Social media tempts teenagers to skive and the family cat benefits!

High rates of school absence because of Internet addiction in teenagers leads to social media tempting teenagers to skive, stay at home, and as a consequence be company for the family cat. 💕😊 - if there is one.

If a person is prone to stay at home no matter whether they are a teenager at school or a worker at work, they will be with their cat more often and it would be an antidote to what I see is a major problem with domestic cats: separation anxiety as their owner is at work all day and the kids at school.

The story is about Internet addiction in teenagers concerns skiving and not going to school but for me this is as much a story about that as it is about keeping the cat at home company. 💕🙄

A study decided that teenagers skive as mentioned. It found that teenage girls seem to be more vulnerable to this than boys and more vulnerable to excessive use of the Internet. The more often a teenager uses the Internet the more likely it is that they are addicted to it.

The research took place in Finland. They took data from a national biennial survey. They asked children how much they neglected friends and family and failed to eat or sleep because of their time online. They asked how anxious they were when they weren't online.

Just over 2% of the more than 86,000 children in the school years eight and nine (aged 14 to 16) in Finland who participated were found to use the Internet excessively. Girls were 96% more likely than boys to fall into this category.

3 to 4% of the children reported high rates of absence from school. Those who spent excessive amounts of time on social media had a 38% higher risk of truancy. They also had a 24% higher risk of medical school absences.

The researchers decided that digital media may be tempting teens to stay at home and avoid school which affected their learning. The research is published in the British Medical Journal's Archives of Diseases in Childhood.

As you can see the study was based on self reporting from teenagers. They may have overestimated or underestimated the amount of time they spent on social media online.

Excessive Internet use is not the same as addiction. There is no agreed clinical definition of Internet addiction. It was suggested by another scientist that the research does not help understand the effects of Internet use in children.

But as mentioned above, I would suggest that there is one benefit if there is a family cat. They have some company and social media Internet addiction can remove the problem of separation anxiety for domestic cats.

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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.

Men are much more likely to adopt cats than women in the UK, study finds

A story in the Daily Mail reports on a study that challenges the ‘crazy cat lady’ stereotype, revealing that men in the UK are more likely to adopt cats than women. According to a survey conducted by UK Pet Food, over the last four years, 27% of men have adopted an adult cat compared to 18% of women. This translates to approximately 1.5 million new male cat-owning households, versus around one million female households.

The report also highlights that many pet owners, particularly those over the age of 45, find their pets to be a significant source of companionship, with some even expressing a preference for spending time with their pets over family members. Additionally, there’s a suggestion that pets could be beneficial for mental health, with one-fifth of respondents supporting the idea of pets being available on prescription.

This study underscores the changing dynamics in pet adoption and the important role pets play in providing emotional support and combating loneliness.

Comment: this trend, if indeed it is a trend, is probably due to cats being considered better pets when the caregiver is working away from home all the time. Unfortunately both cats and dogs suffer from separation anxiety when their caregiver is not around for long periods. If the reason is as I believe, it is a poor reason.

An added problem is that absent caregivers tend to put down dry cat food for day-long grazing which is bad for the cat under these circumstances as the cat becomes slightly dehydrated which combined with the stress of separation anxiety can lead to cystitis, an inflammation of the bladder due to a bacterial infection and/or for the reason stated below.

Separation anxiety in cats can lead to cystitis. Stress is considered a significant cause of Feline Idiopathic Cystitis (FIC), a common type of cystitis in cats. Anxiety can cause the protective layer of the bladder to become patchy, exposing the bladder tissue to harsh chemicals in urine, which can result in inflammation. It’s important to manage a cat’s stress levels to prevent such health issues, and if you notice symptoms of cystitis, consulting a vet is crucial.

I have personal experience of causing my cat to develop cystitis for the above reason, sadly. It was years ago but I still feel bad about it. I have not missed one day of being with my current cat who I have lived with for around 8 years.

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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.

Hybrid working is great for pet caregiving but not so good for productivity

I'm not sure about other countries but in the UK hybrid working has become somewhat of the norm. Hybrid working means working from home and working from the office. It's a shared working environment as opposed to the default situation in the past of always working from the office.

Flexible hours have pretty well killed off the 9-to-5 working style. It's no longer the way to make a living for the vast majority of office staff in the UK.

Hybrid working allows people to tailor their working hours to fit much better around their nonworking activities. These include cat and dog caregiving.

Improved cat caregiving. Less anxiety.

I can imagine the joy of millions of cats and dogs perhaps particularly cats because they are perceived as being independent and mistakenly believed to accept being alone. I am afraid not.

Now they can have their human companion around far more often. There's been no study on it but I suspect that domestic cat anxiety brought on by separation anxiety has diminished tremendously since Covid-19 and the commencement of hybrid working. 

Also, looking at it from the human perspective, cat caregivers will be more relaxed and less anxious about their companion animals because they can be around far more often. There must be a lot of people who are unhappy about leaving their cats alone all day. That problem is now resolved for office workers.

Survey supports hybrid working

A study of more than 2,000 Britons who used to work in an office five days a week before the pandemic but who now split their working hours between office and home said that they had far more freedom to tailor their schedules and start their workday either later or earlier to suit themselves.

Most (43%) said that they begin their day at 8 AM or before which is earlier than when attending the office. Ten percent chose to logon at work after 9:30 PM. Extraordinary. I have just realised that that is in the evening rather than the morning. They prefer to do nightshift by the look of it.

Although companion dogs and cats are benefited tremendously, I would argue through hybrid working, I think you will find a consensus among managers and business owners that productivity has diminished as a result. 

There are problems with it such as not being able to interact on a direct, person-to-person basis and far more freely with work colleagues in order to exchange ideas. I think this is one way employees are more productive.

In Britain 44% of the workforce now spend at least some of their working week at home according to the Office for National Statistics. The method has become very popular and jobseekers are now demanding hybrid working from their future employers and as employers are having difficulty hiring staff they give way to this demand.

Employee demands

Seventy-one percent of hybrid workers say that they would not take a new role involving a long commute. That's another point about hybrid working; it's avoids commuting costs and time. This puts money in the pockets of employees and can make working more efficient.

But this article is about the benefits to companion animals which for people like me is very welcome. 

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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.

Image: MikeB

"Curiosity killed the cat" is an adage which was "Care killed the cat" meaning anxiety

We all know the old saying "Curiosity killed the cat". It's a saying which fits cat behaviour. Domestic cats are, indeed, very curious. It gets him into trouble sometimes which is why they can be harmed because of their curiosity and even, rarely, killed. Therefore, the adage has some veracity.

Domestic cats' lack of understanding of activities and objects in the human world makes them nervous. Photo: Pixabay.

But the original version of this proverb, from its first appearance in the 16th century until the end of the 19th century was, "Care killed the cat".

Care meaning anxious

In this saying, the word "care" means to worry about or to be anxious about something or other. It points to the possibility that cats could become so anxious and worried about something that it could even kill them. And this, apparently, used to be a belief by many people back in the day when the saying was first created.

And interestingly, this concept of worry killing cats is being revisited by veterinarians. Perhaps it's being revisited in terms of the fact that anxiety in domestic cats can harm their health which can lead to on occasions a serious health problems and even death.

But apparently, about 25% of cat owners surveyed in a 2008 study believed that their cat was incapable of feeling anxiety or sadness. Times have changed thanks to the internet I would say which has educated many cat owners. It is believed now that cats can at least experience the basic emotions that humans experience which includes anxiety or sadness.

And if asked today, scientists would agree that the old version of the proverb is to a certain extent true. Anxiety does present as a serious and real affliction for many domestic cats.

Anxiety is defined as a fear of something that is not currently happening. And you will find that there are, today, some anti-anxiety drugs which have been developed for humans which can be used on cats off-licence. Although, we are still unsure as to whether domestic cat feels the same kind of anxiety that humans feel but we are sure that feline anxiety is similar to human anxiety.

Elavil for anxious cats sometimes. Last resort. Image: MikeB

Interestingly, in the study I mention, more than 60% of cat owners thought that domestic cats can be jealous. Almost 20% of the participants thought that cats can feel the emotion of embarrassment and more than 20% believed that cats can feel shame. Around 35% believed that cats can feel guilt and 40% were sure that cats experienced grief. About 60% thought that domestic cats experienced empathy.

Home range issues

The most common cause of anxiety in cats is to worry that their home range i.e. their territory is about to be invaded by other cats in the neighbourhood. This might apply to full-time indoor cats when looking out the window into the back yard.

Or they might feel this anxiety when living in a multi-cat home and where their territory is very compressed. Under these circumstances home ranges overlap a lot and there is a greater possibility for cats to develop anxiety because of intrusions into their home range.

When Dr. Jon Bradshaw conducted a survey of 90 cat owners in suburban Hampshire and rural Devon in 2000, the participants reported that almost 50% of their cats regularly fought with other cats. They confirmed that 40% of the cats were fearful of cats in general.

He states that he has a colleague, a veterinary surgeon, Rachel Casey, specialising in cat behavioural disorders who regularly diagnoses anxiety and fear. She believes that these emotions are main factors driving cats to urinate and defecate indoors outside of the litter box.

Forced to live with cat they don't trust and owner absence

As about half of domestic cats on that survey suffer from anxiety the old adage that I mention above carries some truth. And this leads to inappropriate defecation and urination inside the home. When cats defecate on bedsheets which by the way happened to my ex-wife's cat after my divorce, the cat is desperately trying to mingle their own smells with their owner's smells to establish ownership. 

It can be reassuring for a cat to do this. In my ex-wife's case I don't think this was about ownership of space but more about anxiety about her absence. Although she had introduced a new cat to the home which would have probably compounded the matter.

The stress of being forced to live with a cat or cat that they don't trust can affect a cat's health. The classic illness caused by stress is cystitis which veterinarians call idiopathic cystitis because there is no apparent cause of it.

66% urination problems

Dr. Jon Bradshaw tells me in his book Cat Sense that "As many as two thirds of cats taking to vets for urination problems-blood in the urine, difficult or painful urination, urinating in inappropriate places-have no obvious medical problems, other than inflammation of the bladder and intermittent blockage of the urethra by mucus thereby displaced from the bladder wall. The factors triggering such episodes of cystitis are therefore psychological."

Lack of understanding

When you think about it, there are a lot of things about the human world that domestic cats are going to struggle to understand because they are human. They can become acclimatised to them but constantly fail to understand them.

Certainly, new events and activities can make them anxious because of this failure to understand.

It's a reminder that we are different species and that our relationship as is an interspecies relationship and therefore quite special.

There are numerous activities which occur throughout the day and throughout the year which can cause anxiety and which are exclusively human in nature such as fireworks, delivery vans outside, the doorbell going off, the hoover being used and so on and so forth.

Owners aware

I think based upon this article that many cat owners should really be switched onto the possibility that their cat companion is going to stressed at some stage of their lives and they should look to the causes, the most common of which, as mentioned, is another cat or cats.

Do you believe scientists who say that smelly clothes don't reassure domestic cats?

This is a cross post - click this for the earlier post. Three scientists conducted an experiment as to whether the scented i.e. unwashed clothes, of domestic cat human caregiver's provided what they describe as a "secure base effect" (SBE) for their cats. To cut out the technical language, they wanted to see whether cats obtained reassurance from the unwashed clothes of their owners when their owners were absent; away from the home or perhaps asleep at night. Are smelly clothes a substitute for the presence of cat owners in terms of reassuring the domestic cat companions?

Do you believe scientists who say that smelly clothes don't reassure domestic cats? Image in public domain.

I would expect that nearly all cat owners would say that they are at least a second-best substitute. Many cat owners place an unwashed item of clothing in a cat carrier to help to reassure their cat when they take them to a veterinarian for instance. Or they leave an item of clothing with their cat when they are boarded at a cattery when they are away on holiday.

And of course you see thousands of pictures on the Internet of cat sleeping on beds which contain copious amounts of body odour from their owner or domestic cats sleeping on their owner's favourite chair. Domestic cat sleep on the laps of owners because it is warmer and because it smells of their owner. The scientist will say that these are all anecdotal forms of evidence.

They wanted to address the issue through science and provide a scientific, objective answer as to whether smelly clothes reassure domestic cats. And they say that they DO NOT! This runs counter to conventional wisdom on cat caregiving.

ASSOCIATED PAGE: 14 links between stress in domestic cats and health implications

They conducted the experiment in what was a strange place for the cats. The cats would have been brought there in carriers. The room would have been quite stark I expect and there would have been other interfering aspects such as strange noises and strange people. I believe that when you place a domestic cat into an entirely new place which might be perceived as being hostile to them, you cannot expect them to behave normally. And if you can't expect them to behave normally you can't measure natural behaviours.

The researchers found that when cats were left in a room without their owner being present but with the benefit of smelly clothing from their owner they did not use those clothes to seek reassurance. When their owner was in the room with them their stress levels went down but the clothes did not reduce stress levels as judged through their behaviour when their owners left the room.

ASSOCIATED: Study says that cats are prone to separation anxiety in homes with two female residents

They concluded, firmly, that this was scientific evidence that cats don't obtain a "secure base effect" from scented objects belonging to their owner. I would argue, as mentioned, that the study is tainted by the abnormal behaviour of the cats brought about because they were out of their home range and placed in a strange place with can induce a mild sense of panic and anxiety which masks normal behaviours.

The use of scented clothes to help reduce a well-known condition called "separation anxiety" in felines appears to have been debunked by this study. You make up your own mind. I have made up mine as you can see. There is too much first hand experience to show that scented clothes are very important to domestic cat because the smell of objects is a vital part of their lives. The use their sense of smell as much as they use their eyesight. Humans rely far more heavily on their eyesight.

Note: The scientists are: Alexandra C.Behnkea, Kristyn R.Vital and Monique A.R.Udella who, I believe, conducted the study at Animal Health & Behavior, Distance Education, Unity College, 49 Farm View Drive, Suite 201, New Gloucester, ME 04260, USA.

'My cat whenever I take my dog for a walk'

The title is the words of a Reddit user and I found them very sad in the context of the picture they accompany. 

'My cat whenever I take my dog for a walk'

The photo says one thing: the cat wants to tag along. She may have separation anxiety.

Wife went back to the office this week, her favorite cat is waiting sadly at her empty desk

The headline comes direct from Reddit.com because I can't beat it. This is happening all over America and Europe; cats suddenly and unceremoniously left without their human companion who they've been close to for 18 months or thereabouts due to social distancing measures i.e. lockdowns.

Wife went back to the office this week, her favorite cat is waiting sadly at her empty desk. Photo: Reddit.com user: u/HawkTheHawker

The same is happening for dogs perhaps even more so. This is because a lot of people adopted dogs during the coronavirus pandemic and all they've known is to be with their human companion all day long. Suddenly, their owner is going back to work at the office and bingo, a puppy who's lived most of his life with an owner who was always there is suddenly alone. This is going to cause a lot of distress for the dog and I guess for the owner if they are genuinely concerned.

And cats aren't quite as independent as people make them out to be. Domestic cats have become social creatures and they love to have their owner at home with them. As you can see in the photograph they particularly like the desk with a computer because this is where their owner has been working and of course the computer gives off some heat which they also like.

The cats are simply not going to understand it. It will take some time for them to settle down and revert back to the old routine. In the meantime, I would guess that some of them will suffer from separation anxiety. There will be a few cases of cats being a bit naughty because if they become stressed it can be manifested in what people describe as 'bad behaviour' such as spraying urine or perhaps scratching and even perhaps becoming a little more aggressive because they are irritated.

Their owners will be distressed too because they will miss their cats. There is a big argument that people should be allowed to take their pets to their workplace. Apple, as I recall, allow dogs or is it Google? I think it's actually Google who allow this. Google has a very open attitude towards the workplace which is very evident. Everything within a Google office is untypical but geared up to creative thinking and productivity. The presence of a companion dog arguably improves productivity. There may even be a study on the topic which supports this.

It is much harder for cats to be brought to the office for obvious reasons although it does happen. The Foreign Office of the UK government used to have an office cat called Palmerston but he didn't really like it and he was pensioned off. Larry at Number 10 Downing Street is more at home and he's been there for quite a long time. It's worked out well and I'm sure he contributes. These are high profile examples of working cats and offices. There should be more but the complication is that a person or persons need to look after the cat and these will be volunteers. That's what happens at Number 10 Downing Street. And I recall they even use their own money for the purpose because there is no official funding for Larry. Larry was spraying when Dilyn the PM's dog was adopted.

A lot of animal rescue organisations are particularly concerned about dogs because they foresee a lot of abandonments of newly adopted dogs by inexperienced people who haven't really researched what dog ownership entails because they've hastily bought into the idea of adopting a sweet flat-based puppy such as a French Bulldog during lockdown. 

They discover that dog ownership is unviable when they return to the office which is happening right now. So, they offer the dog for sale online. They have to sell because their cute puppy cost them £3,500 which is a lot more than they normally cost due to market forces. And if you sell a companion animal online you generate some problems, at least potentially. 

And the dog, of course, is then being pushed around from pillar to post which is unhelpful particularly when they are young and going through those developmental years. It could result in the dog becoming badly behaved i.e. developing bad habits which lead to the possibility of the new owner passing on the dog. These are the negative effects of the coronavirus pandemic in respect of companion animals.

Every day cat greets woman going to work on her bike

"On my way to my previous workplace i met every morning this cat at the same spot. She jumped always on my lap while i was on my bicycle and collected her daily cuddles...."

on my way to my previous workplace i met every morning this cat at the same spot. She jumped always on my lap while i was on my bicycle and collected her daily cuddles ☺️ from r/aww

Note: videos on this site are typically made by people other than me and held on YouTube servers or the servers of other businesses (not the server storing this website). Sometimes the videos are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened I apologise but I have no control over it.

Once again, this is a particularly sweet story. I actually feel very sorry for this cat. Perhaps I should not. But, the cat needs company. And as you can see in the words of the woman she mentions her "previous workplace". This means that she no longer takes this route, I believe. This in turn means that this cat no longer meets this woman. So neither of them can enjoy their company. I wonder how the cat feels. I would bet that she feels lonely and misses her human, female companion.

It was a small thing but a quite unimportant part of their lives. After all, the woman felt it important enough to post the story to the Reddit.com website. Clearly it made an impact on her life and the same must be said about the cat.

It is these little things which enhance our lives. I would guess that this cat's owner is away all day and the cat is allowed outside which is why she is looking for company. Of course, I am guessing and I could be completely wrong but my gut feeling takes me to that thought. Because a cat is domesticated they need the company of their human companion.

There is a misconception by some people that cats are independent and can be left alone all day while they are at work. This is not true. Of course they can be left alone but after a few hours they will be waiting for their human friend to come home. It's called separation anxiety. Call it what you like. They need companionship. I feel sorry for cats who have to endure this loneliness. There is not much choice for the person because they have to work.

The only choice they have is not to adopt a cat and hopefully the cat that they would have adopted goes to a home where the person is around most of the day.

Every day this cat greets woman going to work on her bike. Screenshot.

13.5% of domestic cats suffer from separation anxiety problems

The figure seems a little low to me but I'm going to rely upon a questionnaire survey sent to 130 owners of adult cats living in the city of Juiz de Fora in Minas Gerais, Brazil. There were 223 questions for each cat. The research is published in the journal PLOS ONE and it was published on April 15, 2020.

Photo: Pixabay

Information collected showed that 13.5% of the sampled cats i.e. 30 out of 223, had at least one symptom of separation anxiety or a separation problem such as destructive behaviour (which was the most frequently reported behavioural symptoms), excessive vocalisation, inappropriate urination, depression-apathy, aggression, agitation-anxiety and inappropriate defecation. Inappropriate defecation was the least encountered behavioural problem at seven of the cats while inappropriate urination occurred with 18 of the cats surveyed. 

The cats lived in households whose owners varied in age between 18-35 years and in homes where there are no female residents or two female residents. 

 Comment: having read lots of literature of on cat behaviour and cat ownership, I sense that there is a real problem with cats being labelled as independent and being left alone all day while their owners have to go to work. You can't really criticise the people but I don't think that they are fully aware of the mental difficulties that their cats experience when left alone. 

Also, not infrequently, these cats are left alone as full-time indoor cats and therefore they can't entertain themselves outside. I'm not saying that they should be outside because it is more dangerous outside. I'm just saying that it's an issue about cat ownership and whether people are in the right place in terms of their lives to be high quality cat caretakers. 

UK: Increase In Homeworkers Good for the Domestic Cat

There has been a 13% increase in people working at home over the past 5 years.  There were just over 4,000,000 in 2012.  That represents a rise of 470,000 since 2007.  An increasing number of women are working from home.  The majority of home working jobs created over the past 5 years have gone to women.  This is because most of the new jobs are part-time.

All this has happened during the recession which is surprising.  This new way of working is becoming essential to the UK labour market.  I'm told that people work more productively at home. There are no office politics to contend with for a start.  That might help.

For me, being interested as I am in the welfare of a domestic cat, this trend in the labour market should benefit the domestic cat.  Very many cats are left at home, alone during the daytime as their human caretaker goes to work and many of those caretakers are single women.

As more women are working at home it would imply that there are more women spending more time with their cats at home during the working week.

Bearing in mind that cats can become stressed was left alone at home and they can suffer from separation anxiety.  Stress can lead to health problems such as cystitis.  Stress can also lead to marking territory (defecating and urinating outside the litter tray). I'm just touching on this subject but it can be seen that the increase in home workers should be a good thing for cat lovers and cats alike.

There is one modern profession which I'm told is well known for people who like to keep cats and have them around them and on their desk when they work.  I also presume that these people often work at home.  They are game developers.  Code writers.  There are almost certainly nearly always young men so it's quite nice on two counts namely that we have men liking cats which goes against the grain slightly (so we are told) and we have men working at home with their cats around them keeping them company.

Cat Separation Anxiety

Do you really know what your cat is getting up to while you are away all day? We know that cats sleep a lot and kill time well. However, we are their companions and if we are away all day, sometimes for long periods, it may be that they miss us. Seems logical to me. And in missing us, do they become anxious? If so, does that lead to behavior that we don't see? Do some domestic cats, unbeknown to their "owners' become traumatized by being left alone for long periods all day, every day?

Anxious cat - Photo by neekoh.fi (Flickr)

Sometimes we do see the consequences of cat separation anxiety (Separation Anxiety Syndrome - SAS). One disastrous consequence is what is euphemistically called "inappropriate elimination". The well trained domestic cat may spray on the bed, for example, to make the environment more comfortable when anxious. The cat guardian who is away all day, working and then having a drink in the evening before returning, may think his or her cat has been very naughty and punish her. The "owner" will be in a rage. But it's his fault.

I have been guilty myself. Not of punishing my cat. I have never done that. But of being away all day from say 6:30 am to 6:30 pm. At the time I was living in a first floor flat. My cat developed cystitis which can be brought on by stress.

A recent research study on dogs by John Bradshaw director of the Anthrozoology Institute at Bristol University has estimated that 1.5 million dogs suffer from separation distress. Some dogs become psychologically traumatized.

Both dog owners and cat owners believe their animal companion copes well being alone. Maybe a lot do but many don't.

If your companion animal responds to the stress by damaging the home in some way don't punish please. Dogs won't associate the punishment with what they did hours or even minutes earlier. And in any event dogs and cats don't comprehend the concept of punishment. Dogs can see punishment as a form of getting attention; something that they have lacked when left alone all day.

There has been similar research on cats and indeed people (children and adolescents). I think Elisa, a regular contributor to this website has seen her fair share of cat separation anxiety at cat shelters. These are abandoned cats in strange surroundings.

There is evidence that cats can and do develop negative emotions when separated from their human companion. The reaction is similar to that described above for dogs.

One reaction is self harm (self-mutilation). In cats this can take the form of obsessive compulsive disorders such as over-grooming that removes all the hair and damages the skin. An obsessive compulsive disorder is a condition suffered by children under similar circumstances.

If you are an "owner" who (a) works long hours (b) changes work schedules frequently (lack of routine) (c) takes frequent business trips and/or vacations, your cat is at a greater risk of suffering from SAS.

Apparently cats "with a history of shelter adoption after 3 months of age" and neutered cats, cats that follow their caretakers around the house, and cats who live with a single person are more likely to develop SAS (src: Stefanie Schwartz, DVM, MSc, DACVB).

See an earlier post on cat separation anxiety.

See also music for cats.