You are part Neanderthal if you wake up when your cat is active at dawn

The title seems bizarre but there is an element of truth about it. Even more than an element of truth because the title is based around a study about Neanderthal genes which can be found in modern day humans.

And, the study reports that Neanderthals were early risers in order to improve their hunting success rate. In other words, the Neanderthal genes in some us affects our circadian rhythms making us early risers.

We know that domestic cats are most active at dawn and dusk and sometimes at night and indeed sometimes during the day but they are known to be crepuscular which means active at dawn and dusk.

And if you have these precious Neanderthal genes you are likely to be active at dawn which means that you are likely to wake up at dawn and do something at 4 AM in the morning which, by the way, is what I tend to do now that I am an old man and I want a bit of peace and quiet to write articles for my website.

It helps if you have Neanderthal genes as you are more in sync with your cat. It helps cat caregiving therefore.

Neanderthals lived at higher latitudes than our ancestors who migrated from Africa. In other words they were further away from the equator which meant that the days were longer in summer and shorter in winter.

Neanderthals were able to make the most of the daylight hours to maximise their hunting successes. To achieve that they were early risers.

The study is new in that it is one of the first studies to look at the circadian rhythms of humans and to see whether there was a genetic reason for differences between modern humans and are forerunners. They found 16 variants linked with greater 'morningness' or the propensity to rise early in the morning.

The study scientists suggest that modern people might have inherited Neanderthal "circadian variants."

Most of the variants in circadian rhythms and sleep preferences concerns an increased propensity to being alert in the early hours of the morning. And it's consistent with research on other animals which are adapted to living at a high latitude just as Neanderthals did.

The study is published in Genome Biology and Evolution.

So in conclusion, I will say that I have Neanderthal genes inside me because I am active at 4 AM in the morning although this is dependent partly upon the fact that I'm old and therefore sleep badly. Don't think badly of Neanderthals. They were much smarter than they are generally given credit for today.

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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.

Duvet cover tells cat where to sleep

Duvet cover tells cat where to sleep. Shame they can't read English. Image: FB.

I like this duvet cover. Cool idea and it looks good. Shame cats can't read English. The duvet does tell a big story of cat intrusions on the bed. They do tend to hog it and sometimes interfere with sleep. You could write a book about cats in the bedroom.

There is the ever-present question of whether to let your cat come into the bedroom at night or whether you keep them out of the bedroom at night. A lot of people keep their cat out of the bedroom at night but I think it is a bad idea. So does Jackson Galaxy the American cat behaviourist. The bedroom is a great place for a cat but, I admit, it isn't so great for the person using the bed at night.

But cats just love to be with their owner on the bed at night. You are going to tell me now that your cat doesn't like to sleep on your bed with you which is fair enough but most cats do like to do it.

And then you've got a hold another chapter to write in this book about how cats wake their owners up at four in the morning because they want their breakfast. That's about domestic cats being crepuscular. Everybody knows that now. I think when you have a domestic cat you can expect to have your sleep broken sometimes at least. But it's a great trade-off. It's worth it. All cat owners would more or less say that.

You know what Jackson says is the best compromise about allowing your cat into the bedroom? It's to make a little bed for your cat in the corner of the room and that bed contains smelly items from you and your cat so they feel very comfortable sleeping on it. Because cats are attracted to the bedroom by the smell as in the words of Jackson, the bedroom has a "scent soaker". He means that it is soaked in the body odour of their owner. Yes, it doesn't sound great to humans but it is wonderful to cats.

Woman who loves cats adopted a rescue cat and learned to hate him

This is a story on social media which tells us that it is possible to love cats in general, to want to adopt a cat and then finally adopt a cat after a long wait when you have your own property but thereafter to learn to hate the cat that you adopted. 

It's a sad story and it is possible sometimes for this to happen. Cat owners need to do a reality check and accept it when they feel that they can no longer live with their cat. That doesn't mean abandoning your cat but it might mean rehoming your cat to the best of your ability because that is part of the obligation of a caregiver.

In this instance, the woman said that she waited for the right one to adopt. She wanted an older cat who would be happy living indoors because she lived on the second floor of a house conversion in a one-bedroom flat without direct access to a garden. In short, she adopted a cat to be a full-time indoor cats.

But she found that her elderly male cat screamed at 3 AM in the morning until 6 AM in the morning every night. She had no idea why this was happening. She took her cat to the vet who gave him arthritis injections because they thought that he was suffering from arthritis causing pain. He obviously wasn't. Because the screaming continued.

She got to the point where she couldn't function any more at work because she couldn't sleep properly and she learned to hate him and sought advice on the Internet.

In follow-up posts she said that on third visit to a veterinarian they diagnosed megacolon. And because her cat suffered from megacolon, they decided that it was the reason why he was screaming during the night. I doubt that. 

That might have been one reason but the thing is this: the symptoms of megacolon of very specific and quite apparent and the lady never mentions these symptoms which are: straining to defecate, weight loss, lethargy, vomiting and anorexia i.e. a lack of appetite. And a painful abdomen as well as dehydration and depression.

I would have thought she would have had picked up these symptoms if they truly were present and that her cat was indeed suffering from megacolon. He might have been but I think the more likely reason why he was screaming at night was because this cat, historically, was an indoor/outdoor cat with free access to the outside unsupervised. Keeping him indoors full-time drove him nuts. He screamed at the top of his voice as a consequence. He was asking to be let out.

But the lady couldn't do it because she lived on the second floor and there was no access to the outside. The answer would have been to rehome the him but almost all of the very many people who advised didn't advise this. 

In the end she decided to euthanise her cat because the operation to fix the megacolon was going to be too expensive and perhaps too difficult. And the outcome was uncertain. She said that she he had five good months with her as the vet had administered medications for the megacolon and Feliway to calm him. I don't think the five months were that good. The Feliway indicates that he was agitated by being kept indoors.

I feel a little bit queasy about the story because, as mentioned, I think the underlying and genuine reason why this cat was screaming is because he wanted to be outside, to hunt at night, to roam freely as he had done before. I am guessing but the story indicates that.

To keep cats indoors full-time is a good thing sometimes because it protects wildlife and protects the cat from risk of injury and more severe harm. But sometimes cat caregivers have to accept that their cat is an indoor/outdoor cat. They have to accept that their cat is going to live a risky life relative to being an indoor life. 

People normally keep their cats indoors full-time for their own peace of mind primarily and the secondary reason is to keep their cat safe. I think people need to free up that thought and sometimes, just sometimes, they have to allow their cat to take life risks and decide that what happens is going to happen come what may.

If she decided that and found a way to allow her cat to go outside at night he might be alive today.

Domestic cats just don't understand why we sleep throughout the night

This TikTok video demonstrates what I mean in the title. The couple's cat constantly tries to wake them up by biting their arm and pricking their noses. It looks bad because it is 2-months' worth of action compressed into 2 minutes but the message is clear: their cat is active during the night as domestic cats generally are and they are not. Their cat wants them to join him.

As domestic cats relate to us as surrogate moms and therefore as cats, they find it impossible to comprehend why our behaviour is so strange in that we refuse to be active at a time when cats are naturally active.

Domestic care are generally 'crepuscular' meaning active at dawn and dusk but they can be active at any time, often at night. Their circadian rhythm certainly clashes with ours.

Humans normally have very set patterns of sleep and activity.  When it is dark it is time to sleep. When it is light it is activity time. No so for the domestic cat who sees night time as great opportunity to find prey animals as they are often active at night to avoid predators!

The desire to go hunting at night is present for full-time indoor cats when prey is never available. Many domestic cats will adjust their lifestyle under these circumstances and reduce their nighttime activities. I don't think they'll squeeze them out of existence. That is asking too much.

They will subdue their instinctive desire to be active when their caregiver sleeps to fit it. To match the human circadian rhythm - sometimes.

The problem we see in the video is perhaps the biggest 'culture clash' between the human and cat. It is a barrier to a successful relationship.

Cat owners overcome it. They get used to having their cat bite their arm to try and wake them up or prick their nose with the middle claw of their favoured paw.

These two methods to wake up humans are very typical of domestic cats.

Murderous moggies: should we be locking up our cats at night?

From time to time, on a regular basis, there are calls to restrict the movements of domestic cats in order to protect wildlife specifically birds and in this instance bats. So, the call is for a night-time curfew for domestic cats. The first point to make is that we don't know how many bats are killed by domestic cats at night. I strongly suspect that it is very few indeed. But it might depend where the cat lives. In the UK we just don't see bats flying around at night but perhaps I'm being too casual about it. On a more important point, bats are more likely to be carriers of rabies in the US, for example. This is not an issue in the UK. However, this must be a factor for keeping cats inside at night. 

Where a cat wants to be at night despite the rain. Image in the public domain.

And with respect to birds, I recently wrote about an RSPB statement that there is no scientific support that domestic cats threaten bird populations in the UK and I would suspect the same applies to other countries. Of course, domestic cats attack, kill and sometimes eat birds but the RSPB states that most often these are injured, infirm, and elderly and dying birds in any case. And therefore, the cat's impact on the bird population is lessened.

Impracticality

But here's the deal: the biggest factor in my view for the failure of a night-time curfew is that I don't think it is practical. This is the scenario: you let your cat go outside for 10 years as an indoor/outdoor cat. His behaviour is deeply entrenched. He goes out at night, every night and he sleeps throughout a part of the day.

You're going to have to put a barrier across the cat flap. Suddenly your beloved cat will be confronted with a barrier across his exit to the outside where all that excitement lies. And he's going to be thoroughly confused, bemused and ultimately pissed off. The problem is that he is going to be bashing at that closed cat flap. He is going to be head-butting it, clawing at it and bashing it with all his might in order to get outside.

He is going to be creating a lot of noise and quite possibly damage to the cat flap. And if he doesn't damage the cat flap the noise will wake you up. Then he'll start wandering around the house meowing and howling. He may well jump up onto your bed and wake you up. He wants attention. He is asking you why he has been kept inside.

You try and get back to sleep. He wanders around the house some more and head-butts the cat flap again. He settles down by the cat flap and snoozes because he has failed to get out. He stays there in the expectation that things might change.

Because he hasn't got outside during the night, he is more restless during the day and he tries to get outside again and finds the cat flap open. But he has to snooze and therefore, exhausted from the previous night's escapades he goes to sleep.

The next night he does the same thing all over again. Any persistently does this but day after day. This is because of his deeply ingrained habit of going outside at night. It is also because his natural body clock, his circadian rhythm, and his instincts drive him to hunt at night. It is almost impossible to train out of a cat's psyche these basic instincts. Domestic cats as you know are crepuscular: dusk and dawn hunters.

Eventually, though, he will admit defeat but I don't think there are many cat owners who could put up with the hassle of it all.

If you have a young cat who has always been a full-time indoor cat, it is obviously a different matter. They don't expect to go outside. There are no routines. However, for these cats there is a problem because very few cat owners enrich their cat's environment. It remains a human environment and therefore, in my honest opinion, they are doing their cat a disservice.

I know for a fact that if I tried to keep my cat inside at night, there would be mayhem. I know for a fact that it would simply prove to be impossible. He would make me miserable. So, I wouldn't try to do it.

And let's be honest again; your typical cat owner keeps their cat inside to protect their cat. They do not keep their cat inside to protect wildlife. People who allow their cat to go outside believe that they have to accept the predation of wildlife by their companion animal. They believe that it is part of the natural world. They don't like it but they feel that they have to accept it because to confine their cat is to prevent their natural instincts and desires flourishing which in turn will lead to a less than content companion animal. Good cat owners want to do all they can to ensure that their companion is content.

Enforceability?

Nighttime curfews are an idea that is probably impractical for the reaons stated and in any case how the hell can you enforce it?! Impossible. You'd need a hugely enlarged police force or some sort of animal control task force. It is just not going to work.