Cat love - squishy face

There is almost nothing more that I like with respect to cat photography than these sorts of photographs where that is a lot of love in the human-cat-relationship. This looks like a young woman or girl with her cat companion. I expect that it is set up with the photographer telling the girl that she might like putting her cat over her shoulder to see if it creates a nice photograph, which absolutely does. A lot of pleasure is given both ways in this sort of relationship.

Photo: Reddit.com.

How do I make my cat love me?

How do I make my cat love me? You can answer the question in one sentence. Love her or him. If that is your starting point you will respect your cat as a cat but you will treat her as a member of the family. They are open to being friends and bonding. Just open the door to them. In respecting her you will understand her behaviour and requirements. 

You will understand that she needs to behave naturally to be happy. And if you provide that environment and she is happy she will be inclined to love you. And if you give her the best quality food that you can it will also help to make her love you. But above all all your actions must be the actions of a person who loves their cat.

So you will pet her in a way that she likes. You will learn what she likes through observation and by trial and error but all the time it will be gentle and respectful. And you will learn her rhythms and routines. You will learn her fears, her likes and dislikes. You will prevent the circumtances that make her fearful. And everything that you do in relation to her will be based upon what you've learned with the objective of making her happy.

A domestic cat must be able to behave as naturally as possible in the human home. Any animal who is prevented from behaving naturally will find it difficult to be happy. They will be more inclined to be anxious. The inherent abnormality of the human home can create anxiety in domestic cats. Human caretakers have to overcome this. The home should be as calm as possible. Multi-cat homes need to be proficiently managed. You'll need skills.

There should be a minimum of intrusive noises and activities. Reassurance can come from routines and rhythms in the life of the cat's caretaker. Cats will pick up on this and follow them.

If you love your cat you will provide her with some high vantage points were she can rest in safety. They love moving vertically. Meet that desire. You will also provide some hiding places where she can rest and hide when she feels anxious. You will allow her on your lap if she wants to be there even if it inconveniences you. You will allow her to come on to your bed at night because in terms of scent the human bed is the centre of the universe.

If you have a close bond with your cat, which is your objective, your scent is very important to her. Domestic cats rely far more than we do on their sense of smell. It is perhaps more important than their eyes in identifying objects.

Because it is so important and because the bed is in the words of Jackson Galaxy a "scent soaker" she should be allowed on it and even inside it with you under the covers. Don't balk at allowing this to happen. Put away any squeamishness. It will improve the bond between you both and in doing that it will make her happier and you as well.

A lot of cat owners think that they should lock their cat out of the bedroom at night. I strongly disagree with this for the reasons mentioned above. Like I said at the beginning, you respect your cat and treat them as felines but you should regard them as members of the human family. You would not keep your child from coming into the bedroom at night so why should you do the same thing with your cat? If getting into the bed is impossible for you build a little bed for her in the bedroom.

You want your cat to find her mojo, the raw wild cat inside of her which should be expressed as near as possible in the way would that it be expressed if she was free-living in a wild place. Many domestic cats live inside the home full-time. This puts extra pressure on owners to make their world as natural as possible.

Cat window box. Pic in the public domain.

If permissible and if the budget allows at least build a window box which is a construction that sits inside a window frame but juts outside so that they can sit in it and smell the air and be closer to nature. Better still build an enclosure attached to the house. Once again this allows a cat to experience nature at least to a limited extent. This in turn allows a more natural existence for them. This brings pleasure and with pleasure they are more likely to love you.

Catio in the Middle East. Image in public domain.

Never shout at your cat or punish her. They don't understand punishment. They don't like loud noises and they will pick up your animosity towards them if you shout at them. Use a melodious and gentle voice with her. Cats do not need to hear a cat-like voice to understand or appreciate you. It should be a calm voice which is reassuring. A lot of what we do in regard to our cat is to reassure them because they are quite nervous creatures although it does depend upon the individual personality.

Don't punish your cat. Poster: Ruth aka Kattaddorra.

As mentioned, feed them the best quality cat food that you can but don't overfeed them. Do not try and buy their love with human treats to an excess. Give them the odd treat but not too much because if your cat becomes obese that is not an example of loving your cat. It is an example of indirectly and perhaps inadvertently abusing your cat because obesity brings health problems. You would be harming your cat if you allowed her to become obese. There is an epidemic of feline obesity partly because many people themselves are obese and they have failed to recognise what obesity really is.

Obesity brings feline Type II diabetes and other illnesses just like it does with humans. The coronavirus pandemic has targeted obese people. By far the majority of people who have died because of contracting Covid-19 are obese people. You want your cat to be healthy. A healthy cat is more likely to be a happy cat and a happy cat is more likely to love you.

If a cat is miserable because she is unwell it will be impossible for her to love anybody because she will be too unhappy. And finally, at the end of her days you will probably have to decide to euthanise her. The timing of this process is vitally important. 

It should be an objective decision in the interest of your cat and not of yourselves. Sometimes people delay this decision because they do not want to say goodbye to the cat that they love. This can prolong pain and distress in a cat through a chronic illness. Seek the advice of a good veterinarian who has at least 10 years experience and who knows felines and is sensitive.

Be with your cat when she dies. Your last duty as a loving cat guardian. Image: PoC.

And finally, on the day that she is euthanised you should be there with her, to comfort her and to say your goodbyes. This is your final duty, the duty of a person who loves her cat and who is loved in return.

Teenage woman allegedly tried to poison housemates because they mistreated her kittens she claimed

COMMENT AND NEWS: This is a story from Brisbane Australia. Te Raukura Anahera Alexander, 19, clearly loves cats. She adopted two kittens. She lived in what appears to be a house which he shared with housemates. There appears also to have been some sort of dispute between her and the housemates which was simmering in the background and which came to a head when her kittens or a kitten wandered into one of the housemaid's rooms and scratched the person in the room.

Te Raukura Anahera Alexander, 19, outside the magistrates court. She refused to
talk to the media. Photo: Daily Mail.

It is claimed that a kitten or kittens were thrown across the room as a consequence. This is an allegation of animal abuse. Alexander became enraged and allegedly tried to take the law into their own hands by poisoning her housemates. She reportedly admitted to placing a teaspoonful of mosquito repellent into milk and yoghurt. The repellent is called Mortein Peaceful Nights.

My research indicates that if ingested this insecticide can cause serious harm in people. It may be fatal in a large enough dosage. Skin can become sensitised to it and it is very dangerous to aquatic animals. It should be handled with caution and with rubber gloves.

Nobody ate the yoghurt or drank the milk and therefore nobody was poisoned. The police came to the property when allegedly Alexander slashed all four tyres of a vehicle outside the house. It appears that she admitted the alleged crime at that time to the police. She's appeared before the magistrates court and is on bail pending the next hearing and ordered to live with her father and not to return to the home where she lived or approach the housemates. She will reappear before court on March 29.

She was provoked. She did something very stupid. She will no doubt be imprisoned if convicted. If that happens she will be without her kittens. She made a terrible mistake. Any number of alternative solutions would have been better including removing herself from the house with her kittens.

She could have reported the alleged abuse of the kitten(s) by her housemates or housemate to the police because on the face of it this might constitute animal abuse under Australian animal welfare law. That would have given her the high moral ground.

The story highlights the dangers of living in a home of multiple occupation if you own a cat, cats or a kitten. The animals are thrust into a home where their safety cannot be ensured. The cat owner does not know whether her housemates will treat her cat with care. She doesn't know whether they like or dislike cats. She doesn't know whether they are scrupulous about animal welfare.

But if a dispute arises, as appears to be the case in the story, one person may take out their anger on the cats. Cats are always vulnerable to animal abuse because of their immediate presence. They are an outlet for angry people.

I hope that the judge is lenient if she is convicted and that her sentence is light. Although she is on a charge which sound serious namely attempting to injure by noxious substances, assault and wilful damage (reference to the slashing of the car tyres).

What is ailurophilia?

Ailurophilia is the love of cats. A person who loves cats is an ailurophile. Authors are predisposed to being ailurophiles. Many famous people have loved and love cats. Many celebrated figures were and are dedicated to felines. I myself am an ailurophile. However, I like all animals more or less equally. It has to be equally otherwise I would be criticised for speciesism.

Portrait of Shelley, by Alfred Clint (1829). 

Source: Wikipedia.

I can't produce a complete list of famous ailurophiles so I'll select some authors initially. Here they are:

Kingsley Amis, Emily Brontë, Lord Byron, Raymond Chandler, John Cocteau, Colette, Charles Dickens, Alexander Dumas, Ernest Hemingway, and Frank, Aldous Huxley, Rudyard Kipling, Edgar Allen Poe, Mark Twain, HG Wells.

Here are 10 poets who were or are ailurophiles:

Matthew Arnold, Cecil Day-Lewis, William Butler Yeats, William Wordsworth, Percy Shelley, John Keats and TS Eliot.

Here are half a dozen artists who were or are ailurophiles:

Edward Lear, Leonardo da Vinci, Edouard Manet, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol.

Here are some heads of state and cultural leaders who were or are ailurophiles:

US Pres Jimmy Carter, King Charles I, Sir Winston Churchill, US Pres Bill Clinton, US Pres Calvin Coolidge, King Edward VII, US Pres Gerald Ford, Pope Gregory I, US Pres John F. Kennedy, US Pres Abraham Lincoln, US president Ronald Reagan, US Pres Theodore Roosevelt and Prime Minister Harold Wilson and lastly Queen Victoria.

Here's are some composers and musicians who were or are ailurophiles:

Alexander Borodin, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Chopin, Ravel.

A philosopher who was a cat lover: Jeremy Bentham.

Some scientists who were ailurophiles:

Erasmus Darwin, Albert Einstein, Thomas Huxley and Isaac Newton.

Humanitarians who were ailurophiles:

Florence Nightingale and Albert Schweitzer.

Sportsmen and women who are ailurophiles: Frank Bruno, Sally Gunnell and O.J. Simpson.

Stage and screen stars who were or are ailurophiles:

Fred Astaire, Tallulah Bankhead, Bridget Bardot, Kim Basinger, Warren Beatty, Doris Day, Melanie Griffith, Charles Lawton, Janet Leigh, James Mason, Robert De Niro, Beryl Reid, Edward G Robinson, Elizabeth Taylor and Franco Zeffirelli.

What do cat lovers think about the Gaza vs Israel conflict?

Cat lovers are generally independent-minded, intelligent people. I'd like to know what they think about the Gaza vs Israel conflict. Are cat lovers for Israel or the Palestinians? Or perhaps they are neutral.

Hamas should not be sending over rockets but they suffer a blockade which prevents them from doing business which hobbles their economy. Israel say they have to retain the blockade to stop Hamas acquiring weapons but Hamas get weapons.

The Gazans complain that with the blockade in place it is like living in a prison and they have a right to freedom like any other people.

The Israelis believe they must not show weakness. They believe they must demonstrate their strength. However, you can't behave that way towards your immediate neighbour.

Hamas's actions are obviously highly provocative but their rockets have not killed a single Israeli civilian as at the date of this post as far as I am aware. There have been 67 Israeli dead but all soldiers.

We know there have been about 1800 Palestinian civilians killed, many of them children.

The Israelis have shelled three UN designated safe houses where uprooted Palestinians had found shelter despite the fact that the UN had told the Israeli authorities about these "safe" buildings on many occasions beforehand and yet the Israelis still shelled them killing many innocent lives. This is surely disappropriate behaviour by Israel in defending their citizens.

The Israelis will say Hamas use these buildings but is that true for UN designated safe zones? I doubt it but I wish to remain neutral.

Both sides are mistaken and stupid. I would have expected more from Israel because they have the Iron Dome mobile defense system funded by the US which is very effective in blowing up Hamas rockets in the air. This defense system appears to have dealt with the almost all the rockets so why does Israel still shell and rocket attack civilian areas in Gaza?

This will damage Israel and in the long term will achieve nothing except for more trouble. It will harden the resolve of Hamas and it will generate more Palestinians who hate Israel. It has also caused widespread protest against Israeli policy in Europe.

Israel can do better. I fully understand why they are being aggressive against Gaza but the time is right for constraint and building relationships rather than creating more instability and hatred.

John Dolan And George. The Power of Companion Animal Friendship

John Dolan has spent a total of 12 years in prison.  It was mainly for theft and drug offences.  He was living rough in east London in 2010 when he was given a Staffordshire bull terrier called George.  Dolan says:

 “Just before I got George I was on drugs, it was terrible.  The day I got the dog I wasn't sure what to do.  I realised I had a big powerful animal on my hands that needed a lot of looking after and there was I, barely able to look after myself...  What George has given me over the past three years is a belief in myself and my ability to draw."

Dolan credits George with helping him to transform his life from a homeless criminal into a successful artist.  He now sells his drawings to £2000 each.  John Dolan knew he had some talent because he used to dabble with art when he was a teenager.  While he was sitting on the pavement doing nothing as a homeless person with George he decided to draw the buildings opposite.  I suppose it kept him occupied. Up until that time he was simply begging for money it seems receiving the odd coin here and there.  Then he started to supplement the donations by selling his drawings for £10 and £20 each.

Gradually John Dolan became known as street artist and a lawyer, Richard Howard-Griffin, got to hear about him and recognised his talent.  He organised an exhibition of his work.  And now a forthcoming book is about to be published about John Dolan and his dog George - John and George: The Dog Who Changed My Life.  It is due to be released next month.

Which brings me nicely to the next topic of this short article which is that John Dolan's story very nicely mirrors the story of James Bowen who adopted an orange tabby cat named Bob.  At the time James was a drug-addicted busker. His story has been well publicised and as I recall, two books have been published about him and his relationship with Bob.  More than 1,000,000 copies have been sold.  James Bowen's life has been transformed and he too credits that transformation, at least substantially, to Bob.

John Dolan says,

“If I had not had George, I would never have picked up a pen.  He is my saviour...  He's like my child, the one I never had.  He's given me a life."

Both the stories of James and John remind us of the power of the friendship of a companion animal.  Don't underestimate it.

Photo by Rob Weir

A Group Of Cat Lovers (a photo)

It is not often that you get a group of cat lovers altogether at a criminal court and it is even rarer for a photograph to be taken of them, so here it is:

Photo JESSE WARD/FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

I admire them of course.  What were they doing?  They were attending the court where Andre Robinson made an appearance.  You may remember that he is the young man who kicked a stray cat while being videoed.  The cat is a grey and white cat and his name is King.

King has been re-homed.  It is time to re-home Mr Robinson...inside a jail!

This group of ladies included Margaret Lee of Manhattan and Kiri Blakeley (a writer).  They are referred to as advocates in a newspaper article.  They are advocates - the voice of the vulnerable animals who have no voice.

They are at court to try and tell the world to make sure that Andre Robinson gets his just deserts. Often people who abuse animals are handed very light sentences on conviction.  To animal advocates the sentences for animal and cat cruelty are inadequate.

Andre Robinson has been charged with a misdemeanour which as I understand American law is a minor crime.

Andre Robinson's mother, Mary Kirby told her son to “leave these arseholes alone" as they passed in the court building. For my part, I believe that groups of animal lovers like these ladies do a good job to highlight society's need to protect the vulnerable animals that live within human society.  Not enough, at present, is being done to carry out that duty.

Differences Between Cat And Dog People

This is another study on the differences between dog and cat lovers. The researcher was Denise Guastello, an associate professor of psychology at Carroll University in Waukesha, Wisconsin, USA.

This study reinforces what we already know from previous studies, but there's some additional information which is interesting.

Dog photo: USAG-Humphreys
Cat photo: Eirik Newth

In this study the researcher surveyed 600 college students. About 60% of the students surveyed said they would dog people compare to a much lower 11% who said they were cat people. The remaining 29% said they like both animals or did not like animals.

Those who said they were dog people tended to be more outgoing, lively and energetic while cat lovers were more open-minded, more sensitive and introverted than dog lovers. Importantly, cat people tend to be nonconformist. They appear to be more free thinking and more able to form their own ideas rather than follow the rules which appears to apply more to dog people.

Dog people won't like this but the study concluded that cat lovers were more intelligent than dog lovers.

A possible reason why dog lovers were assessed as being more energetic is because they have to be when taking care of a dog whereas the domestic cat being more independent and more able to take care of himself requires less in the way of energetic input. Most cats don't go outside on a leash for a walk with their owner whereas it has to happen once or twice a day for a dog.

For dog lovers the most attractive aspect of caring for a dog was companionship while for cat people it appears that affection was more important.

We know how dog owners sometimes look like their dog, well it also seems that people select their cat or dog on the basis that their personalities are similar. If cats are independent then so are their owners. There's a good match.

Are You Considered By Some to Be a Crazy Cat Lover or Animal Hugger?

Jackson Galaxy Considered by Some to be a Crazy Animal Hugger

If you are a young man and you love cats and perhaps you love all animals then you might be considered to be a crazy cat lover or crazy animal hugger by some people.  Jackson Galaxy says that he is considered to be a crazy animal hugger by some people in the USA (click on the link above to read more about that).  He is not your archetypal cat lover based on appearance which is why he breaks down barriers. He breaks down the stereotypical image of a person who likes animals and cats. This is his great asset I think.

Cat lovers are creative people. Poster by Ruth aka Kattaddorra

What I mean is his appearance is his great asset because when you combine his appearance with the fact that he is a well-known cat behaviourist and “animal hugger" then you have a potent mix which is highly effective and which draws people in who would otherwise not necessary be that interested in animal welfare.

The stereotype is that older women, particularly independent and intelligent women, are cat lovers. The other stereotype is that the younger man or the family man is a dog lover.

If you like animals a lot then people who don't understand can unjustifiably criticise you.  However, I don't think that a person who loves animals would criticise a person who does not love animals.  I think that people who care about animal welfare are generally better people and they tend to be more polite and therefore will not be aggressive towards people who are different.  Conversely, the people who are aggressive towards people concerned about animal welfare can tend to be more aggressive anyway.  Am I stereotyping people myself?  I'm not sure but that is how it looks to me sometimes.

It is surprising that such a well-known cat behaviourist with his own television channel in the USA is criticised and insulted by people who call him a crazy animal hugger.  This is what Jackson himself says happens sometimes.

On a more optimistic note, however, he does say that there is an ongoing general shift in attitude towards animal welfare among Americans in America.  He believes - and he is well placed to assess this - that Americans are becoming more sensitive towards animal welfare, which means of course that Jackson will become more mainstream and criticised less!  What a good thing that would be. Perhaps this trend will translate into less declawing of cats and less wild cat species as pets.  There are too many pet wild cats in America.  They are unsuited.