What do domestic cats dream about? My thoughts.

What do domestic cats dream about? 

Past experiences and emotions reprocessed in the rarefied and distorted environment of a dream in order to mentally process them to help make them emotionally acceptable. - My thoughts.

You can tackle the question in the title in two ways: you can rely on your personal experience in observing your cat and how they behave when they are dreaming or you can rely on research which in the USA would suggest that cats may dream about things that have happened during the day or in the distant or recent past which is similar to the way dogs and humans dream.

We are going to have to guess and that's exactly what Dr Desmond Morris has suggested. It's a question that he can't answer and neither can anybody else with certainty but I think we can rely on our personal, human experiences and the dreams that we can recollect and what they mean.

I have suggested that a lot of the dreams we have are a means to divest ourselves of anxieties. A lot of my dreams are about becoming anxious in trying to do something that can't be done such as catch a train at a station which is impossible to get at or hitting a golf ball which is impossible to hit or take an exam which I am bound to fail. These are expressions of frustration in trying to get things done and the anxiety that they produce.

Indoor/outdoor cat

In dreaming about them I believe that we can divest ourselves of these anxieties and renew the brain for the next day's fight.

I know that my cat dreams and has nightmares sometimes or a feline's version of nightmares. He might suddenly wake up with a start and he might vocalise his difficult experiences during his nightmare. I can only guess that he has encountered a fox or had some other very bad experience in his dream which has woken him up.

But his dream will be based on his day-to-day experiences, possibly a particular bad one that occurred outside in which he now dreams about. It may have happened a long time ago or recently.

Indoor cat

I don't think you can expect a full-time indoor cat to have the same kind of dreams experienced by an indoor/outdoor cat.

In fact, I would suggest that a full-time indoor cat is rarely if ever going to have nightmares unless they are being bullied in a multi-cat home. And I would suggest that their dreams are going to be less difficult and painful or distressing particularly if they are well looked after in a pleasant home by a nice and considerate caregiver.

If it's true that a person or cat processes their anxieties in their dreams, I would expect very few dreams to be recalled by domestic cats that live a cosseted and pleasant indoor lifestyle. 

They have nothing nasty to process. They should have no anxieties because all their needs are met. They have security, warmth and food and a loving caregiver. There is no room therefore for anxiety. Perhaps they just dream about nice things. Every dream is a pleasant experience.

Dreaming experiences

But the bottom line is that either people or cats dream the things they've experienced but in a dreamlike way which is distorted but ultimately, in my case, these negative dreams boil down to a feeling of anxiety and my brain's desire to process them to make them more acceptable. 

The image is by Bing Co-pilot using DALL E 3.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Cat's hind leg has a mind of its own forcing the cat to fight back

This video is scarcely believable because what we see is a cat losing control of his right hind leg to the point where the hind leg in question has a mind of its own and starts to attack the cat. The cat then fights back. That's what it looks like and it is incredibly odd.

My brief thoughts about this strange video is that the right hind leg was scratching the cat's neck which is very typical cat behaviour. And my theory is that this scratching process is an automated, instinctive process perhaps partially governed by the autonomic nervous system which is the nervous system which runs the beat of the heart and the breathing.

And therefore, the hind leg takes on a mentality of its own almost which in this instance annoyed the cat so he or she fought back.

That's just a thought but you have to try and understand what's going on and there does seem to be a fight between the hind leg and the cat who owns the hind leg! But it ends up in play-fighting. Cool. This cat does not need a caregiver or another cat to play with!

Sometimes cats do something similar with their tails.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Hind leg fights back! Screen grab from video above.

Confident cat is a happier cat

A confident cat is a happy cat. Why? Why is it good to live with a confident cat? Before I tell you why I think it is a good thing, I would like to say that I am drawn to cats that lack confidence. I see their vulnerability and I want to make them stronger. That sentence gives a clue as to what I am about to say.

Confident looking Bengal cat enjoying himself. Picture: Pinterest.

You can apply the same rules to people and cats when it comes to discussing confidence. A confident person is less likely to be anxious about the sort of things that are around him and which affect him/her. As anxiety makes you unhappy, less of it makes you happier or more content. Also, a confident animal is more able to deal with what is thrown at him or her. This is good.

The same rules apply to cats. A confident cat is a happy cat. They are able to express their views and natural instincts and behavior. This is shown in positive vocalizations in asking for food, for example. A cat that asks for food in a positive way is a cat that feels at home and that has become a part of the family. 

Vocalizations are good. They might irritate a bit from time to time but they are a sign of a contented cat that is part of the family. It means the cat feels like an equal, which is what we strive for as concerned cat caretakers.

When you select a kitten from a breeder, pick out the confident cat that comes to you. On second thoughts, why not try this: pick out the timid cat who is frightened, adopt them and take them home. Love them and fill them with confidence to allow them to be happier. This is my preferred choice as an adopter.

Of course, it perhaps goes without saying that a cat's character is dictated by their genetic inheritance and the environment in which they are raised and live. You can't change the former but you can improve the latter and therefore improve their confidence.

The point is that some timid cats can be drawn out and made more confident but they will always remain somewhat timid. There is, though, a great charm in a timid cat and there are advantages. One springs to mind immediately: they are less likely to roam if allowed outside and get into trouble and as a consequence be injured.

It is the foolhardy, young and confident male cats who are more likely to be hit by a car on the road. Confidence can lead to unhappiness sometimes.

Dog rescues tiny abandoned kitten and leads her to safety

 

It is the purposefulness and commitment of this small dog who brings home a stray kitten which is so impressive. This did not just happen. This little dog knew what he was doing. He wanted to bring the kitten back into his home where, I guess, he realised that the kitten would be safe. So, it was a distinctly altruistic and purposeful rescue operation by a dog. I don't think that we can take anything different from the video which makes it all the more remarkable. We need to constantly remind ourselves of the intelligence of animals and that they are more comprehending that we often give them credit for.

Dog rescues tiny abandoned kitten and leads her to safety. Screensho

Should we genetically engineer cats to curb their urge to kill?

Not long ago I proposed genetically engineering feral cats to make them infertile as an alternative to TNR programs which includes spaying and neutering. But it might be a better idea to genetically engineer feral cats. That would seem to be a more elegant way to control the feral cat population. I don't know whether it's been discussed but what is also being discussed is genetically engineering cats to modify their behaviour, to stop their urge to kill.

Photo: Pixabay

That would mean altering the most fundamental aspect of a cat's behaviour which is to hunt, stalk, attack, kill and eat prey animals. In the case of domestic cats that usually means small mammals such as voles, mice and even rats occasionally (plus reptiles, birds and insects). I'm not sure if it is viable. I'm not a good enough scientist to decide how you'd go about doing that.

The obvious initial downside is animal testing. I can see animal testing taking place which would be cruel. I could not justify it. I don't believe that any animl testing is ethically and justifiable today. It is time to stop it.

You can achieve character changes to a certain extent by selective breeding. This is breeding through artificial selection so you only select those cats which are very passive and mild mannered with a known trait of a disinterest in hunting. That might be hard to believe but some domestic cat hardly hunt at all whereas others are obsessed with it such as my cat!

The average domestic cat will certainly enjoy hunting to a certain extent but it would seem fair to suggest that we could select the least motivated hunters and selectively breed from them to the point where you only had domestic cats that were disinterested in what should be their primary activity: hunting.

Brief research tells me that that scientists genetically engineer animals by introducing a beneficial gene into their DNA. I suppose, therefore, it would mean scientist deciding which genes and on which chromosomes behavioural traits such as hunting are located. 

Then they could remove those genes and replace them with the genes of a cat with known traits including a disinterest in hunting. I'm guessing wildly at this point. But the concept of genetically engineering cats to modify their behaviour to eliminate hunting is fascinating but it seems to be a bridge too far at this stage. What do you think?

Why it is wrong to say that domestic cats are disloyal

An experiment was carried out some time ago at Kyoto University, which has been reported widely in online news media websites. I'll summarise it. Both cats and dogs observed a person either helping or not helping their owner. Dogs observed this difference in approach and were uncooperative to the person who would not help their owner whereas cats remained cooperative with these people. It appears that the cats were unable to evaluate third parties who might be hostile or friendly. Dogs, in contrast, were able to evaluate them and decide whether they should receive their friendship and cooperation or not. 

Cats are disloyal?? Photo: Brittney Gobble

The experiment clearly indicates the evolutionary nature of these different species. Dogs are utilitarian animals. They've been used over centuries to help and work with people. Domestic cats, in contrast, are companions to people. They do not really have a utilitarian role to play. And when an animal works with people they naturally learn how to evaluate them. It's part of the learning and cooperation process.

The cat's difference in approach has been perceived as being disloyal by the news media. To be clear: because a cat can't evaluate the motivations behind a person interacting with their owner they are being called disloyal. This is incorrect. Loyalty means providing support or allegiance to a person. Domestic cat support their owners all day long. Of course it depends upon the relationship but domestic cats wouldn't exist if they didn't support the people they lived with. This is not a question of a lack of loyalty but an inability by the cat to evaluate the motivations and intentions of potentially hostile people towards their human companion.

And this stems from the well-known fact that the domestic cat has the character of its wild ancestor the North African wildcat. This wildcat is essentially solitary. The domestic cat has learned over 10,000 years of domestication how to be quite sociable. But this inherently solitary attitude comes to the surface sometimes and apparently it affects a cat's evaluative abilities. I think we should confine the conclusion of this study to that particular point and not hype it up and generalise about loyalty and disloyalty.

I have written about this before and you can read my earlier article which I've approached from a different angle, if you want to, by clicking here.

Lilica a tender and kind dog feeds her animal buddies

Humans barely share things. This dog travels four miles daily to collect food from a really nice lady to take back to her junkyard animal chums including a cat! I had weave a cat into the story. But this is about a dog who shows tenderness and kindness that teaches us a lesson.

Lilica was a homeless dog but made a home for herself in a junkyard in Brazil. In her search for food she bumped into Lucia Helena de Souza who lives four miles away. Lucia is an animal lover and she feed Lilica. Then one day the dog grabbed the bag in her teeth and took it away. The bag was open so the food was spilled. The next time Lucia made sure the bag was closed and eventually Lucia decided she had to find out where Lilica was taking the food because this routine had been doing this for a long time.

She discovered Lilica travelled the four miles back to the junkyard four miles away along an unlit and dangerous road where Lilica shares her food with the other junkyard animals including a cat as I understand it.

How about that? Shouldn't we learn from that? A lot credit must also go to Lucia who feeds Lilica and as you can see waits for her to turn up daily. This is a very tender-hearted woman who has taken on the responsibility of caring for Lilica and her junkyard buddies at a distance.