said that he has to use the dregs from his shampoo in order to make ends meet. He could then, and only then maintain enough funds to look after his cat. But it occurred to me that most people add some water to the bottom of their shampoo bottle in order to get out the last bits because by doing this you can get two or three more washes. I don't think that it is a particularly clever thing to do or something which indicates that a person is on their uppers.

I can remember reading an article about a man who said that he has to use the dregs from his shampoo in order to make ends meet. He could then, and only then maintain enough funds to look after his cat. But it occurred to me that most people add some water to the bottom of their shampoo bottle in order to get out the last bits because by doing this you can get two or three more washes. I don't think that it is a particularly clever thing to do or something which indicates that a person is on their uppers.

Also, I think that a lot of people have built into their lives overheads such as subscriptions to smart phone providers, Sky television all broadband Internet. Or they are buying a car on hire purchase as opposed to outright. So, they burden their lives with overheads and they are not prepared to release themselves from these overheads which leads them to a precarious financial situation under the current cost of living crisis. 

They should divest themselves of some of these expensive overheads and ensure that their expenditure is less than their income and then they can put some money aside for those unexpected veterinary bills in a self-insurance policy. 

Cat in toxic but amusing relationship with jovial owner

Cat in toxic but amusing relationship with jovial owner. Screenshots. Image: MikeB.

This amusing video is on Reddit.com. Below the video is my suggestion on Reddit.com to try and stop it ✔️. It is very brief and I am not saying it is the full picture. But there needs to be remedial cat training. My God, some human training too, perhaps. But they are obviously a nice couple with a close relationship. It is just that the cat has developed a habit of biting his human caregiver. A well-known saying comes to mind: to bite the hand that feeds you.

   

Note: This is an embedded video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source or the video is turned into a link which would stop it working here. I have no control over this.

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Made me laugh. Thanks. I think the problem here is not with cat behavior but human behavior. The cat has got used to biting his arm. That needs to be trained out. Trying playing with him more using a tease not the hands or arm 😎. Much more. And perhaps use the Act of God technique to modify feline behavior. However, the man must not punish the cat. Nor must he encourage this. I agree with the other comment; don't point fingers near a cat's face. They see those as prey animals to bite.

Leopard attacks cyclist in cycle lane

Although it is not clear what species of cat this is, it must be a leopard judging by its size and the markings indicate this too. Although the image quality is not great. The attack took place on the on Dehradun-Rishikesh Highway, India and both cat and human were lucky to come away unharmed.

Cyclist attacked by a leopard, but the leopard rapidly retreats when it realises that the attack was not working. Screenshot.

Perhaps the most noticeable aspect of this video is that the leopard failed in their attack and quickly retreated and disappeared into the jungle. 

The cat regarded the cyclist and the bike together as a prey animal obviously. When they hit the cyclist and the man at the same time it seems that the cat realised that this was not viable and gave up immediately. 

The attack must have been instinctive and then immediately on making contact the leopard change its mind sensing that the outcome may lead to injury to them. 

I think that can only be the assessment otherwise why would the cat give up so quickly and disappear even before the man retaliated?

Location:

This is incorrect: "Cute baby bobcat rescued from dog attack in Indonesia"

There is a story and video currently doing the rounds on the Internet, on the news media websites. And the title is that a cute baby bobcat has been rescued from a dog attack in Indonesia. The problem is that there are no bobcats in Indonesia. The picture is of an Asiatic leopard cat in my considered view. They are quite rare (and endangered) and this is the wild cat half of the Bengal cat which is a very popular domestic cat.

The authorities in Indonesia are describing this small cat as a bobcat which is entirely incorrect. This is an Asian leopard cat.

But the Asiatic leopard cat is much less pliable and amenable to being domesticated them a bobcat. Not that you would normally domestic at a bobcat either. But judging by the video the Indonesians who found this leopard cat are treating it as a pet. 

That is not going to work out sooner or later as the kitten or cub grows up a bit and becomes more independent and manifestly aggressive. The story behind this young Asian leopard cat is that dogs killed the mother and her/his sibling. The caption says that "the baby lynx luckily managed to survive."

This is not a lynx. This is an Asian leopard cat. You do not find lynx in Indonesia. They bobcat and lynx are native to North America. They say that this Asian leopard cat was found in the Agam district, West Sumatra province, Indonesia. The villager who had the cat said:

“I was gardening, saw some stray dogs and hunting dogs who were surrounding the mother and the two baby bobcats. Unfortunately, the mother and the other baby died"

Apparently, it is the Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) who decided that the cat was a bobcat. They are entirely incorrect and I am absolutely certain of it. They say the animal is protected and I hope therefore that it is released into the wild when adult and able to fend for itself. 

Although I suspect that life for an Asiatic leopard cat in Indonesia is pretty hazardous with a high chance of being killed somehow or other.

Two feral cats are desperate to come in the house

A woman on the mumsnet.com website has befriended a couple of stray cats. She calls them feral cats but they might not be. She wants advice about it. She plans to let the cats come into and use her utility room by putting a cat flap in the door to that room. She is asking about how to arrange that and whether to put down a cat letter.

My answer on the mumsnet.com website is repeated below. I think the point that needs emphasising really is that once you get involved with caring for 2 stray, feral or wandering domestic cats you then become their caregiver and by your behaviour you have adopted them. 

You then have the responsibility to be their caregiver for the rest of their lives. Therefore, this particular moment in time for this woman is a very big one. It will change her life to a certain extent. It depends if she has a cat already.

Indeed, if she has a cat or cats already, adopting to strange cats might cause quite a big problem. She might be lucky but it is likely that the resident cat or cats with object quite strongly to the "invasion" of their home range by these two cats. This will cause quite a big complication for the lady in addition to caring for two cats at the same time.

Two feral cats are desperate to come in the house. She wants to care for them. Photo: mumsnet user: Swifey40.

Below is my answer to the question:

It is probably wise to check that they are genuinely not owned which means checking for a microchip. You can buy a microchip scanner on Amazon for about £30 which I think is better than going to a veterinarian to check because it would be difficult if they are genuinely feral cats.

However, if they are amenable to be placed in a cat carrier and taken to a vet, it might be useful because when checking for a microchip you can also ask the vet to check their health briefly for any obvious signs of injury or illness.

If they pass that test, once you let them into your utility room and feed them and look after them you will have two more cats for the life of the cats which is a big responsibility but it seems that it is one that you are prepared to take on.

I think you can train them to use the cat flap quite easily by leaving it open and putting food on the other side of it. And then after a while you close the cat flap and they will be motivated to get through it in the usual way.

As they are outdoor cats, I don't think you need to put down a litter tray at the moment. And if when you adopt them, they are indoor/outdoor cats, once again, you, strictly speaking, don't need to have a litter tray for them.

Although, it is said that a litter tray is useful in being able to check cat poop which allows you to diagnose some potential health problems as they develop. But that's a fairly minor advantage to set against the disadvantages of cat litter which are environmental and cost for example. Also, cat litter can be dangerous to cats because of the dust that they kick up and ingest.

Good luck and well done by the way for being so concerned about them. That's very good of you.

Postscript. I have an afterthought. If you have a cat or cats already the adoption of two new cat into your home of course will cause potential problems. Sometimes resident cat dislike this tremendously because strange cats are coming onto their territory, their home range. Just an afterthought which came to me a moment after I published my comment.

What would your answer be? I would be pleased to hear from you.

2 cats in RSPCA shelter fall in love

The RSPCA say this about 'Lord and Lady Sugar', two rescue cats in their care who've fallen in love: "A beautiful love story so far for Lord and Lady Sugar. Will you be part of their next chapter?"

Link to the RSPCA on TikTok: rspca_official. For this video and others.

Is there someone out there, ready to adopt them as a pair? You know what they say about adopting rescue cats in pairs it makes life much easier for the human caregiver because they can entertain themselves. 

It takes some of the pressure away from ensuring that your cats are happy and content and entertained. It becomes a shared responsibility which I think is beautiful. If you have a ready-made relationship like this one where two cats get along so well, I think it should be taken with both arms.

RELATED: Should I adopt one or two kittens?

Owners abandon the cats that kept them company during lockdown

Battersea Dogs & Cats Home has reported that 148 cats have been surrendered to the shelter for financial reasons. This is double the number compared to last year. They've all been handed in because their owners are cash-strapped, hit by the cost-of-living crisis which has been so heavily reported on in the UK. And the winter is yet to arrive. This is when gas and electricity prices are going to double or treble or whatever the figure is. That's going to push up inflation even further perhaps to around 13% in the UK. There will be more surrenders.

Pictured: Dustin 2-month-old male tabby and white kitten gifted to Battersea his as owners were no longer able to look after him. Image: Battersea Dogs & Cats Home (believed).

What is particularly sad about this story is that the people who adopted kittens and cats during the Covid lockdowns are now abandoning them because of, yes, the cost-of-living crisis and inflation and, frankly, because they didn't really work out how much it would cost to look after a cat for the life of the cat.

Battersea Dogs & Cats Home say that it costs about £1,500 annually to look after a cat properly. You might do it cheaper than that but let's put it this way, it does cost money and it is something which is often overlooked.

RELATED: Shanghai residents fight back against state-sanctioned Covid-related animal cruelty.

Battersea say that the people who are giving up their cats are often devastated and that it is a very emotional time for them. I would doubt that applies in every case. If you casually adopt a cat during lockdown to keep you company it signals to me that the attitude of the adopter is incorrect and that being the case giving up their cat is not going to be as hard as they state.

Battersea state that the number of cats relinquished to their shelter because owners can no longer afford to look after them has reached 9.6% of families relinquishing cats whereas it was 5.9% last year.

An example is Amanda - a fictional name to protect her identity - who found her two cats were a huge support during lockdown is but she's been forced to give them up for financial reasons. She said: "I was struggling to afford things and I didn't want my cats to suffer, so it was best to find them a better home. I struggle with mental health and the cats were a big part of my life, so it was upsetting to get rid of them."

There is a double problem which is this. More people are giving up their cats and it is harder to rehome cats because people are wary about the rising costs ahead of them and are therefore hesitant to take on the added financial responsibility.

RELATED: Fears that starving Russian soldiers are eating abandoned cats and dogs.

In one instance a couple of cats were surrendered because they became pregnant and their owners said that they could not afford to take care of the kittens as well. Well, you have to think why did the owners allow their cats to become pregnant? That is careless cat ownership.

Another high-profile cat rescue organisation, Cats Protection, said that a survey of 10,000 cat owners found that 30% were concerned about affording bills.

I can foresee many more cat surrenders taking place over the forthcoming winter. What is happening now was entirely predictable and predicted a couple of years ago during the first lockdown. And the same problem is occurring with dogs. In fact, I would suggest that the problem is bigger with dogs because more dogs were adopted during Covid lockdowns than cats.

On the other side of the coin, cat owners determined to hang on to their cats are getting pet food from food banks. Animal charity Blue Cross already has four pet food banks and is looking at rolling out more across the country according to the Express newspaper online.

Young Pallas's cats often die of toxoplasmosis

Pallas's cat is a popular zoo species. They are endangered in Central Asia but they are fairly numerous in zoos where they are bred. They've encountered breeding success but the kittens frequently die from acute toxoplasmosis, an infection of the Toxoplasma gondii protozoan.

Bunch of Pallas's cat kittens. Photo: Reddit.com.

A study entitled: 'Toxoplasmosis in Pallas' cats (Otocolobus manul) raised in captivity', reported that a breeding pair of Pallas's cats in Schönbrunn Zoo in Vienna, Austria produced 24 kittens between 1998 and 2002. Sadly 58% of the kittens died mostly of acute toxoplasmosis between the second and fourteenth week of their lives. The study was published online by Cambridge University Press on 21 October 2004. This problem has been known for a long time.

RELATED: Pallas’s cats at zoos infected with Toxoplasma gondii. This page discusses this topic in more detail.

They decided to develop a strategy to protect the cats from fatal toxoplasmosis. The shed T. gondii oocysts of one 12-week-old Pallas's kitten were bioassayed in mice. This means measuring the concentration of oocysts. Toxoplasma gondii was isolated in tissue culture inoculated (vaccinated) with tissues of the mice.

The researchers stated that the surviving kittens (presumable those that had not died of toxoplasmosis but were infected with the disease) were treated with clindamycin for 16 weeks. Clindamycin is an antibiotic. It fights bacteria in the body. Toxoplasmosis is a single celled protozoan parasite. But the antibiotic 'seroconverted' the infection. This means that the presence of the disease in the blood was eliminated i.e., a conversion from seropositive to seronegative.

"Clindamycin is indicated for Toxoplasma and Neospora infections although in human medicine sulfadiazine and pyrimethamine remain the drugs of choice for toxoplasmosis. Clindamycin is one of several suitable drugs for treating chronic rhinosinusitis in cats." - Science Direct.

Comment: there is a dramatically sad and uncomfortable backstory to the cute Pallas's cats that zoo visitors see. Are we okay with the fact that so many kittens die of toxoplasmosis and is the infection being controlled in 2022?

How you say 'cat' in Chinese (video)

No words needed really; except I think of Chairman Mao! You remember the reformer: Mao Tse-tung. It is better to call him Mao Zedong actually. Chairman Mao to his followers. I wonder if he liked cats! I doubt it. He was a Chinese Communist revolutionary and the founder of the People's Republic of China. He was the son of a prosperous peasant and supported Chinese nationalism and had an anti-imperialistic outlook when he was young. He is still regarded as one of the most influential figures of the 20th century. I can remember one thing about him! 

How you say 'cat' in Chinese (video). Screenshot.

He ordered that Chinese citizens clapped their hands all over the country to stop starlings landing to prevent the birds from damaging crops. The birds couldn't land so they died in flight and fell to the ground. They then realise that they had created a catastrophe because the starlings ate insects and there was a plague of insects as I recall. Clever wasn't it!

The word 'mao' is close to 'mau ' from Egyptian Mau. I've been to China many years ago. When I was there, they all wore blue suits and underneath the blue suits they had their preferred clothes which were much brighter. This I think was the end of Chairman Mao's era to have all the citizens like robots. That was how it seemed to me. I was in Beijing and I cycled to an opera house and the air was thick with dust and pollution. 

You could almost chew the air it was so filthy. There was and perhaps there still is a higher rate of throat cancer in Beijing and the surrounding areas because of pollution. I suspect things have changed but China is renowned for burning coal and giving up on trying to prevent climate change. I am waffling.

All the dairy cows want to lick this farm cat

All the dairy cows want to lick this farm cat. Screenshot.

This is a cute and brilliant interspecies relationship. But in this instance, all the cows want to be friends with this farm cat and wash her. It must feel good to be so popular. An interesting aspect of the video is that clearly domestic cats enjoy being licked by another animal. 

Domestic cats are known to be fastidiously clean but here we have a cat which allows themselves to have the saliva of a cow deposited all over their head. You might think that this would be uncomfortable or even unacceptable but no. They like it and by the look of it seek out those licks.

You may have to click on the play button twice to get the video to work for which I apologise but this is Google software and I cannot improve on it. I apologise for the music. I did not make the video and I wouldn't have added music like this to it but the visuals are good.

Cat doesn't know it but they are entertaining themselves

 This is a highly amusing video on Twitter. The cat is sitting on a laptop keyboard which is not that unusual as we all know. The attraction is the heat from the computer chip which leaks upwards through the keyboard and via the cooling fan (which is probably blocked by this cute cat). And they are depressing a couple of keys one which turns the letter into a capital and the other is the letter 'a'. 

Cat self-entertains without knowing it. Screenshot.

And so, we have a rapid production of a capital 'A' being rolled out on the computer screen which this cat enjoys watching. It's an example of self-entertainment without any knowledge of it. It is a version of cat television. Cat television normally refers to watching the comings and goings outside the home through a window.

RELATED: Cat Television – a good example.

I think you'll have to click the play button twice. It is a cute video though.

On a technical note, I wonder how long that could go on for before the computer objected! You could end up with a document that was millions of words long and you might start coming up to a memory problem.

Here's your chance to stop your cat bringing in prey! OnlyCat cat flap.

If you are one of those cat owners who really objects to your cat occasionally bringing in prey animals, through the cat flap, into your home and really can't wait to do something about it, well you can now! You can subscribe or you can be an early bird and buy this smart cat flap today and get big discounts. 

OnlyCat® cat flap. Screenshot from their kickstarter programme.

On the downside, its projected retail price is £499. Sadly, I will have to conclude that that is just too much even if you don't like your cat bringing in prey. You've got to have quite a lot of disposable income to want to pay that kind of money for the convenience of a bit of peace and quiet. And don't forget even in homes with cat flaps sometimes the backdoor is open or the patio doors are open in warms summers. The cat will prefer that route of entry.

And the UK is currently embarking on a cost-of-living crisis which is set to become much worse when gas and electricity prices more than double shortly.

That said, it is, by the look of it, an excellent product. It is called OnlyCat®. You can get a discount if you participate in the kickstart program and there is about 23 hours of the program remaining. The manufacturers have been backed by 57 people to the tune of £24,504 as at the date of this post.

If you purchase the cat flap before it goes into manufacture in the UK, it will cost £379 which is 24% off the retail price. The estimated date of shipping is April 2023. This discount has been claimed by, on my understanding, 22 people. If you pay a £7.99 p subscription which I believe is another way of acquiring the device now, you pay £149 for the device.

This would seem to be a way of getting around paying the heavy initial charge. And distributors can buy 10 OnlyCat® cat flaps for £3,690 which is a 26% discount.

Your cat, they say, will typically kill 110 animals per year and bring 80% of them inside the home. They use advanced AI vision technology to detect the prey. It can detect mice, birds, rabbits, rats, squirrels and other animals large enough to be seen by the camera.

RELATED: Smart cat flap donates money to a bird charity when cat with prey tries to enter.

If your cat approaches the cat flap and tries to get in with a mouse in their jaws the cat flap won't open and they will have to turn away and eat the mouse in the backyard.

This cat flap connects to your Wi-Fi and sends a short video clip of your cat's movements to your smartphone. You will feel connected to your cat and receive an alert whenever he or she attempts to bring prey into the home.

The video explains all.

When a robotic cat can give joy and companionship as well as the real thing

This is a story about a woman who found joy in a robotic cat after the loss of her cat companion. And I think it points to some situations when robotic cats can perform a function which is superior to the real thing. The truth is that people can become attached to robotic pets that are sufficiently lifelike particularly if the person involved perhaps has intellectual disabilities or perhaps a head injury or they might be autistic or simply elderly with dementia of some kind.

RELATED: Reason why robotic cats and dogs are so successful with the right person.

Linda Williams with her robotic cat which pleases her. Image: WIS 10.

Tri-Development Centre of Aiken County runs a program with a mission to provide, promote and coordinate community services in that county for individuals with "autism, head and spinal cord injuries and intellectual disabilities". South Carolina Department of Ageing runs a program to help people who are socially isolated. 

RELATED: Heartwarming story on how lifelike robotic cats help elderly patients.

Linda Williams has been provided with a robotic cat by the organisers of the Tri-Development Center. 

Linda said:

"She makes me feel good. I’m going to hold you up so they can see you."

The lead residential service provider in this program, Precious Green, said that she was happy that Linda Williams is happy with her robotic cat. Obviously, it is much easier for the organisers to take care of a robotic cat. 

There's none of the usual issues such as dealing with cat litter and feeding a cat. There is no possibility of cat scratching or biting. There is an instant connection between person and robotic cat which can be quite different to the real thing because it takes time for them to get used to strangers sometimes.

And under these circumstances it can work beautifully as Linda Williams loves her cat companion. There is, I feel, a place for these sorts of devices which provide companionship. 

It's a device on which a person can off load their need to love somebody or even something. It's a recipient of love and if the device makes the right sounds and is reasonably accurate in terms of appearance then it works. It should not be laughed at as some sort of ridiculous concept.

Collar-mounted cat predation deterrents do not restrict wandering

You may have heard about the two major collar-mounted cat predation deterrents which are worn by cats. One of them is quite effective (see link below) in that it warns birds of the approach of a domestic cat. It is the Birdsbesafe® collar. The other is called the CatBib. It uses a similar same method in warning prey of a cat attack but is clumsier. And it presents a barrier between prey animal and cat which prevents the cat killing prey.

RELATED: Noticeable, brightly coloured, cat collar protects birds from cat predation (47 – 54% reduction).

In Australia, the authorities often want domestic cats to either live indoors full-time or not wonder so much and therefore reduce their predation on native wildlife species. 

In this study they wanted to find out whether a cat wearing these two predation deterrents decided to wander less as a consequence. I guess the theory is or was that if a wondering domestic cat is unable to attack birds because they fly off because of the collar they are wearing they may then decide to give up and stay at home. I am simplifying the process but I think that that is the theory of it.

Well, they found that it did not curb wandering. They say that the 30 cats that took part in the study did not reduce their home range significantly. On my reading of the summary of the study they actually increased their home range!

RELATED: Cat Bib – good or bad?

When they wore the brightly coloured Birdsbesafe® collar (see above), their "mean home range" i.e. more or less the average home range was 0.5 ha when not wearing the collar and 0.58 ha when wearing the collar.

This means that they wandered more when they wore the collar. With the Catbib, the researchers state that the mean home range was 2.79 ha when they wore the device and 2.46 ha without it. Once again, they wandered more and further when they wore the CatBib.

I wonder, therefore, if wearing these collars had the reverse effect. It appears that the cats were encountering difficulties in attacking birds because of the collars and therefore they had to try harder and travel further to obtain success.

The study is called: "Do collar-mounted predation deterrence restrict wandering in pet domestic cats? The worked out of Environment and Conservation Cluster, School of Veterinary and Life Sciences, Murdoch University, Murdoch, Western Australia 6150, Australia. The lead scientist was Catherine M Hall.

Domestic cats want their fur to be full of particles of dusty earth

There is no doubt in my mind that my cat wants his coat to be full of dusty earth which is why he rolls around on dusty ground at the end of my backyard. He is lying on my bed as I type this which has exposed the copious amounts of soil in his coat as it is deposited on the white sheets. 

What I am saying looks counterintuitive because cats are fastidiously clean and committed self-groomers. But they don't see dusty earth as dirt. They must see it as a beneficial material to assist their health.

I'll have to hoover the bed again. It is happening daily in the dry weather. Actually, it is an official drought in the UK and it is driving me mad. But my cat thinks that dirt in his fur is good for him. It must be. It must help deal with skin parasites and remove them from the fur.

It seems that the parasites get caught up in the dirt and removed. Only my cat does not have any skin parasites (ectoparasites) such as fleas or ticks. But he rolls in dirt instinctively to remove ectoparasites.

My cat Gabs after he rolled around in the dirt. CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO SEE IT NICE AND BIG. YOU'LL SEE THE DIRT BETTER!

Rolling around in dirt must only be done because it is instinctively beneficial to the cat. They just don't mind it when their fur has a ton of dirt in it. He's just come onto my legs so he'll deposit more dirt over me now.

Scientists say that experienced cat owners don't pet their cats correctly

Scientists say that experienced cat owners don't pet their cats correctly but I believe that their study is flawed in a couple of areas which I discuss below. Although their overall conclusion as stated by Dr. Lauren Finka is probably correct. This is slightly tricky topic and I am sorry the article is not straightforward but I hope it is reasonably interesting.

There is a very lengthy report on the Scientific Reports website (largely unintelligible) which looked at how experienced cat owners pet cats. They found that some self-proclaimed "cat people" don't know how to pet their cats. They looked at a range of people types and assessed how they interacted and petted domestic cats. The study was carried out at Battersea Dogs & Cats Home.

News media reports state that it was surprising to the researchers that the people who participated and self-rated themselves as having knowledge and experience of cats were more likely to touch areas of the cat's body that the researchers believed that cats found uncomfortable. They also found that people described as having a personality trait of neuroticism and older people tended to hold and restrain cats more (and incorrectly).

People who were extroverts were more likely to want to make contact with cats more and touch areas of the cat's body that were generally less preferred to be touched by the cat.

People with personalities scoring high in "agreeableness" were less likely to touch those parts of the cat's body that cats prefer not to be touched. So agreeable people did best. 

Dr. Lauren Finka said: 

"Our findings suggest that certain characteristics we might assume would make someone good at interacting with cats—how knowledgeable they say they are, their cat ownership experiences and being older—should not always be considered as reliable indicators of a person's suitability to adopt certain cats, particularly those with specific handling or behavioural needs."

Areas where a cat likes and dislikes to be petted according to scientists. They are incorrect as the base of the tail is an acceptable area from the cat's standpoint and they miss out areas such as behind the head and shoulders as areas where cats like to be petted. Image: the study.

Comment

It seems to me that the basic conclusion is that experienced cat people often don't pet cats properly. That might be true to a certain extent as experienced cat people can become a little arrogant about their knowledge and become complacent and careless about doing what their cat likes and not what they like.

I would like to comment further. Firstly, the researchers decided that domestic cats like to be petted around the face but not on the stomach and the base of the tail. I think they are wrong because the base of the tail is not out of bounds in my experience. The stomach is a sensitive area certainly but an experienced cat owner living with their cat for a long time can pet their cat's stomach.

Secondly, "cat people" who've lived with cats for a long time can pet their cats in a way which would not be allowed (by the cat) when petting a cat that did not live with them.

And this study entails experience cat people petting cats that are not their own. 

"Participants interacted separately with three unfamiliar cats from a healthy population of predominantly non-pedigree, neutered adult cats."

There is a difference between petting your cat, the cat with whom you have lived for many years, and petting a strange cat. You certainly have to be far gentler and let a strange cat lead the way. Perhaps this is the crux of the matter.

You can't impose your will on a cat you don't know (and sometimes with a cat you know!). Conversely, with a cat you've lived with for a long time, you both know each other and the cat knows what their owner will be doing to them. 

And they have learned to accept it. Even if is not entirely right and even if the things that the owner does might not be necessarily pleasant for the cat, they will accept it because within that context there are a lot of things that the cat will like.

The study is flawed in my opinion because very often scientists who do cat studies are not cat people. They rely on somebody else to give them some leads on cat behaviour but this isn't enough. And pure science can be too dry to assess the human-to-cat relationship properly.

For example, I can gently pet my cat's stomach. I can kiss his stomach. I certainly pet down his back and at the base of his tail. I flea comb the base of his tail. I also pet him around the face and the back of his head and shoulders.

This study does not highlight the shoulders and the back of the head as areas which they describe as "green" areas by which they mean those areas that a cat likes to be petted - see the image above.

The study is called "Investigation of humans individual differences as predictors of their animal interaction styles, focused on the domestic cat". 

I don't rate the study highly as useful although clearly a lot of effort has gone into it. It seems to be fundamentally flawed to me. 

What they've concluded is that experienced cat owners are sometimes not good at interacting with cats they don't know because they've let their belief that they know best get in the way of a good interaction. Experienced cat owners may tend to lose their way and do as they please rather than please their pet.

There may be one useful aspect of it which is this: when people become very used to interacting with cats, they can forget about what a cat likes and enjoys and instead do what they want to do. They become a bit careless and perhaps a bit arrogant about they are knowledge of cats. 

They think they can handle cat in the slightly disrespectful way or slightly too roughly. Perhaps familiarity breeds complacency. And if a cat owner is very familiar with cats, they can become complacent about a cat's requirements and their particular needs and likes and dislikes.