A simple example of enriching the cat's environment by a friend's husband who lives in the US. A person on social media asked the above question. Another asked a very similar question: "How do cats stand staying inside their whole life?" The questions go to that eternal debate about the necessity - it is believed by many - to keep domestic cats indoors full-time for their safety, for their owner's peace of mind and to protect wildlife. Many more people are keeping their cats indoors full-time nowadays than in the past. If you go back far enough into the past, nobody kept their cat inside full-time. And in certain parts of the world, most domestic cat are community cats. They mingle between different owners. It is a very were loose relationship and they are all outdoor cats. Cat domestication is still on a journey which started 10,000 years ago. It's evolving and it will be very different in 10,000 years' time. I suspect that in 10,000 years' time all d

I think you've got to start this discussion with a definition of the word "love". And I think most people would agree that it means an intense affection for another. Although this is a very elastic definition. What I mean is that love is a very personal emotion. Different people have different depths of emotion for their significant other when they say that they love them. And bearing in mind that the term is elastic and that the word "love" normally applies to the affections that a human has for another, it is impossible to come to any other conclusion that a domestic cat can love their owner, in their way, depending upon whether their owner loves them and treats them in a way commensurate with that love. Love is a two-way street. A person can love another if that person doesn't reciprocate but it won't last. It'll fizzle out eventually. So, love feeds on the love of another. It is entirely mutual as I see it. The love of one magnifies the love of t

Sometimes feral cats do come into people's homes. It depends on the circumstances. One of those circumstances is how feral the cat is. If the cat is hard-wired feral and totally unsocialised, they won't go into a person's home as it would be too frightening. Too many possible dangers lurking in a strange place. Dorothy and Marvin. Marvin was a semi-feral cat that DW adopted and brought inside. He adapted brilliantly to home life. But if the cat is somewhat feral and partially domesticated as is the case fairly often and if they are starving which is also pretty common, they'll take risks to get food and take their chances particularly if the home owner is apparently friendly or even calling them over and actively encouraging them to come in. It is all about the competing feline emotions of fear and hunger. Both are linked to survival. The cat makes a decision on the best strategy in order to survive. Cats are great survivors which is why they have nine lives. RELATED: 

Ginger tabby owns the Istanbul Metro. Screenshot. This video, for me, is a reflection of the relationship that Turkish people living in Turkey have with their stray cats. They have community cats in Turkey and Turkey has an ancient tradition going back thousands of years to be kind to street cats. That's the way I see it. There are two cat breeds which originated in Turkey namely the Turkish Van and the Turkish Angora. Although, in my view, they are one and the same cat breed. What happened was this: the cat fancy took one Turkish non-purebred community cat and turned it (selective breeding) into two different cat breeds. But that's my theory and I can't really support it. The real Turkish Vat . But the real Turkish Angora is entirely different to the American cat fancy version of the Turkish Angora. And something similar can be said about the Turkish Van. The real Turkish Angora . But to get back to the video, initially we see a ginger tabby enjoying sitting on the barrier

Laces refers to white fur on the back feet. You'll see them on some cat breeds like the Birman and Snowshoe. The Birman is a pointed cat with 'gloves' (white fur on the feet to contrast with the dark pointing). These gloves on the hind feet are referred to as laces . In the Birman the laces finish with an inverted V extended half to three-fourths up the hock. The hock is at the end of the foot and the beginning of the leg; the joint between the tarsal bones and tibia of a digitigrade. The cat is a digitigrade (walks on their toes). Blue point Birman showing gloves and laces. Image: Wikipedia. Full image credit: By Claudia Zaino - Albafeles Sacred Birmans, CC BY-SA 2.5 it, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2308036. The cat fancy likes to use these terms that are applicable to human clothes. Another is 'britches' (or pantaloons) which describes the longer fur at the top of the hind legs of some cat breeds .

This is not Kylo but another tuxedo cat. Image: MikeB. I want to ask the readers (not many I guess!) who they think is most at fault in this story. I'll say right away that I'd apportion blame at 50:50. What do you think? Here is the story: In America, a young woman (26) with a full-time indoors tuxedo cat, Kylo, asked her parents to take care of her cat while she moved to a new state to live with her husband. She gave her parents strict instructions that Kylo was an indoor cat because her previous cats had been indoor/outdoor cats who'd come to early, unnatural deaths such as being poisoned and a hit and run. Her parents agreed. But they had three dogs and liked to keep the backdoor open! Not good and I guess she might have foreseen what was going to happen and it did. Kylo escaped the home and was hit by a car outside and killed. Her father telephoned her to inform her that her cat had been killed and she yelled at him: "I told you to keep him inside!". His resp

 A user on the Reddit.com website was concerned about their recently adopted young Maine Coon. As you can see in the photograph, he is quite skinny. He looks a little bit underweight to me. But young cats tend to be skinnier than older cats. They are more active and they don't tend to eat enough to bulk up to counteract the increased activity in my view.  And in any case, Maine Coon cats tend to be quite rangy or skinny below that shaggy coat. That's the normal shape but you don't want your young Maine Coon cat to be too skinny. Young MC is skinny. Image: Reddit user: u/morbidleo I think it's okay to feed treats in moderate amounts which might help to bulk them up a little bit. My cat is not a Maine Coon but he likes king prawns! He likes them so much that I can bulk him up a bit because he was skinny when he was a youngster. In middle age he's become a little stockier in appearance which is fine. If a young cat is skinny, it's okay. You might describe them as f

In broad terms, there are six types of cat litter substrate (material) and each cat owner has their personal choice. Personally, I always used sawdust turned into wood pellets because I thought this was the best in terms of the environment, odour retention or odour control and for the health of my cat. One of the great issues with cat litter material is the dust that is kicked up by the cat when they are rummaging around. If the litter material is clumping and that dust gets into their lungs and it can clump inside the kitten or cat. This is clearly very bad for health.  The most notorious cat litter material allegedly which does that is lightweight clay-based litter and the manufacturer Tidy Cats comes to mind the most and I have an article on that which ranks highly in Google search results . There is strong evidence that this litter is dangerous to cats although no doubt it is still popular which, personally, I find disturbing. And that's another factor in deciding which litter

The Week, a website, has the title "6 of the most invasive species on the planet". The author lists the feral cat as the second most potent invasive species. And I've heard this numerous times. You hear this in Australia by the way where the feral cat is in general hated certainly by the authorities. Of course, the domestic cat is also an invasive species in Australia but you don't hear them say that. Remember that the so-called "feral cat problem" is actually a human problem because it is of human making. This picture is in the public domain in my assessment. Sidebar : let's remind ourselves that all invasive species are the handiwork of humankind. That's true to the best of my knowledge. All species would not have moved around the globe from one country to the other but for the movement of humans bringing those species into countries where they don't belong. The Australians regard the dingo, as a native Australian wild dog species. But the fac

The video is about the capybara described as one of the world's friendliest animals. It is semi-aquatic which is probably one reason why it can't be a great pet despite the potential for being a much better pet than a cat! We are all familiar with the domestic cat as one of the world's most popular pets with the dog; but both cats and dogs are predators. This a great drawback to their success as pets.  There are constant aggravations as a consequence of the cats desire to chase and kill prey. The predatory instincts are a barrier to the cat's friendliness. The weapons! Claws and teeth which scare a lot of people. The capybara is said in the video to be the world's friendliest animal because they are not predators but herbivores. They don't make enemies. Other animals don't run from them. It's a point worth making.  We have to play with our cat to entertain them especially if they are indoor cats. But play is centred around hunting. All cat play is a vari

Anto Chekov in 1889. Image: Wikipedia. Anton Chekov (1860-1904) wrote a story about his uncle and how inadvertently his uncle trained his cat to become frightened of mice when he was trying to train them to catch mice. At the time the cat was a kitten. Each time a mouse was caught in a trap, uncle Pyotr grabbed his kitten and pushed his/her face towards the mouse. When the mouse was released, the by then terrified kitten ran away. I think it was the whole experience of being pushed into the mouse. Perhaps the kitten associated the mouse with the handling they'd received from uncle Pyotr. It was a form of negative reinforcement. The opposite to the classic positive reinforcement training model. It is strange that the 'training' completely upturned the cat's natural predatory drive to catch mice. That said another factor would be that kittens might be cautious around mice as they might believe that they could be harmed. Mice are amazingly brave in the face of instant deat

Canadian novelist Robertson Davies (1913-1995) amusingly described what he saw as a mutually beneficial relationship between domestic cats and writers in his line: "Authors like cats because they are such quiet, lovable, wise creatures, and cats like authors for the same reason". He wasn't alone in those feelings. Robertson Davies. Image: Wikipedia. There is a natural connection between domestic cats and authors both in their character and in their lifestyle. Introverts tend to make good authors. It doesn't mean that all authors are introverts but it is probably fair to say that the majority are. Introverted authors are introspective and they often work alone. There is a similarity in lifestyle right there because the domestic cat has this slightly solitary nature, living apart a little from mainstream life, doing their own thing. The cat's activities intersect with those of their human caregiver. There is this slight distance between cat and caregiver in cont

In a study it was conclusively found that domestic cats can tell the difference between the phonetics of their name when spoken by people from the phonetics of general sounds and the phonetics of the name of other cats. We conclude that cats can discriminate the content of human utterances based on phonemic differences. They also found that domestic cats living in a cat cafe could do something similar but not quite as good as they could not distinguish the sound of their name from the sound of the name of cohabiting cats at the cafe. My guess is that domestic cats living in a home have a close connection with their owner and their name is said regularly. They are trained to understand the sound of their name. In contrast cats at cafes don't have this advantage. Different people - one-off visitors - say their name in different ways and perhaps they get their name wrong. The 'training' is less intense and clear cut. It is more confusing. When people say that cats understand t

Nathan Winograd and his wife went on holiday in Greece. He is a great American animal advocate and an expert on no-kill animal shelters. I can visualise his visit now. The warm balmy evenings, the white buildings and the deep blue sky reflected in the sea. And in Greece there are lots of street cats.  It seems that all the domestic cats are on the street joining with the stray cats and the feral cats. I guess we call them community cats. But in Greece the domestic cats live outside which contrasts with the 50% in the US who live inside 24/7. But there are too many stray and feral cats in Greece. Nathan Winograd in Greece interacting with a dark tortoiseshell street cat and enjoying himself. Perhaps this little fella will be poisoned like many thousands of others in October. Picture by Nathan Winograd's wife (believed). The feral cats are quite friendly because the meet with the tourists who like to have them around. Just like Nathan Winograd they enjoy interacting with the street c

NEWS AND COMMENT-KIRKLEES COUNCIL, WEST YORKSHIRE, UK: It's reported by the Yorkshire Post that cat and dog boarding catteries and kennels are being squeezed out of business in the region governed by Kirklees Council in West Yorkshire because the council have dramatically raised licensing fees for these businesses. Amelia Franks (centre) with others argues her case against the fee increase. Image: YouTube/Kirklees Council. You have to have a licence from the council to run a boarding cattery and kennels. The huge increase is due to come into effect next month. Charges are being raised from £482 for a three-year licence to £1650 together with a consideration fee of £221. The owners of these businesses are outraged and can see themselves going bankrupt because of the sharp increase. Comment : it seems to me that too many UK councils have found themselves in dire financial straits due to poor management, sometimes investing in risky projects such as buying commercial property and rent

Burglars take their cat with them. Screenshot. NEWS AND COMMENT: A couple of burglars appear to have taken a cat with them in their car! Who'd do that? The burglars had to abort the burglary of a local chemist and got away with $500 of drugs before being caught by the police. In the meantime their cat was in the getaway car! The police called the RSPCA who took the cat away. I'll presume that once the alleged criminals have been tried and by the look of it convicted that they'll eventually be reunited with their cat. If the cat belongs to them. They are currently on remand as we call it in the UK meaning in a police cell until trial. As they were caught red-handed in the act, they'll be convicted. I wouldn't expect them to be imprisoned but Australia have a different culture. The point is that the cat needs to be reunited with their owner or owners so when will that happen? If it should happen at all. There is an argument that says they should not own a cat as their

Aleeta Raugust. Image: Screenshot from video. A young woman, living in Calgary, Canada, Aleeta Raugust, told police that she deliberately bought kittens through an online marketplace called Kijiji between 2018 and early 2023 with the intention of killing them, videotaping the killing and watching them to entertain herself. She also placed the bodies in public places to watch the reactions of those who saw them. She underwent a psychological assessment before sentenced and was described as an impulsive psychopath with no remorse. Her mother said that if she is released from prison that she will commit more horrific crimes. The prosecution at her criminal trial requested an 8-10 sentence but the judge - arguably too soft - said that he did not want to give her the maximum sentence allowable under Canadian law to ensure that the sentence wasn't "crushing for a youthful offender." She was 26 years of age in March of this year. She pleaded guilty to 9 charges involving animal

NEWS AND COMMENT: A pleasing new animal welfare law has been enacted in the American state of Texas. Those miscreants who have been successfully convicted of animal cruelty will be barred from owning animals for five years. Animal cruelty includes dogfighting. And the law applies to those who been convicted of animal cruelty for the first time. This is a much-needed step I would argue but I am an animal advocate and not everybody will be with me on this topic. Shelter dog. Image in public domain. But clearly, Texas' politicians i.e. the lawmakers of that state have decided to make it harder for people who want to be cruel to animals to own and possess them. And this surely must be correct. The legislation, House Bill 598, successfully passed through the legislature. It was sponsored by state Rep Matt Shaheen, R-Plamo. It also covers people who have unjustifiably injured an assistant animal or who have been cruel to non-livestock animals. The law came into effect Friday. Although, s

 It seems that the woman feels that her cats are 'stealing' her man because they love being with him as the picture shows. My response was this: Let them both have the freedom to have their relationships as it will strengthen your relationship. What I mean is if she tries to restrict access between the cats and her man, she'll stress her relationship with her man whereas in doing the opposite he'll appreciate it and it'll be good for her relationship. Giving your partner freedoms is the best way to bring them nearer. Restricting people pushes them away. Allowing freedoms brings the person closer. But it nice to see that the cats seem to prefer the man! Uhm..that's good as the default impression we have from the internet is that dogs are a man's best friend and cats belong with women! Nah...wrong. How do I get my cats to stop stealing my man? They get along great, don't they? Image: Reddit user: u/MckennaMakes

 This title was/is on Reddit.com. This is my response on that social media website: Dry cat food is sprayed with tasty stuff which can make it addictive almost. Without this covering it is like cardboard. I think it is fairly important that she eats some wet. What might work is trying best quality wet and heating it very slightly in the microwave. Also try wet food for elderly cats for a short time as it is smellier. Just some thoughts. Eating dry all the time might make her slightly dehydrated. It can cause urinary tract issues. If she is a rescue cat, she may have got used to dry food at the shelter. I am not sure I am completely right but the gist is correct.  Here is the sweet, young, grey cat. Photo by Reddit user: u/Coke900lp. I will add a little bit of detail. It is not unusual on my research for domestic cats to become almost addicted to dry cat food because it appears to be tastier than some wet cat foods. It must depend upon the quality of the food as well but they do spray t

Full-time indoors. Image: MikeB (Canva). In The Guardian today there is an article written by Calla Wahlquist which says that keeping cats indoors is a solution where everybody wins. By "everybody" I presume she means people and cats. She is goes on to state that "cats should be kept indoors for the sake of cats". For full-time indoor cats their behaviour is neutered as is their anatomy. It is the modern way to turn cats into fluffy plush feline toys. - MikeB How does she know? How does she know what is good for cats? Is she mind reading domestic cats? No, she's not. All she is doing is stating that when cats are kept indoors, they are protected and therefore safer. But that might not be the same thing as being what's good for cats. Domestic cats might like to take risks. They might not mind being injured or hurt or killed. Perhaps their normal lifestyle is to take risks? Perhaps they are happier when they take risks. Perhaps they need to be predators outsi

NEWS AND COMMENT-ITALY: this disturbing story of an Internet influencer's pet cat carries a lesson about what to do with your cat when you go on holiday. It concerns a lady, Nima Benati, who clearly loves cats and lives with a chinchilla Persian who was not micro-chipped. She lives in Italy and she has a habit of leaving her cat with her parents when she goes on holiday. She is a social media influencer. Nima Benati and Bartolo. Image: Social media. They live in Monghidoro, a small town near Bologna. She went on holiday to Costa Rica. In the past all had worked out well. Only this precious cat which looks expensive and valuable, is allowed to roam outside unsupervised wherever they wish to go when staying with relatives. In the past, he has been away for a couple of days and come back sopping wet with a mouse in her mouth. In other words, he is treated like any other domestic cat which is fair enough but when a cat is this attractive and almost certainly looks to the public like a

Woman allows her cat to repeatedly knead her face with claws out. The claws must have been trimmed beforehand. Image: Screenshot. Would you allow your cat to do this to make a high-hitting TikTok video. She did and I'll tell you why she is not being scratched to blazes! She trimmed her cat's claws before she started videoing! Simple. That's the only reason why the cat is not drawing blood because untrimmed front claws are often very sharp especially immediately after the cat has sloughed off the outer sheath of the claw on a scratching post.  The woman is smart because (1) she knew it would make a high-hitting TikTok video and it has at 83m and (2) she knew that doing a careful job of trimming her cat's claws would save her from pain! This is clearly a close relationship. Normally domestic cats knead their caregiver's lap. The motivation for doing so is exactly the same. The cat, in their mind, is a kitten because the owner keeps them in that mental state and they a

The news media reports that staff at an animal charity in Warrington, Warrington Animal Welfare, say that they are going to be heartbroken if a mother and daughter duo,  Isobelle and Phoebe ,  who have lived at the shelter for a considerable time, are split up.  The pair are aged four and two respectively. They say that they are the longest staying shelter cats at their rescue and if they can't be rehomed together there may have to be split up and rehomed separately. Isobelle and Phoebe at Warrington Animal Welfare. Photos by the rescue. But if they are rehomed separately the staff at the shelter would be upset. But I question whether they should be upset because in the natural course of events, daughters and sons of parent cats become independent at a certain point in time.  In the wild, they would leave the natal range and find their own home range and thereby find their own home. They would become independent at a certain age after their mother had shown them how to kill prey an

The hand-painted favourite waistcoat of Freddie Mercury is under the hammer at the moment. The waistcoat contains images of his cats, one of which is Delilah, his favourite cat. Freddie was a great cat lover. I think he preferred them to people. The waistcoat is estimated to fetch between £5000 and £7000 at the Sotheby's auction. I would expect the price to be much, much higher than that. I will try and update this page if and when I hear the result of the auction but I do know that the gate outside his home covered in graffiti achieved as I recall something in the order of £400,000 which was massively higher than the auctioneer's estimate.  Update: it sold for £139,700!! RELATED:  Freddie Mercury’s favorite cat DELILAH . Freddie Mercury was much loved. His possessions are very desirable. His cat waistcoat was one of Freddie's favorite possessions therefore my estimate for the price would be something well over £100,000 at a very rough guess. 93% of the lots were sold above

Like other developed countries, Taiwan is suffering from a low birthrate. In fact, the country has one of the world's lowest birth rates. In order to encourage the Taiwanese to have a kid a billionaire who wants to become the president of Taiwan has proposed offering couples free companion animals if they have a baby as a kind of reward. And the idea comes from the fact that while human birth rates have plummeted pet ownership rates have skyrocketed. People want pets. Pets are popular in Taiwan but having kids is not. Image: Getty (Sam Yeh). People want to live with a companion animal rather than a child, which brings to mind the current Pope's concern about this trend which is also taking place in Italy. He doesn't like the thought that people prefer to have pets. He sees it as children being substituted by pets and he is right. The reason for the plummeting birth rates in Taiwan have been put down to the high cost of living and difficulties accessing childcare together wi

If you know a bit about cat food ingredients, you'll know that emulsifiers and stabilisers are sometimes used in wet pet food. An example would be lecithin, an emulsifier that can be used in wet pet food. They act as a glue to the processed foods to hold them together. To that information I can add, today, a report in The Times, on a study in which scientists examined the health implications of emulsifiers, a group of E-number additives added to industrially produced foods such as bread and chocolate for the human market! Does this list of ingredients in cat food mean anything to you? Me neither. And it has been found that people who consumed many emulsifiers were more likely to suffer heart disease and stroke even when adjustments have been made for factors such as weight and overall diet. The study which has been published in the British Medical Journal, monitored the diets of 95,000 French adults over seven years. They examined the average daily intake of eight groups of emulsif