Germans keener on cat ownership than the British

On a pro rata basis there are more cats in Germany than the UK. It would appear that the citizens of Germany are keener on cat ownership than the citizens of the UK.

Germany: in 2023 there were 15.7 million cats.

UK: in 2023 there were 11 million cats.

Germany: human population is 83.3 million.

UK: human population is 67.9 million.

The UK population is 0.81 of the German population. Multiplying that figure by 15.7 million cats in Germany produces 12.8 million cats which is 1.8 million higher on a like-for-like basis vis-a-vis the human populations of these countries.

Therefore Germany has more cats per human population than the UK.

Germany: in 42% of households there are 2 or more cats.

UK: 37% of households have more than one cat.

The above figures support the assessment that Germans are keener cat owners than the British.

The above stats come from Pet Food Industry.com and PDSA Pet Populations Report and other sources such as Cats.com and UK Pet Food.org.

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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.

Purina LiveClear to reduce sinusitis in cat owners

This is a quick note on a product which has been around for a while now, Purina LiveClear, a dry cat food which coats the cat allergen which causes an allergic reaction in people. This is a protein called Fel D1. And in coating this protein it prevents it having the same effect and irritating people who are sensitive to it. 

And one of the effects of cat dander on people who are allergic to cats is that their sinuses become inflamed. This is sinusitis. There are other symptoms such as sneezing and watery eyes et cetera. It depends upon the severity of the reaction in the allergic person.

But the point I want to make here is this: there may be a lot of people who are not formally diagnosed as being allergic to cats but their sinuses might be inflamed by the Fel D1 allergen without the person realising it.

Sinusitis is a very common condition as it affects around 10%-30% of people in the United States and Europe with chronic sinusitis affecting about 12.5% of people according to Wikipedia.

Purina LiveClear review

But as I said, there are different grades of severity of sinusitis and some people might suffer from minor sinusitis and it may be caused by cat dander

And what I'm proposing here is that in order to check if a cat owner is suffering from mild sinusitis they should purchase some Purina LiveClear and test it. Test whether their sinusitis decreases in severity while they feed their cat with this product.

My research indicates that the product is reasonably successful in its objective. That's based on reviews you can read online.

My feeling is that there are perhaps many thousands of people living with cats who don't know that they are in a minor way allergic to them. That's because their symptoms are so low level that they don't recognise the problem but their sinuses may be affected and this test will at least tick that box to make sure that they are not suffering unnecessarily..

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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.

Almost 50% of cats and dogs have their own dedicated room

Cat caregiver enjoying the company of their cat. Image believed to be in the public domain.

A survey commissioned by Homesense, part of the TK Maxx family in the UK, found the following facts about cat and dog ownership which may interest people:

• 48% of cat and dog owners allocate a certain space in their home, a dedicated room often or a space in the garden for their pets.
• Just over half, 55%, wanted their cats and dogs to have their own area where they can chill out.
• 34% of the respondents of which there were 2000, wanted to ensure maximum comfort for their companion animal.
• 30% wanted all their possessions kept in one place. By this I mean cat and dog products of various sorts.
• 80% of the respondents dedicated a certain space in their home so that their companion animal's things and toys et cetera don't take up space in the rest of the home.
• 46% of respondents designed a home around their cat or dog.
• 21% admitted they were unlikely to buy items just to please their companion animal if those items didn't match with the interior of their home.

The study was in partnership with Kelly Brook to launch a pet an interiors content series “Barkitectural Digest”.

Kelly Brook said that certain parts of our home are designed around her dog, Teddy. Through the study she found that she was not the only one. She is pleased to help others.

The top changes made to dog and cat caregivers' homes included moving delicate things higher up (29% of the respondents) and adding a cat flap (in 21% of the respondents) and installing a garden fence (20%). Also:

• 16% of the respondents replaced carpets with hard floors.
• 11% bought scratch-proof furniture.
• 9% chose dark furnishings to disguise cat and dog fur.
• 17% installed baby gates to stop wondering cats and dogs.
• 19% used blankets to cover up damage to furniture and household items.
• 75% of respondents struggled to find pet products that were of good enough quality and reasonably priced.

The research was carried out by OnePoll.

• They also found that 41% of the respondents had discovered that owning a companion animal is more expensive than expected. The cost of food and insurers being the expenses that surprised them the most.
• 15% claimed that they spent more on their cat or dog than they do on their children. The same percentage said that they spent more on their cat and dog than their car or holidays.
• The average cat and dog owner spent £708 annually.
• 59% said that they compromised on buying pet products because of the expense.

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 and dog ownership is about pleasing people not the cats and dogs

Of course, in cat and dog ownership the caregivers often do their best to keep their pets happy. And that sentence appears to contradict the title. What I'm saying, though, is that the ultimate goal of a cat or dog owner is most often to please themselves; to find support from their companion animal. That's often the primary objective when people adopt or purchase/adopt a pet.

Human centrism as depicted by an AI computer DALL-E 3.

History

This primary goal shows itself in how pet ownership has developed over hundreds of years. If you turn the clock back in let's say Britain and look at cat ownership then, cats were allowed much more freedom to behave naturally. There were more community cats in Britain hundreds of years ago.

To allow cats to behave naturally is to please them. Of course hundred years ago there were no veterinary services and therefore cats had a shorter lifespan. They would have been ill more often which makes cats unhappy. 

They would been fed human scraps rather than specially formulated cat food. All these were negatives to cat contentment but at the heart of cat caregiving in the early part of the 19th century cats were allowed behave more naturally compared to today. That's the point I'm making ultimately.

Jumping forward to today, then, although cats and dogs are healthier in some regards today they are, arguably less content. I'll highlight some specific points to support that statement.

And I'm going to refer to an environmental historian who provided advice for an article on The Guardian newspaper online for some pointers on this. Their name is Troy Vettese. Troy said:

“If people really cared about animals, we would only engage in rescues and helping animal sanctuaries’ wildlife rehabilitation – things that we find fulfilling, but that also help the animal. [Instead] we only like relationships where they are easy, where the pets are well maintained, where we can hire a dog walker, where it impinges as little as possible on our life and we are extracting as much emotional support as we want from them."

He regards the relationship as very selfish. It is indeed human-centric. The cat-to-human relationship and the dog-to-human relationship very much centres around what the human wants and desires and gets. Of course, there is a wide spectrum of types of relationship with some being far better than others but that is the underpinning process.

Pandemic

The human-centric nature of pet ownership became very apparent during the Covid-19 pandemic. Cats and dogs were adopted because people were in lockdown. They wanted company. They adopted animals for themselves. They thought less of the long-term future and how they would cope with cat and dog caregiving which resulted in surrenders to rescues and sales on Facebook when the pandemic ended. Another signal of the human-centric nature of pet ownership nowadays.

This led to many reports of shelters being overrun with abandoned pets. The RSPCA were one example who complained about this.

Expansion

In America, pet ownership has expanded a lot as is the case in the UK and I suspect in other developed countries. A report on the pet industry in the US states that 70% of US households have a pet. A massive upscaling of pet ownership.

Indoors

But in parallel with that there has been a definite trend towards keeping cats indoors full-time which is good and bad. I have said in the past that people keep their cats indoors full-time primarily for their benefit; for their emotional well-being to prevent them being anxious about their cat when they go outside. Most people don't keep their cats inside to protect wildlife. They keep them inside to feel better themselves. But they don't enrich the indoor environment which leads to an unnatural environment for the cat and a less contented life.

And it is said that dogs have "less and less freedom to move around the world and be dogs". Those are the thoughts of Jessica Pierce, a bioethicist.

Breeding

And then we can turn to cat and dog breeding. The cat fancy didn't exist before the late 1800s and the same applies to dogs broadly speaking although dog domestication started 20k years ago compared to cats at 10k years ago. 

But since then, selective breeding has created some dogs and cats with extraordinary appearances which are unnatural and frankly unhealthy. Purebred cats and dogs inherit more illnesses than random bred cats and dogs. That's a result of selective breeding. And selective breeding is about pleasing owners. It's a human-centric process. And when you breed animals you kill more shelter animals. Another process which points to pleasing people rather than doing the right thing for companion animals.

Objects

Jessica Pierce claims that people nowadays are more likely to treat dogs and cats as objects than they were in the past. This is evident in the selective breeding argument above. Selective breeding is a moulding of a cat or dog so they have an interesting appearance while almost ignoring the health consequences. You couldn't get more human-centric.

Family members

And we know that cats and dogs nowadays are very often treated as family members. Like little people. Like kids. Like toddlers and people buy them clothes sometimes and dress them up. They do this to please themselves but not their cat or dog. And sometimes perhaps rarely dog owners have an artist paint a portrait of their companion animal and hang it over the mantelpiece. Just like a family member.

Starter kids

The business side of the pet ownership industry has burgeoned. And people are having pets rather than children. They sometimes adopt a cat or dog as a starter child. This has upset the current Pope who wants Italians to have children rather than adopt a pet.

The process is one of converting an animal to a human. If you treat a cat or dog as a human you are not really respecting the animal and doing right by the animal. There should be a focus on what an animal needs to be content which means creating a world fit for the animal in which they can express their natural desires.

Overindulge

And people sometimes overindulge their animals which has resulted in what veterinarians describe as an 'obesity epidemic'. Once again this is about people wishing to be nice to their pet resulting in overfeeding and a lack of exercise for their companion animal. Human failings based around but humans want to do and not what is right for their animal.

Emotional support

Pierce claims that often people tend to adopt a dog as a support animal, and emotional aid. She says this is not good for dog health and claims that veterinary literature reports that the level of dog anxiety is "off the charts".

People are asking dogs and cats to fulfil a human need and looking for unconditional love. This appears to be humans controlling their pet to the point where they are only allowed to give unconditional love. If they were allowed more freedoms with they give it?

Focusing on cat and dog needs

Another thought is that even when cat and dog owners are very thoughtful and conscientious they intend to underestimate the needs and desires of their companions. It's difficult to say it but the domestic cat is a top predator. They need to prey on animals to be content. It is their raison d'être. It is the centre of their lives. Bang them up in they home full-time and they can't do it and they become unhappy. They lack mental stimulation and opportunities to do what they want. They sleep all the time. They eat for pleasure. They become fat. Sometimes they suffer from separation anxiety when their owner leaves them alone all day.

Boredom

Vettese believes that "the boredom of animals is intense." He is referring to parrots stuck in cages bored out of their minds and stressed. But the same can apply to many indoor cats.

The captivity of cats is an issue. The full-time indoor MO makes them zoo animals in effect. And we know how bad zoos are the wild animals and the domestic cat, at heart is a wild animal.

Adopt from rescues

One thing we can do better is to adopt animals from rescue centres only. In line with this, many American jurisdictions are preventing pet shops from selling animals such as cats and dogs and forcing people to adopt them from shelters or the pet shop can be an extension of a shelter. The concept of breeding cats and dogs and then buying them is very human-centric and treating them as objects such as a new car. Dog and cat breeds are about appearance because humans are fascinated with appearance.

Ownership and caregiving

There is a distinction between owning and caring for a companion animal. The concept of ownership is wrong in terms of fostering good cat and dog caregiving. Ownership fosters or reinforces a problematic attitude towards animals and renders them as a property whereas caregiving fosters treating animals as animals. Respecting them more.

Failure

I have argued that cat domestication is a failure when considered overall. A thought. Too many feral cats. Each feral cat is a sign of failure.

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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.

Dogflation at 9% in Britain against 4% general inflation. Dog owners ripped off.

Image: MikeB

British veterinarians are killing the goose that lays the golden egg. And somewhat mysteriously and without transparency prices of a range of dog products have risen faster than general inflation. To me, being a rather cynical person 😇, the manufacturers and retailers are ripping off dog owners by jacking up their prices after the Covid-19 pandemic. They know that there are more dog owners out there in Great Britain and they want to milk them as much as possible.

Dogflation means the increase in prices of dog related services and products.

That certainly applies to veterinarians. The Times today reports that "125 owners a day give up on pets as dogflation bites". It's a good title with a hint of amusement but this is a serious matter. 😒

The information comes from Dogs Trust, Britain's biggest dog rehoming charity. They say that they are experiencing unprecedented demand. What they mean is that more people than ever are giving up their dogs to the charity.

And the biggest worry for dog owners is veterinary bills. The problem is that independent veterinarians have been bought out by big businesses to form veterinary clinic chains run by accountants who simply prioritise making a big profit rather than providing an excellent service to their patients. 

RELATED: UK pet owners go abroad to cut bills for veterinary treatments.

That's how it works for the big corporations. So Britain has lost those beautiful independent veterinarians. Well, there are still some around but there are far too many vet chains charging inflated prices and they are, as I mentioned in the opening sentence, killing the goose that lays the golden egg.

By that I mean they are reducing the number of pet owners because the cost of owning a pet is too high and because of that there will be less work for veterinary services. You can only charge so much. You can only rip off people so much before they give up and go away. This is beginning to happen.

The Times reports that, "Dogs Trust says record numbers of owners want to give up their animals and some of its kennels are so busy they have waiting lists."

And the problem is the rising cost of dog food, pet insurance and perhaps most importantly veterinary care. And because there are more people giving up pets which is the general trend at the moment, there are less people to adopt them because there are two sides to this problem.

If the mood in the UK is that it is too expensive to own a dog or a cat there are going be less people knocking on the doors of animal shelters looking for a pet to adopt in addition to, as mentioned, more people giving them up.

Last year Dogs Trust received more than 45,000 requests to give up their pet which is the equivalent of 125 per day.

The chief executive of Dogs Trust, Owen Sharp said: "The demand for us to take in dogs is outstripping our ability to meet it at the moment, so we have waiting lists. There is a direct correlation between people struggling to afford to have their dogs and the numbers wanting to give them up."

The charity commissioned Capital Economics, a research company, to work out the value of dogflation versus the general inflation in the country. Dogflation is at 9% while general inflation is at 4%. And Mr Sharp doesn't know why there is this disparity. I know why: it's rip off Britain.

These companies are taking advantage of people. And a survey by Dogs Trust found that veterinary bills are the biggest concern as mentioned.

Mr Sharp said that he was at a loss to explain the steep rise in prices. He said:

"You hear things such as manufacturing costs are higher or raw material costs are higher but you wouldn't really expect them to be disproportionately higher than the production of human food. So is there an issue going on in retail? I don't know. There is a lack of transparency around it, and I don't feel it's getting enough focus at the moment."

Dogs Trust has asked the government to intervene. They want the government to support struggling dog owners by removing VAT on pet food and veterinary services. Pet owners are being disproportionately hit by inflation.

The charity wants as many dog owners to keep their pets as possible and the same would apply to cats. Mr Sharp added that the charity "desperately need the government to step up and play its part for this country's 12 million dogs and their owners."

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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.

Winnipeg will change the law to allow people to legally do TNR work

NEWS AND COMMENT: CBS News reports that it's going to become legal to care for feral cats in Winnipeg under TNR programs if the community services committee agrees to proposed changes. Why should there be a need for a change in the bylaws of the City of Winnipeg just to do TNR work which is a way of controlling feral cat population numbers?

Winnipeg, Canada will change the city bylaws to allow TNR programs to conducted legally.

Well, in Winnipeg you need a licence to own a cat or dog. This is unusual. There are very few cities that demand a cat licence. For dogs it is normal because dogs are more dangerous to people than cats but in Winnipeg they have some quite strict rules about pet ownership.

Because of these licensing laws, there appears to be an unintended consequence in caring for feral cats because it might mean that a volunteer becomes a de facto owner of a feral cat or cats. And therefore they would have to get a licence which is not what was intended.

In fact, it would probably be in violation of the current pet licensing laws to do TNR work in Winnipeg. This problem in the bylaws of the city needs to be rectified. People engaged in TNR programs and caring for feral cats have been pushing for a change in the law for some time.

One of those people is Lynne Scott of Craig Street Cats. She said that, "Anyone who cares for a cat in their yard becomes the de facto owner of the cat."

This can lead to being fined or receiving some other penalty. It's an ambiguity within the existing city laws.

The change will allow people to do TNR work and look after feral cats provided they keep their area of operation clean and tidy and do not build too many shelters and other structures in order to maintain the amenity in the area and satisfy residents.

The Animal Services General Manager of Winnipeg, Leland Gordon, is keen for this change to take place to make it entirely legal for people to do TNR work.

The community services committee supports the change and it should go through their committee successfully on January 10, 2024. 

They hope it will encourage people to volunteer to limit feral cat population numbers. Organisations involved in this kind of work will have to have a cat management program recognised by Animal Services or be registered with a recognised cat management program.

Sources: CBC NEWS and the City of Winnipeg website.

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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.

"Link" between cat ownership and schizophrenia DOES NOT PROVE CAUSE AND EFFECT

As usual, from time to time the news media like to claim that owning a cat can cause schizophrenia. They cite studies and a new one has recently been published. But the news media reporters tend or always miss a very important point which I'll explain.

In broad terms you can categorise scientific studies into two groups: those that are observational and those that prove cause and effect.

Observational studies

These simply observe what is going on and report on it. So in the study referred to (see citation at base of this post) they found the following: "Our findings support an association between cat exposure and an increased risk of broadly defined schizophrenia-related disorders" and this: "We found that individuals exposed to cats had approximately twice the odds of developing schizophrenia". But this does not prove that owning a cat increases the chances of the owner developing schizophrenia.

It might but it is not proved scientifically through a detailed scientific analysis of the transference of the zoonotic disease T. Gondii from the cat to the person. The argument is that T. Gondii causes schizophrenia. But the observed cat owners might be predisposed to schizophrenia for any number of reasons and they just happen to own a cat.

Or the results might be explained by the fact that people who have fragile minds are more likely to adopt a cat for support and company as they find it harder to find a partner who accepts them. That last point is probably the most likely reason for this link between exposure to cats and schizophrenia-related disorders.

Cause and effect

I have touched on this above. The study would have to prove through hard science that cats caused these illnesses and as far as I know they have not. The study in question reviewed 17 early studies over 44 years.

I have done a lot of work on this topic and I have never seen it proved that cats cause schizophrenia-related illnesses.

One last point: often scientists have an axe to grind. They might dislike cats. Or they are funded by businesses who dislike cats. Or governments who have an agenda such as to keep cats inside the home full-time to protect native species or protect native species by reducing the domestic cat population. This kind of study might put people off adopting a cat for instance.

Click the following link to read another article about cat poop causing mental illness: Inconclusive study does not find Toxoplasma gondii infection causes schizophrenia in people.

Conclusion

Beware studies in general. Many are excellent and very useful but some are not. A recent story from the UK reported that one online journal deleted 40,000 studies as they were dubious. It is believed that they were churned out to boost the scientists' CV. They were fake and the journal had not been rigorous enough in vetting them.

RELATED: Beware of "bad science" research papers published online.

The study

John J McGrath, Carmen C W Lim, Sukanta Saha, Cat Ownership and Schizophrenia-Related Disorders and Psychotic-Like Experiences: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, Schizophrenia Bulletin, 2023;, sbad168, https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbad168

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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.

Same old story as dogs are favoured over cats at Christmas

OPINION: News media today tell us that researchers found that pet owners will spend 27% more on dogs and cats this Christmas. It's always been like this. Dogs get taken to the veterinarian more often than cats. Dogs are more closely connected to their owners and cats because they look up to their owners as the alpha, leader dog and they fawn all over them and a very needy towards their owners. 

This creates a very close connection whereas the solitary, independent-minded domestic cat can tend to have a looser connection with their owner.

Image: MikeB

This appears to inevitably lead to spending less at Christmas on the animals! And other things. 2000 pet owners were surveyed. They found that typically cats received £19-worth of gifts whereas dogs received gifts worth £25.

There are many gifts for dogs and cats available these days. Typically cats received toys and some food treats. Chew toys apparently are top of the list for dogs.

RELATED: Cats vs dogs – it’s a draw as expected.

It doesn't surprise me that quite a lot of money is spent on cats and dogs her Christmas because they are very much part of the family and in some instances they are the entire family and in other instances they are more important than human family members!

John Lewis reports that sales of pet gifts are up by 19% this Christmas. The pet gifting buyer at that organisation said that "everything from edible Christmas cards and chew toys, to litter robots and DIY cross stitch collars have been flying off the shelves this year. All throughout the year, we have so many pet parents coming into our stores looking for that perfect gift for their cats and dogs and we are always delighted to help find that special something for them."

Separately, it is said that dogs are slightly better behaved than cats at Christmas with 11% of cats described as being naughty while only 8% of dogs are in that category.

That said, 72% of cat and dog owners say that there companion animals make Christmas celebrations all the more special when they share Christmas festivities with them.

Survey: believed to be OnePoll poll from America.

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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.

Woman with seven cats trapped in her home surrounded by floodwater

Scotland has been incredibly wet recently. In fact, the whole of the UK is completely sodden and it is raining incessantly at the moment in the south of England. Is this global warming? We didn't used to get it this wet in years gone by. Nowhere near. Scotland has suffered the worst of it and Ms Brown in Brechin, Scotland, says that it is the worst flooding she has seen in 25 years.

Ms Brown trapped in her home with her 7 cats on River Street, Brechin, Scotland. Image: PA.

She is trapped in her home with her seven cats. It seems fortunate to me that her home is slightly raised with steps leading to the front door. This must have helped to protect her home from flooding inside.

The chaos has been caused by Storm Babet with many residents evacuated from homes and cars and lorries stranded.

I will turn my mind to the problems encountered by Ms Brown, stuck in her home with her seven cats. The question for her will be when she can leave her home to buy some food and other provisions.

And this begs the question as to whether she has sufficient food and cat litter in her home to supply her cats for the foreseeable future. As a rough guess, I would estimate that she won't be able to get out of the house - unless she swims or rescue teams come around in a boat - for about a week.

With seven cats, she needs quite a lot of food and cat litter so unless she has a good supply she will run out.

The story also begs the question as to whether people should have seven cats! A tricky question. I don't think they should. Ms Brown lives on a road, ironically called River Street. I suspect her cats are full-time indoor cats to protect them from road traffic.

I don't think it is viable to keep seven cats inside a home full-time unless you are incredibly well organised which is highly unlikely. You'll get cat smells, poop smells, urine smells, you name it and you've got it in terms of odours. Ammonia comes to mind. That's because it's almost impossible to keep a home with seven cat odour free when they live inside full-time.

It can be done and it has been done but with great expertise and commitment. I'm not saying that Ms Brown has a smelly home. It is likely that she has but is not certain. She may manage her seven cats really well. That said, I still don't think seven cats should be banged up inside a home full-time.

My neighbour has a similar number and they, too, are full-time indoor cats. One of them cried outside in a miserable cat run for about two months and now he has fallen silent. His morale has been crushed by the fact that he knows that he will never get out. So, I am sure that he just curls up and sleeps all day. I find that difficult to accept. I don't like to think about it because it upsets me.

The video below come from the Daily Mail newspaper and I can't guarantee that it will continue to function in the long-term future. If it has stopped functioning, I am sorry.

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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.

Banish depression by doing hot yoga and living with a cat companion

I have deliberately joined two ways to banish depression because I think together anybody who feels depressed or has been diagnosed with depression should wage a war on that mental condition and what better way to do that than owning a loving cat companion and participating in two hot yoga sessions per week?

Studies have confirmed that companion animals can alleviate depression particularly cats as it happens in one study. Another study recently published found that hot yoga can significantly reduce symptoms of severe depression. This is based upon a clinical trial.

Hot yoga

In nice to know that we have scientists stating that regular Bikram yoga classes, in which the participants pose in yoga positions in humid temperatures of 40°C, are an effective treatment option that can help to put depressed people into remission.

The clinical trial was led by Massachusetts Gen Hospital. They recruited 80 adults all of whom were suffering from moderate to severe depression. They were divided randomly into two groups.

The first group attended 90-minute hot yoga sessions twice a week while the others went on a waiting list.

After eight weeks, 44% of those who participated in Bikram saw big improvements in their depression symptoms to the point where they were no longer classed as depressed. This compared very favourably with only 6% of the control group who felt less depressed.

They assessed the depression using a standard assessment to call the Inventory of Depressive Symptomology Scale.

As mentioned, the participants attended two classes a week but even attending one class per week will help reduce depression, the scientists concluded.

The research is published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Maren Nyer, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the lead author of the trial said: "Yoga and heat-based interventions could potentially change the course of treatment for patients with depression by providing a non-medication-based approach. We are currently developing new studies with the goal of determining the specific contributions of each element, heat and yoga."

Cat companion

You will find many studies on the way that a cat companion can help alleviate depression in their caregiver. And you will find even more anecdotal stories which supports this conclusion. Many people find comfort in the companionship of domestic cats. They say that they have a positive impact on their mental well-being.

The effectiveness will depend upon the person. Obviously, you've got to like cats and you've got to be able to relate to your domestic cat companion because the closer the bond the more effective the "treatment" is.

Interacting with cats can provide emotional support. The caregiver receives unconditional companionship and love.

And the act of petting a cat has been shown to release endorphins. These are hormones which promote feelings of happiness, contentment and relaxation. 

The famous cat purr is a healer of bones and a panacea for the troubled mind.

And having a cat around the home can help instil rhythms and routines in both the cat and the caregiver which helps to stabilise home life.

And looking after a cat can instil a sense of purpose and responsibility in a person who needs structure in their lives. I'm referring here to retired people. They no longer have their work to help structure their lives. This can lead to a loss of purpose and depression.

Obviously, living with a domestic cat can help alleviate loneliness and loneliness can lead to depression.

But domestic cats are only one aspect of how to tackle depression albeit a major one as far as I'm concerned. There are no substitute for professional help if an individual feels they need it.

Drugs a last resort

But personally, I would regard drug treatments as a last resort. The preference would be to try both the above first because they are non-drug interventions which are far healthier.

All drugs are essentially poisons which means they have side effects. It is far better to deal with these problems, if one can, through non-chemical intervention. You don't want to alter your brain chemistry artificially if you can help it.

Bikram yoga

Bikram Yoga is a way to connect mind and body through breath, movement and sweat!

I would like to tell you what Abby McLachlan says about Bikram yoga. She is the founder of East of Eden, which is a yoga/Pilates and meditation studio in east London. Bikram Choudhury started the trend for hot yoga when he increased the heat of yoga studios in Japan in the 1970s to try to replicate Indian heat.

Abby states that: "Since the pandemic I've seen a rise in popularity for classes and work outs that people can easily replicate at home. Hot yoga very much falls into this category. We heat to 37°C, add high humidity through the use of humidifiers, and use aromatherapy scents to coloured lighting to enhance the experience. There are many benefits to practising yoga in a hot room. 

The heat increases the flexibility of your muscles, which can increase your range of motion and reduce the risk of injury. Your muscles also work harder, making standing postures and balances more challenging, but ultimately more beneficial. 

You might also detoxify in hot yoga through sweating more, and improve your circulation through better blood flow. You also find that your heart works harder in the heat giving you an enhanced cardiovascular workout"

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Please forgive any typos. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

People care less about their cats than they do about their dogs

If, like me, you are a cat lover and caregiver, it is rather depressing to think that, in general, cat owners care less for their cats than dog owners care for their dogs but the difference depends on cultural attitudes which in turn depends on the country where you live.

To be honest, I've known this for a long time. Many years ago, I looked up what American citizens spent on veterinary services on their cats and dogs. I went to the AVMA website and in quite a shocking revelation, I noticed that dog owners spend a lot more on their dogs then cat owners spent on their cats in terms of veterinary care. This showed a marked difference in emotional connection between people and their pets as this had little to do with disposable income. Although money is no doubt a factor.

And now we have a quite profound study, an important study, published online which compares cat owners and dog owners and their emotional connection with their companion animals.

In essence, they concluded that cat owners really do care less about their cats than dog owners care about their dogs. Although there is a cultural difference depending upon where you live. In this survey they looked at cat and dog owners living in Britain, Denmark and Austria.

They used for different methods of measuring cat and dog owners' concern about caring for their companion animals:

1. The Lexington attachment to pets scale (LAPS). This is a well-known test for measuring the emotional connection between owners and their pets.
2. Whether owners had taken out a pet health insurance policy.
3. How willing were owners to pay for life-saving treatment?
4. And the expectation of owners as to veterinary diagnostic and treatment options.

The difference between dog and cat owners was greatest in Denmark. Austria was in the middle in terms of treating cats and dogs differently and there was the least difference between dog and cat owners' attitude towards caring for their pets in the UK.

More dogs and cats were insured in all three countries but there was the least difference in the UK in this respect. The difference was much greater in Denmark.

In terms of expensive life-saving treatment, more dog owners than cat owners were willing to spend over a certain amount in all three countries. However, the difference was most pronounced in Denmark compared to the United Kingdom. The researchers felt that this criteria revealed a clear difference in concern for the welfare of cats and dogs.

In Denmark and Austria, dog owners expected more veterinary treatment options to be available than cat owners. But the difference was not noticeable in this respect in the UK.

The researchers concluded that in all three countries, "people care more about their dogs than their cats but with a clear cross-country variation and a very modest difference in the United Kingdom. Therefore, it does not seem to be a universal phenomenon that people care much less about their cats than their dogs.".

What they're saying there is that there is a clear difference between how people care for their dogs compared to their cats; the former getting better treatment than the latter but this difference in caregiving depends upon cultural attitudes in different countries and in Denmark there was the greatest difference whereas in the UK there was the smallest difference.

My personal opinion as to why people care for dogs better than they do cats is because the dog is a pack animal and they look to their owner as the alpha leader for guidance. This helps to generate a better connection between owner and companion animal. And with that better connection on an emotional level the person is more likely to spend more money on their pet because the emotional bond can be greater.

Conversely, the domestic cat is seen as independent which by the way is a misguided myth in large part, and therefore there is less of a close connection in many homes between owner and cat. This leads to the belief that the domestic cat can be left alone to live their lives and come into the life of their owner as and when they need to. This automatically leads to less caregiving and therefore less expenditure in terms of veterinary care.

There are misconceptions about both dogs and cats. For example, the media: books, movies and advertisements and online adverts et cetera can stereotype the dog as being loyal, affectionate and in need of care and attention. They are a "man's best friend". Conversely, cats are sometimes depicted as aloof, independent or less in need of human companionship. This may portray the concept that they require less care.

Can I keep a stray kitten that came into my house?

Image: MikeB

There are two major aspects to the question. There may be more. But this is what comes to my mind: there is the legal aspect namely does somebody own the kitten that came into your home. You don't want to be accused of theft, do you? That goes to answering the question in the title but there is a second aspect; one of animal welfare. You will have a compulsion if you are a sensitive individual concerned about animal welfare to adopt the kitten if in a place to do so. To at least look after the kitten and then rehome them. There will always be pressing welfare issues under these circumstances.

This is a complex question actually. You're going to have to find out whether the kitten is owned which would be unlikely under the circumstances and I'll tell you why. And then you're going to have to look after the kitten and protect them before adopting them if that's feasible and legal or before rehoming them all reuniting them with their owner. You can guess the complexities.

Unowned almost certainly

Perhaps I am making it more complex than it really is because I am sure that in 99% of cases when a kitten comes into a home, they don't have an owner because their mother is a stray or feral cat nearby and their kitten has come in for warmth and feeding. Their mother might also come into the warm and/or other kittens. 

Health often poor

The typical scenario is that kittens under these circumstances are in a bad way with upper respiratory infections, often, and they are commonly flea infested. There is work to do on health issues.

Wait and see

You could just look after the kitten if you want to adopt them and carry on as normal. You can wait and see what happens. Sometimes these things resolve themselves in a natural way over time. For example, if the kitten does have an owner, the owner will come around perhaps and chastise you for stealing their cat at which point you will return the cat to them. All you might argue that you should keep the kitten because you've looked after them and they are in a better place. You will play that card as it arrives.

Rules?

There may be legislation by which I mean local rules in your neighbourhood as decided by city administrators or county administrators or perhaps even state laws if you live in the United States of America. You might wish to check the local laws on this but I don't know of any federal laws which dictate how you should handle this situation.

Circumstances

The natural and normal thing to do is to take the kitten in and look after them. Of course, you might not be in a position to look after a kitten for various reasons. You might have too many cats already. You might have a dog that doesn't like cats. You might have a husband who doesn't like cats or if you are a man, you might have a wife who doesn't like cats. You have to take these things into consideration.

Microchip scanning

As to ownership, you might scan the kitten for a microchip. This would depend on how old the kitten is. If they are very young then they won't be micro-chipped probably. If they are a sub adult by which I mean a kitten that is somewhat grown-up, they might be micro-chipped. You can buy microchip scanners on Amazon quite cheaply. Or you could take the kitten to a veterinarian for a checkup and they scan at the same time.

In fact, this is what normally happens. If the first thing to do is to check for ownership and in parallel the next thing to do is to check the health problems then the natural consequence of those obligations is to take the kitten to a veterinarian for a quick check and scan for a microchip.

Due diligence

If there is no microchip and if on the face of it there is no owner, you can go home and look after your kitten. Or, if you might do due diligence on ownership and knock on a few doors and ask whether they have a mother cat who has given birth to kittens and if so, you can tell them that you have a kitten and can you keep her. That may be the way it pans out. There is an obligation here to try to find the owner but I don't think it extends to trying massively hard. It's just a natural step to take.

Rehoming

If you can't keep the kitten then you might take them to a shelter for rehoming. Or you might rehome the kitten yourself by talking to people you know. I would tend to prefer the latter because you can't always trust shelters as sometimes, they are euthanised even when healthy. But kittens are very adoptable normally and therefore there shouldn't be a problem in this regard.

Personal

The bottom line is that it comes down to whether there is an owner and if not whether you want to keep the kitten and look after them as an adult for the rest of their lives. This is a big obligation and if you've not cared for cats or pets until that moment then you would have to think about this seriously as a cat will change your life. It restricts you and you take on a responsibility in terms of expenditure (it can be quite expensive) and in terms of time and commitment. It's a big step like I say. I wouldn't take it casually.

Is it bad for a cat to spend all their time indoors without going outside at all?

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 domestic cats will be full-time indoor cats. And I hope at that time cat owners will have done something about a major failing that is apparent to me nowadays.

This is that you can't just keep cats indoors full-time by locking the doors and windows on them. You can do that but if your cat is used to going outside, they will be unhappy. They will be confused.

But if you raise a kitten from scratch i.e. as a newborn and they begin their life indoors and they remain indoors it is more likely that they will be happy staying indoors all their lives. That's because of the obvious reason that they only know life indoors. That is their world.

So, the starting point is important. And equally important is how enjoyable you make the indoors for your cat. You must have heard the phrase "environmental enrichment". If you haven't it means converting the inside of your home to be equally suitable for humans and cats!

This is how the indoors should be for full-time indoor cats! Very few cat caregivers go this far. The words in the image are those of the constructor of the cat runs. Image in the public domain.

Very few people do that by which I mean making it equally good for both species. But some people do make the interior of their home more interesting for their cat companion. This would include variously:

• Providing lots of climbing materials such as cat trees, some of which might go to the ceiling;
• Providing cat runs which traverse the walls and go up to the ceiling!
• Providing little hidey-hole places where they can hide and sleep. They should be high up sometimes where they will feel more secure.
• Providing toys to play with and then playing with your cat frequently.
• Building a catio, which is a small enclosure attached to the home with a wire grill to the exterior so the cat can smell and see the exterior more easily. They can employ their senses to pick up all that is going on in the exterior.

Cats need to be able to travel vertically as well as horizontally. They need a den the sleeping which is covered. Cats like something over their heads when they sleep ideally. That is not an absolute requirement but it's a good recommendation.

So, the answer to the question is you can keep cats indoors full-time but there is an added obligation on the owner to make sure that their cat does not become bored. There are tens of millions of very bored full-time indoor cats in America and elsewhere. And they end up pleasure eating to relieve the boredom which leads to obesity which in turn leads to illnesses such as feline diabetes.

When people say their indoor cat sleeps all the time, it is no surprise to me because they have nothing else to do. They are not actually in deep sleep. They are simply snoozing, killing time, resting and zoning out. It is incumbent upon cat owners to really rise to this very difficult challenge of enriching their cat's environment if they are confined to it.

When they do it is not bad to keep a cat indoors all the time. If they don't rise to the challenge, it is bad! It is down to the caregiver to make it work. Thus far I have not seen enough - anywhere near enough - commitment to enriching a cat's indoor environment.

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There are some secondary issues which are perhaps obvious. It's much easier for a full-time indoor cat to live in a big house with many rooms. Lots more space. It's much harder for a cat to live in a bedsit in a high-rise apartment block. It's much harder to make the latter environment enriched compared to the former.

And also, there's the question of how often the owner is around. I believe that it's important that the caregiver is around a lot to ensure that the indoor cat is entertained. Perhaps I'm being too demanding and expecting to high a standard. But this goes back to the original issue about the added responsibility placed upon the caregiver of full-time indoor cats.

Domestic cats understand the phonetics of their name

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 their name, it's true to a large extent. However, they don't understand their name as humans understand their own names. Cats understand the sound of their name. It is only the sound, the phonetics which they detect and respond to.

Study: Domestic cats (Felis catus) discriminate their names from other words. Link: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-40616-4

How do I get my cats to stop stealing my man?

 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

Is cat litter hazardous to toddlers?

Some people ask whether it is safe to put a cat litter tray in a child's bedroom? Other people might ask whether it is safe for a child to play around with cat litter. They might do that if they are curious. And sometimes toddlers might put cat litter in their mouth. Would that harm the child?

Image: MikeB

Chemically-speaking, cat litter is pretty inert and therefore I think you will find the general consensus is that cat litter is not toxic for children in general terms.

Tidy Cats

But there may well be problems. Although litter is not poisonous as such, some litter such as Tidy Cats Lightweight is extremely dusty. I have written about it and it is a popular page because a lot of people report catastrophic cat health problems after using this litter.

As it is so dusty it could harm a child if they are rummaging around in it, kicking up the dust. The dust particles would get in the eyes, mouth and ears. My advice then is to keep children away from this particular brand of litter.

All clumping litter is dusty to a certain extent which should be noted. It is big weakness in the efficacy and safety of this product.

Absorbent

And clumping cat litter may be dangerous for a child because it is highly absorbent. That is the reason why the material has been selected to be cat litter. It is sodium bentonite. It is mined from clay mines.

Is bentonite cat litter safe?

If a child wanted to eat a bit of cat litter it might do some damage because it would potentially expand in the throat or stomach having absorbed the liquid in those areas of the child's anatomy, possibly causing a blockage.

Toxoplasmosis

We can't ignore the fact that there is likely to be domestic cat faeces and urine in a cat litter tray. It would be highly unwise for a child to dive into a recently used cat litter tray. Although faeces per se are not particularly toxic, if the domestic cat concerned carried Toxoplasma gondii oocysts they may be in their faeces. If they were ingested by a child, he or she would contract toxoplasmosis.

A lot of people in many parts of the world have contracted toxoplasmosis and it is usually asymptomatic. But the domestic cat is often vilified for being the primary vector of this normally benign disease which can rarely be quite serious and cause blindness.

The important thing to note by the way about toxoplasmosis and its transmission from cats with an active toxoplasmosis infection is that they are only capable of passing it on for 7 to 10 days of their entire life when they are suffering from an acute infection. So please don't become overly nervous about it.

There's lots of talk about pregnant mothers getting rid of the domestic cat for this reason. My advice is don't get rid of the cat but take sensible precautions such as using gloves when cleaning the litter or ask somebody else to do it for you.

Cat owners can help themselves with respect to this disease by keeping their cat from roaming and hunting. That's because they get the disease from the prey animals that they kill. Faeces from the litter box should be disposed of carefully to avoid other people coming into contact with it. Litter boxes should be cleaned and disinfected often using boiling water and diluted bleach solution. 

Although it is unwise to overdo this because the litter box then loses its natural feline fragrance which is an attractant to a domestic cat. It makes them want to use that litter box again and again.

Please note that the biggest risk by a wide margin for contracting toxoplasmosis is not domestic cat faeces but eating raw and/or undercooked meat particularly lamb or pork.

Conclusion

The bottom line about kids being around cat litter trays is that it is unwise not because cat litter is chemically toxic because there may be some physical negative consequences as described and a single disease, toxoplasmosis, which is well-discussed on the internet.

Be the person that your dog or cat thinks you are!

Ricky Gervais, a well-known animal advocate, tweeted the above saying. Actually, he only referred to dogs but the same applies to cats in my view with a slight difference, which is why I have a section on cats as well on this page.

It is a very pertinent/important saying. If you aren't sure why, I will, with your permission, explain.

Dogs

The domestic dog regards their human caregiver as the alpha. The human caregiver's family is the wolf pack. The dog looks up to the alpha who is the leader of the pack. This accounts in part for their incredible loyalty. Loyalty which allows the human caregiver if they go wrong to abuse their dog and the dog to accept it. 

When that happens, it is something terrible to behold because it is a complete breach of trust and it must be incredibly confusing to the domestic dog to be attacked by the leader of the pack.

This is because the leader of the pack has duties such as guiding, teaching and caring for their pack members. The alpha wolf leads their pack to improved survival chances under difficult conditions. The pack members look to their leader for that kind of guidance.

The alpha wolf is a benevolent dictator if you like. But they must be benevolent. They must behave nicely towards their pack members.

Going back to the title to this post, it is saying that the dog's caregiver/owner should be benevolent towards their dog. It is what their dog is expecting of them. It is what their dog thinks that their human is like. 

The domestic dog's expectation is that their owner is going to be a decent person and in response to that known expectation the person MUST be decent. There is a strong obligation on dog owners to treat their dogs well in order to meet with their dog's expectations.

Gervais and dog. He is the person they think humans should be. Image: Twitter.

Cat

The domestic cat is not by nature a member of a pack. We know that domestic cats are essentially solitary although they have become very sociable creatures throughout the 10,000 years of domestication. This is because they live in human homes where there is often more than one person and pet.

But essentially, the domestic cat views their human caregiver as a surrogate mother. A parent. A mother who cares for them and looks after them. Who feeds them. Who keeps them safe. Who prioritises security.

The cat looks to their mother to provide them with warmth and tender loving care. In the wild, the mother also teaches their kittens how to hunt and survive. The human doesn't do that but in caring for them they keep their cat in a state of permanent kittenhood, in effect.

The domestic cat has a reliance upon the human and that reliance is dependent upon the human acting and behaving decently at all times. That is the cat's expectation. There is an obligation on the human to meet this expectation.

If they are cruel to their cat, once again the animal is confused, bemused, anxious and frightened. It would be a breach of trust once again by the human. It would be a breach too of the unwritten agreement between human and domestic cat which is one of mutual support.

Couple of Bengal-mix cats bring in 2 pigeons, 2 voles and a rabbit in one day

This lady and her husband have lived with cats for a long time, she says on the mumsnet.com website. They know cats but they were unprepared for the hunting prowess of a couple of Bengal-mix cats that they adopted. She says that they have brought into the home 'at least 3 dead creatures daily including frogs/toads, rodents, birds and rabbits'. And as mentioned in the title, in one day the pair caught and delivered to their owner 5 animals.

Bengal cat. This is NOT one of the cats in the story. The photo is here to illustrate the page. Photo: Twitter.

Distressing comes to mind; and messy. Think of the feathers all over the kitchen! And it is not good to see wildlife so mercilessly killed.

BUT - and it is a but in capitals for a reason - there is almost nothing you can do about it IF you decide that your cats must be indoor/outdoor cats because they've insisted on it by howling and meowing at you until you give in.

Sometimes when you try and keep cats inside full-time it proves to be impossible because they make such a fuss about it. And if you are sensitive to your cat's wellbeing you can't ignore the plaintiff meows of your cat begging you to allow them to go outside. Or the mope-around the home looking morose.

Bengals are particularly good predators

This is the great dilemma. Cats are topline predators in general. There are none better. If you live in the countryside as appears to be the case with this woman and her family there is plenty of wildlife to be had by a Bengal mix.

On the basis that these cats are genuine Bengal mix it does not surprise me that they are voracious hunters and killers as the Bengal is a wildcat hybrid. They have some diluted wild cat genes in them. This colours their character.

Wild cats are sharper and more hunting driven than their relatively docile true domestic cat. As she is finding out, if you adopt a wild cat hybrid and let them go outside there will be death and mayhem especially in a countryside environment.

Solution?

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

She has not mentioned one possibility: placing a brightly coloured collar around her cats' necks. These are manufactured commercially and have been proved to be quite successful as they warn birds of an impending attack. There is a product on the market called Birdsbesafe®.

Image: MikeB

But they don't protect land-based prey animals such as rodents. Bells on collars don't work that well because the cat wearing them compensates by keeping their bodies still to prevent the bell ringing as they approach the prey.

The only other way is a big and expensive compromise which might not work either: a customised garden enclosure which allows the cats to enjoy the outdoors but which protects a lot more wildlife.

That said Bengal cats are very athletic and they may be able to get out.

Like I said there is not a lot one can do about this. It's natural behaviour. If the lady wants her cats to behave naturally and express their natural desires (raw cat mojo as Jackson Galaxy calls it) she'll have to accept this. The collar mentioned (if she and the cats can put up with it) should reduce the kill count.

Cat rescued from Turkey's earthquakes goes missing in the UK

NEWS AND VIEWS: The woman is distraught. She blames herself. Her story is interesting and at the same time educational. She tells it on the mumsnet.com website.

She appears to have adopted a rescue cat when she was living in Turkey. She describes her cat as an "ex-street cat". She kept him indoors after rescuing him. He spent two years inside her home in Turkey.

Domestic cat rescued from Turkish earthquakes. This is not the cat in the story. The picture is here to illustrate the page. Image now in the public domain.

During the earthquakes which were well reported he went missing for two months. He was found and rescued. He was kept in a tent for a week on a harness. He was then transported by car in a 20-hour journey to Istanbul. He was then looked after by a different person and then transported to the UK by road in a three-day journey to be reunited with his owner, the lady in question who is distraught and now living in the UK.

When the cat was returned to the UK, he apparently settled in initially. The lady has another cat who doesn't get on that well with the cat from Turkey.

She knew that she had to keep her Turkish cat inside the home for a few weeks before letting him out. The idea behind cat confinement when moving to a new home and a strange environment is to allow the cat to begin to own that environment and feel at home in it. This prevents him or her from trying to return to their previous home and getting lost.

The Turkish cat squeezed out of the cat flap as the other cat was coming through it. He returned to his home but he was asking to be let out all the time. He was howling according to the lady.

Against her better judgement she let him out. He came back a couple of hours later and so she let him out again but this time he didn't return and the days have gone by. At the time of her post on the mumsnet website he had been missing for four days.

She said:

"I just don't know what to do. I literally can't do anything other than just sit around all day crying and hating myself for being so stupid and not following the advice."

Her cat is micro-chipped so there's hope there. She has posted on social media and placed familiar items such as his litter tray and his bedding in the garden to try and attract him to it. She's going to print flyers and post those around the neighbourhood. She asks for help.

Lessons?

Educational? Unfortunately, this lady's life for a while was unsuited to a domestic cat. She travelled from Turkey to the UK after the Turkish earthquakes. This was discombobulating for her cat. It's not her fault but circumstances have created a very unsettled lifestyle for her cat. The earthquakes must have been traumatic for the cat.

RELATED: Live the life that your cat wants with consistency and routines.

In addition, the second cat doesn't appear to get on that well with the Turkish rescue cat. This unsettled lifestyle plus the other cat has resulted in the Turkish cat leaving the home. He might not come back but live outside and become skinny and dirty and suffer ill-health unless somebody rescues him (again for the 3rd time) and has the presence of mind to have him scanned for a microchip at which point he can be returned and reunited.

But the educational aspect of this is that domestic cats like and indeed need a settled lifestyle with routines and rhythms by their human caregiver. They want those reassurances. I wish her well and the same goes to her cat. She rescued him from Turkey so this is an excellent woman.

Infographic - videos on animal rescue from Turkey's earthquakes

Adelaide has become a city of a 200,000 private zoos

Adelaide, South Australia, have placed the ultimate restrictions of cat ownership. They lead the world in this regard.

Aussies see cats both domestic and feral as a pest when it comes to their relationship with native flora and fauna. Some local authorities are ahead of others in restricting cat ownership freedoms in order to protect native species and the administrators of Adelaide, Australia have probably gone as far as any jurisdiction can to restriction cat ownership. 

The long-suffering cats and their owners have to desex, microchip, register with the authorities and confine to their home all domestic cats.

We all understand the rules but are they genuinely enforceable? They probably don't have to be as 99% of Adelaide's residents will probably willingly comply because they've been indoctrinated with the notion that domestic cats are a massive threat to native species while ignoring the greater threat from humans (increased human population leading to more settlements and activity destroying habitat).

Adelaide's cats have to be registered once they are 3 months old. I think Adelaide is one of only a handful of councils anywhere in the world where they have compulsory registration. It may be the only council with this requirement. It is that rare.

The fees for registration are as follows:

CATEGORY	FEE
Non-standard cat	$100.00
Standard cat (desexed and microchipped)	$30.00
Concession non-standard cat	$50.00
Concession standard cat (desexed and microchipped)	$15.00

A cat owner can take their cat out on a lead but few will as it is a tricky process. Violation of the local law leads to a fine of $187.50.

The big prob

The council have overlooked one enormous problem with their ordinance. None of these confined cats will enjoy a substitute that matches the fun of their freedoms when allowed outside. They'll become bored and fed up. They'll moan to their owners and meow to be let out. They'll torment their owners.

The big flaw that is never admitted in keeping cats indoors full-time.

They'll eventually give up and settle in to a life or boredom and pleasure eating, leading to obesity. I understand the local laws and am sympathetic but they should be extended to mandate that cat owners provide an enriched confined environment such as an obligatory garden enclosure.

That would be asking far too much of course. So, they just bang-up (imprison) the cats. Adelaide has become a city of a 200,000 private zoos based on the rough estimate that there are that number of households with a pet cat.