Cat killed on road after parents screwed up when cat-sitting for daughter

This is not Kylo but another tuxedo cat. Image: MikeB.

I want to ask the readers (not many I guess!) who they think is most at fault in this story. I'll say right away that I'd apportion blame at 50:50. What do you think?

Here is the story:

In America, a young woman (26) with a full-time indoors tuxedo cat, Kylo, asked her parents to take care of her cat while she moved to a new state to live with her husband. She gave her parents strict instructions that Kylo was an indoor cat because her previous cats had been indoor/outdoor cats who'd come to early, unnatural deaths such as being poisoned and a hit and run.

Her parents agreed. But they had three dogs and liked to keep the backdoor open! Not good and I guess she might have foreseen what was going to happen and it did.

Kylo escaped the home and was hit by a car outside and killed. Her father telephoned her to inform her that her cat had been killed and she yelled at him: "I told you to keep him inside!". His response was, "Oh stop, it's just a cat". Not good.

This made things worse. She'd had begged her parents to keep Kylo inside but despite their promises they failed to respect her decision. The parents said that Kylo was curious and hinted at that they wanted him to satisfy his curiosity.

"I constantly told them 'no, Kylo is an indoor cat, keep him inside'. I begged and begged them to respect my decision with my cat and I had thought they had…I received a phone call from my father saying that Kylo was hit by a car and killed today. In the midst of sobbing and yelling at my dad, 'I TOLD YOU TO KEEP HIM INSIDE!!' my dad said 'oh stop… it's just a cat' so I promptly hung up on him and immediately called my best friend (26f)."

Comment: Not good enough. The parents failed her terribly. It highlights the problems of getting relatives to cat sit. It is very risky. There is a huge responsibility on the cat sitter to protect the cat or cats. I don't think they realise the responsibility sometimes. But the cat's owner failed her cat too I am afraid. She has ultimate responsibility for her cat. She made the decision to leave him with her parents who apparently were unsuitable and not up to the task.

One issue is failing to recognise the value of a domestic cat. The father clearly didn't. For him it was 'only a cat' which is sure to lead to carelessness.

The response from the daughter is to ban her parents from baby-sitting which is sad but understandable.

The daughter said:

"After a good cry and a stern talking, my husband and I decided to keep my parents from watching their grandchildren without us there, no matter the circumstances. If they can't respect my one wish for my cat, what is to say they will respect my wishes for my children? So, am I the a**hole for not allowing my parents the chance to babysit their grandchildren?"

The source of the story is Reddit.com. 

British couple on Rhodes drove through Dante's Inferno with five cats and three dogs

NEWS AND COMMENT: The video tells the harrowing story. They were all terrified. He says his fear was 11 out of 10. They'd been feeding deer before the wild fires. When they returned home after their terrifying escape, they discovered that the fire had killed the deer. She had fawns. I presume they are dead too. Lots of wildlife has been killed by the Greek fires which have forced thousands of holiday-makers to abandon their vacation sometimes at great expense.

Euronews reports that many Greeks abandoned their pets when under extreme pressure to leave their homes resulting in many animal deaths. Was this necessary? Couldn't they have prepared earlier knowing the fires were approaching? 

Personally, I am critical of pet owners who abandon their animals when a wild fire approaches as there is always plenty of forewarning.

Although I don't know the exact circumstances, it could be argued that the British couple featured in the video left their home too late. They were forced to take great risks to escape, driving into flames around the road. 

I just don't see it like others. I feel that a lot of home owners are very reluctant to leave their homes when there is a wildfire in the area. They hope that the fire will move away from them. They wait and wait until forced to flee. But in doing that they jeopardise their lives and the lives of their pets.

Of course, it is easy for me to be a little critical but I think I am right. Leaving at the last minute is understandable as they want to protect their home and contents. They could lose it all. The lady in the video lost her car which was uninsured as it was a classic.

As often happens, it is the companion animals who can be the innocent victims if people leave it too late to get out. There is an added responsibility on cat and dog caregivers under these emergency situations. Playing safe is the better option in discharging that responsibility I'd say.

There are deficiencies in indoor cat housing causing multiple behavioural problems

The title comes from a study dated 1997 of around 1200 cats living indoors full-time.

Many more domestic cats are full-time indoor cats today, 2023, then there were 20 years ago. There is a trend towards keeping domestic cat indoors full-time. 

The domestic cat, it is said, is barely domesticated. They retain, underneath the surface, their wild cat behaviours. This includes the size of their home range and all the other behaviours to do with a solitary, predatory lifestyle.

Full-time indoor cat superhighway. An important aspect of creating a good indoor environment. Image in public domain.

In 1997, a study assessed the behaviour of just under 1200 full-time indoor cats owned by 550 owners. A total of 65% of the cats were standard random-bred cats described as "domestic European shorthairs". 

Just under 80% were sterilized animals. Comment: this is a quite a high percentage of unsterilised domestic cats which may have had an effect on the conclusions because unsterilised gets retain more of their wild cat inherited behaviours all of which will be unwanted by a human.

87 percent of the owners were female and 59% of the household had more than one cat with an average of 2.2 cats per household.

On average, an individual cat used 34 m² of living space and had five different resting places.

Cat walks. Important for full-time indoor cats. Image in public domain.

Importantly, the owner's bed was the favourite resting place in 52% of the cases. Comment: this is because the owner's bed carries the most body odour of any other area in the home. And body odour is very important to domestic cats. It's also why sometimes domestic cats defecate on their owner's bed when they are stressed. They want to merge their scent in their faeces with the scent of their owner to reassure themselves.

RELATED: Every full-time indoor cat should have a window box (at least).

55% of the owners let the cat out under various levels of control. 79% fed their cats in the kitchen and 24% of the cats had communal food bowls.

A total of 51% of the cats had to share their cat toilet. Comment: this is a very bad policy. Jackson Galaxy, the well-known American cat behaviourist advises that there should be one cat litter per cat plus one extra. 

You do not want resource guarding behaviour by a dominant cat over a subservient cat which might take place if there isn't enough litter trays. And to share food bowls will help promote the same problem.

22% of the cat were fed in the same room as their toilet. That means that one-fifth of cases the food bowl was in the same room as the litter tray which is also a very bad idea.

The picture painted by the study is that the owners were not doing a great job looking after their full-time indoor cats. This is probably why in 54.7% of the households the owners complained of one or more behavioural problems with their cats.

The owners were given self-assessment questionnaires. The most often mentioned cat behaviour problems were:

• A state of anxiety in 16.7% of the cats,
• 15.2% of the cat scratched furniture,
• Feeding problems accounted for 10.9% of complaints,
• 10.5% of cat owners complained about cat aggression
• 8.2% of the owners complained about inappropriate urination and urine spraying
• And defecation in the home was a problem in 5.2% of the cases.

They concluded that neutered females exhibited problems most often. Owners with children complained more often about cat behaviour. Comment: probably because the kids were mishandling the cats and getting scratched and the cats were getting stressed.

When the owner spent more time interacting with their cat i.e. for several hours spread over the day they mentioned problems less often.

Cat owners spent less effort trying to resolve cat anxiety problems and scratching furniture problems than other problems.

In many cases the owners were unable to solve the problems on their own

The overall conclusion was that "there are deficiencies in indoor cat housing and that owners need help to correct them."

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

I have said it before; with the trend for full-time indoor cats not enough is being done in parallel with this to ensure that the environment is adequate as a good substitute for the indoor/outdoor environment. This is going to cause behavioural problems. This may in turn lead to an increase in cats being abandoned to shelters or simply dumped.

Study: Housing conditions and behavioural problems of indoor cats as assessed by their owners. Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0168-1591(96)01134-3

Infographics on cat behavioural changes linked to health and on osteoarthritis in elderly cats

The information in this infographic about osteoarthritis in elderly cats may surprise you. It is a major health issue about which cat owners should be aware as it affects cat caregiving. Looking after domestic cats entering old age demands a little bit more vigilance to spot changes in a range of activities and sounds etc..

Observant cat caregivers can see changes in their cat when they are ill. They might not be able to identify the illness but to observe changes in activities, vocalisations, gait, and general behavior can be a signpost to understanding an as yet unidentified illness. 

The infographic below may help a cat caregiver in guiding them through these difficult times. This is a double cross-post from 2 other posts. They are overlapping topics concerning cats entering and during old age.

I hope you find them handy and if so please leave a comment and share your personal experiences to expand on the topic.

Woman adopted three kittens who had their eyes removed

The Express newspaper carries a story which caught my eye, but which is a slight misrepresentation of the truth as I see it. The headline is "Pet owners warned about illness that is leaving kittens and cats at risk of blindness".

They say that cat flu exposes a kitten to the possibility of blindness. And the way they've pitched the story is that the three kittens caught cat flu and lost their eyes, but I would very much doubt that that is the case (but it can rarely happen). And under normal circumstances cat flu is not a treat to kittens in terms of causing blindness. The kittens' owner would have to be incredibly careless if it did happen.

Note: this is the image from The Express newspaper, but it appears to be a stock photo (Getty Images), and these are not therefore the kittens concerned. These kittens have not lost their eyes, I believe. They are just sleeping. The image is published here under fair use principles as this page is educational.

What is far more likely, but I am guessing is that the three kittens were rescued by an animal rescue organisation and brought to a veterinarian. They probably developed secondary bacterial infections in their eyes after they caught cat flu (a viral infection), and this is indeed very common.

When bacterial infections of the eye are untreated, the bacteria eat away at the eyeball and renders the kitten blind. It can affect one eye or both.

This dire state is brought about through lack of veterinary treatment which would be the administration of antibiotics to kill the bacteria.

Normally, you are not going to get that situation occurring in a home with domestic cats. If for some unknown reason a person is allowing their cats to breed informally, they will end up with kittens but unless they are incredibly callous and careless, they will notice that their kittens have a cat cold and deal with it in the normal way.

The treatment might include an early dose of antibiotics to prevent the emergence of a secondary bacterial infection. In short, you're not going to get untreated bacterial infections of the eyes unless you are dealing with a very careless cat owner or stray and feral cats.

When I read the article, I thought I would need to look for some mysterious illness but right away I realised that this was about URIs (upper respiratory infections). And this did not square up with the tone of the article which implied that they were writing about domestic cats in general.

Regarding vaccinations, they can help to prevent cat flu as the cat flu component is included in the primary vaccination course and often in a booster programme.

RELATED: Infographic on URIs in domestic cats.

However, sometimes cat owners are careless on vaccinations as well as being careless on allowing their cats to breed. This is a small minority of people, but it is significant because the contribute to the population of unwanted cats.

The person who adopted the three kittens, a Greater Manchester resident, Su Taylor, said that they are coping well. She said: "They've settled in wonderfully and run around like normal cats. But it is a shame they had to lose their eyes as it didn't need to happen".

That implies to me that she is referring to a domestic cat owner who was careless and allowed the kids to develop bad eye infections which shouldn't happen obviously. But as I've stated it is far more likely that kittens who develop these eye infections are abandoned cats or feral cats.

RELATED: What antibiotics are used for upper respiratory infections in cats?

Stupid risk averse Westerners don't set off fireworks like this!

Take a look at this. I know that it is not directly about cats, but it is indirectly because it is about being risk averse.  Risk aversion goes to the heart of everything we do and achieve. Modest risk aversion is good but being overly risk averse is bad as it stunts development and experiences. It leads to less of a life. This philosophy affects how we care for our cats. 

Risk aversion is part of decision making in cat caretaking - Michael

In fact, it goes to the heart of the debate on full-time indoor cats and indoor/outdoor cats. I am not saying that the full-time indoor cat life is bad. Far from it. Often it is very sensible. I am saying though that a lot of the time the reason why cat owners confine their cats to the home is for peace of mind. It is primarily for the benefit of the human and not the cat.

This guy (not living in the West) is not risk averse. No sir. Image: Screenshot from video. Sorry the quality is so poor.

And there has to be an 'and', when domestic cats are confined to the home for their life, they become zoo animals in effect. The owners do not compensate by entertaining their cat sufficiently. The environment is insufficiently enriched. 

I can think of only one example where the cat owner truly committed to designing the interior of their home half for the benefit of their cat companions and half for themselves. And I have seen tens of thousands of pictures and examples.

This is the big, hidden failure of the full-time indoor cat argument. If all homes with full-time indoor cats were built half for cats and half for humans plus a large catio, I'd accept it. But it is not like that.

Find out what your cat likes through observation and deliver it

Instinctively, I spend quite a lot of time observing my cat and finding out what he likes me to do. Yes, I know, it is a form of cat-training-human, but I like it. I feel that it is my duty to try and please him and it is no hardship to me. And you do this by interacting with your cat and observing the effect. Of course, it helps to understand domestic cats generally.

Gabs on top of the Sky television box which emits quite a lot of heat. Like many domestic cats he loves warmth. Click it for a large image. Image by MikeB.

My cat likes the back of his head to be stroked. He likes my hand to be placed on the back of his head. I think that he likes both the contact and the warmth. It has got to the point where he asks for it not by meowing but by looking up at me in a certain way which I now understand.

And this request always happens when he is on my lap, when I'm in bed, as is the case right now. It's about cause and effect. You do something with your cat, and you can tell if he or she likes it.

Another thing which he likes is to be flea comb around the cheeks and down the side of his neck. Also, on the top of the head. He likes the feeling of it, and he likes the way his fur feels afterwards I believe. These are areas that he can't get to and therefore it is fairly obvious that it will please him.

The benefits of doing this are twofold: you check for fleas and if there is one in that area you remove it and kill it and the whole experience is pleasurable both for cat and person. It is pleasurable for the person because it is a warm, friendly interaction which is exactly what people are after when they adopt a cat companion.

My behaviour in this instance is the same sort of behaviour that another friendly cat would perform when allogrooming. You often see two domestic cats who are friendly with each other licking each other. And they nearly always focus on the top of the head or other inaccessible parts. Perhaps that, too, is instinctive.

It is quite easy to get into routines with respect to behaviours that please both cat and person. The cat enjoys the interaction, and the person enjoys their cat's company and delivering a form of behaviour which their cat enjoys.

Here are some other human behaviours (not a complete list) that my cat responds positively to which I therefore do in order to please him:

1. When I sit down to watch television, I call him to come over and sit on my lap. He prefers it when I wear an old dressing gown which I guess provides extra warmth to him. He almost invariably comes over and takes up the offer.
2. I know that my cat likes warmth. Many domestic cats do. I do my best to provide it. In fact, he likes it on his belly. I know this because when he lies on my lap he spreads out and hangs over the edge of my knees while putting a paw on the coffee table. He likes to have one paw on the coffee table and to please him I bring the table towards him so that he can do this.
3. I know that my cat prefers to go into the back yard through the bifold doors rather than through the cat flap. So, if it is possible, I open the bifold doors enough to allow him through. This encourages him to go into the backyard and I join him there for a cuddle and to see what is going on. While in the backyard he likes me to pick him up for a short time of about 30 seconds. This gives a high vantage point, and it allows for an intimate form of contact. He lets me know when he wants to be put down by looking at the ground.
4. I know that he likes to sleep in a place where there is protection above him. I know this because he likes to sleep on a chair, the lower half of which is under the dining room table. He likes that feeling of protection that the table above him provides. A lot of cats have the same feelings. Therefore, I have splashed out and bought him a special little "bedroom". I have not constructed it yet but when I have, I will provide a picture on this page. It was expensive and had problems on its delivery. It's manufactured in Poland, and I was not aware of that when I bought it online. There were duties to pay i.e., VAT which I wasn't aware of. I renegotiated the purchase price with the manufacturers, and they gave me a discount which was more or less equivalent to the amount of VAT. But the point here is that a lot of cats including mine like to sleep with something above their head for protection. It allows them to sleep more soundly. This is an example of finding out what your cat likes through observation.

Irresponsible cat owners TAKE ADVANTAGE of rescue centres

NEWS AND COMMENT-EVANSVILLE, INDIANA, USA: This is not an untypical story of the dumping of nearly two dozen cats at the Vanderburgh Humane Society shelter in Evansville, Indiana, USA. Clearly, the "owner" decided to get rid of all their cats in one fell swoop so they drove them down to the shelter, when I guess no one was there, in cardboard boxes and left them outside the building. Actually, it was on their back porch.

Nearly 24 cats dumped at humane soc. This is taking advantage of a rescue facility,

The shelter facility has no space. The Humane Society has "been keeping our heads above water lately thanks to our awesome community. But this has put us over the edge today and it's time to sound the alarm."

They are happy that the cats are in good hands i.e. their hands, but they say that "dumping animals off to them was not the right decision."

The shelter has done their best to manage unwanted cats which are currently at a level beyond their capacity with, as they say, the help of the community and "then situations like this happen where someone totally takes advantage of us. Yes, they are safe. Yes, we are glad they brought them here instead of dumping them in the country. BUT. That does not mean that this was the right way to get rid of unwanted cats."

The right way is not to allow cats to breed in the first place. The right way is to exercise more self-discipline and more responsibility, which is not a very hard thing to do. The person who did this is very ill-disciplined and irresponsible. They lean on the good people to mop up their mess. They count on somebody else to fix the problem which they have got themselves into. That is the definition of an irresponsible person and an anti-social person.

These sorts of people need to contribute to society rather than lean on it to support their irresponsible ways. The Vanderburgh Humane Society is asking for help. They want people to come forward to foster an animal or donate and finally to volunteer.

There are takers and givers in society in all countries. The person who dumped their cats is a taker.

I guess they have dealt with the overflow of animals at their facility through local people providing fostering services.

I think that the irresponsible people who do this should be punished to teach them a lesson. The hard part in that achieving that objective is finding them as they dump their cats surreptitiously. They avoid shelter staff.

Domestic cats are not selectively bred to live indoors 24 hours a day

Some people might find the title provocative. There is a movement towards confining cats to inside the home 24 hours a day. I'm told that in the US about 40% of cats are now full-time indoor cats. I'm a fan of full-time indoor cats because it's peace of mind for the cat owner, safety for the cat and wildlife is not attacked. It's a triple winning method of cat caregiving.

Domestic cats are not selectively bred to live indoors 24 hours a day. Bored 24/7 indoor cat snoozes his life away. Photo:Pixabay (modified by MikeB).

The only problem is how domestic cats adapt to full-time indoor living. Domestic cats are adaptable, we know that. Therefore most do accept confinement 24/7. The question is: what are they feeling? What's going through their mind? As mentioned, they are not selectively bred to live like that.

They are made to roam over up to 100 acres or more. In Australia feral cats can have home ranges of 500 acres and more. Indoor domestic cats have to adapt to living in 1/4 of an acre.

The weakness I see in this method of cat caregiving is that cat owners don't really realise the responsibilities that they have to counteract the mental problems that can emanate from confinement. You won't notice those mental problems, probably. They may be manifested in signs of boredom and the cat crazies as they are euphemistically called.

RELATED: Cat breeders should selectively breed for cat confinement.

There may be signs of stress sometimes with inappropriate elimination. There may be cystitis causing inappropriate elimination. All may seem well. But cats are very good at hiding their mental state.

I think I can say with complete certainty that 99% of the inside of homes of full-time indoor cats have not been modified in any way to make it more suited for a domestic cat. In short, there's been very little environmental enrichment. 

RELATED: Extreme breeding of cats creates misleading facial expressions.

But cat confinement demands environmental enrichment. Can owners really have to dispense with the usual notions of what the inside of their home should look like. It should look like a cat jungle of some sort. It should be an amalgam of what a human wants and what a cat wants and needs. But they aren't. They never are. They are human homes designed for humans to live in and the cat has to adapt to it whether they like it or not.

In the UK, the Animal Welfare Act 2006 is based upon a cat owner's duty of care. Anyone responsible for an animal must take reasonable steps to make sure their animal's welfare needs are met. When you confine a cat to a home you have to consider their welfare needs.

The life of a cat is centred around hunting. It's in their DNA. It is inherited as part of their memory. The do it instinctively. The need to hunt to be whole. We know that. How is a cat going to hunt inside a three-bedroom semi-detached home? There is only one way: play-hunting. And a cat owner has to set up that form of play. If the owner doesn't, they are not meeting the welfare needs of their cat. And 99% of cat owners don't meet those needs. I'm painting a black picture but I'm convinced that I am correct.

10 tips about moving home with your cat

Photo by Finn Frode when moving home.

Here are 9 hopefully helpful tips about moving home with your cat if you need them. It is a much discussed topic:

1. The biggest potential danger is your cat getting lost; going missing because of a complete disruption to his or her life. We know how cats love the familiar and their routines and rhythms. It is all destroyed. And they're going to a new place which removes them from their 'home range'. It can take months for a cat to get used to a new place but it does depend upon the individual cat. In fact, it can take months for the cat's owner to get used to a new place. 😕.So the biggest danger is losing your cat and therefore a lot of the procedure should be built around that to prevent it happening;
2. Experience says that the safest and most pragmatic arrangement is to put your cat in a boarding cattery before you move and then you collect your cat from the boarding cattery a couple of days after you have moved and when furniture and household items are more or less in place. It also gives you time to dig out all the cat stuff so it is to hand. This brings peace of mind provided the cattery is known to be good;
3. One of the dangers is losing your cat on the day of the move. Some owners have lost their cat in the removals lorry! The cat jumps in to explore and it is closed. Avoid that one like the plague. Or the disappear because of all the disruption. The run off. Some owners have placed their cat in a carrier and placed the carrier in the removals lorry. Your cat should go with you if you don't leave them at a boarding cattery.
4. When you collect your cat from the boarding cattery it is advisable to restrict your cat to a single room until the time comes when he or she wants to investigate their new home. Some cats take weeks while others want to explore the place immediately, but if so it should be done with great care. There are new and sometimes unknown dangers. I think some supervision of your cat is needed and increased vigilance;
5. If you move home a short distance, your cat might, if he escapes, try and return to his home range if that is firmly fixed in his head. For example, if your cat was raised as a kitten in a certain place and is removed from it they are probably more attached to their home range and want to return to it after you have moved. This may encourage an escape. Cats have been known to travel long distances and they are amazing navigators;
6. RELATED: How far has a cat travelled to return home?
7. You can sprinkle a little of your cat's urine-soiled litter close to your new home to act as an outdoor signpost. This may help to reset his brain to thinking that he is in his home range;
8. You should escort your cat outside if your cat is an indoor/outdoor cat and supervise on the first few exploits;
9. Normally it takes several weeks for a cat to become fully custom to their new indoor and outdoor home. It may take longer to become settled and as long as a year to feel truly fully relaxed;
10. After moving, the advice from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home is to choose a room where your cat can get used to the new environment and in which there is everything that they need. It should be comfortable and safe. You might place in that room a pheromone diffuser such as Feliway. The whole house should be escape proof. I think the last point is the most important until your cat is familiar and doesn't panic.

Do you think having cats is a burden?

A British woman living in London asked the question in the title. And the answer must be that cats are indeed a burden sometimes but the pleasure they bring you in various forms hugely outweigh the burden. 

But it cannot be avoided that the responsibility of looking after a domestic cat companion can be a burden. There are chores to do. There is money to spend. There is worrying to do about your cat's welfare and health. There are vets to see. There are litter trays to clear and there are sofas to protect from scratches. There are cat scratching posts to purchase from Amazon up and so on and so forth.

This is the woman's beautiful grey cat. She complained about him knocking over water and of having to clear out the litter tray of a prodigious amount of shit. She appears to have flushed it down the toilet. This is not recommended by the way.

Perhaps the biggest burden is the worry in providing your cat with good levels of security and safety. But if you keep your cat indoors all the time, which is much safer, there is the worry about entertaining your cat and making sure that they are fully stimulated. The worry of boredom creeping into your cat's life is ever present. Worry is a burden but it is all part and parcel of being a cat caregiver.

But if the British lady was asking whether domestic cats are a burden without benefit then firstly she's wrong and secondly there is no point in her having cats. For about half the human population of the world cats are just a burden with no benefit. They don't really like cats.

However, a noted advantage of cats over dogs is that they are less of a burden than dogs, I would argue. You take a dog to a park in winter for a walk and you have got some serious cleaning up to do afterwards. They end up covered in mud. And dogs look to their human master for leadership. You got to provide it. That's responsibility and responsibility is by definition a burden of some sort.

Cats are more independent it is said. This is a slight misinterpretation of the human-cat relationship in my view because they are not independent by any means. But they give the impression of being independent. They don't look to their human for leadership as dogs do. They look to us for companionship, food, warmth and security.

The bottom line in answering the question is that where there is benefit as there is in the human-to-cat relationship, for both parties, there must by necessity be an equivalent burden of responsibility. It's one of the laws of nature 😟.

Obviously, if you live with more than one cat or several cats then responsibilities are magnified and so is the burden. There comes a time in that formula in my opinion when the burden outweighs the benefits. What I'm saying is that there is probably an optimum number of cats that a person should look after and live with. That optimum number would range between 1-5 approximately in my view.

If a person looks after 10, 20 or more cats then the chances are that any increase in benefit is out done by the extra demands in terms of caregiving.

Can I put cat poop in the toilet?

It's a bad idea to put cat poop down the toilet for one major and one minor reason.

Two cats peeing or pooping on a human toilet at the same time. Screenshot. 

Major reason

If you put cat put down the toilet you going to put some sodium bentonite clay-based litter down the toilet with it if your use the stuff. That can block toilets because the sodium bentonite expands and clogs things up. It must be very difficult to separate cat poop from the clay substrate so I don't think this works. A wood-based litter is less problematic but only three things should be flushed down a human toilet: human shit, pee and paper.

RELATED: “Killer cat parasite” infects whales. Defending the cat

Minor reason

This may be a major reason depending on its veracity but it is at least a minor one 😉. The people who don't like cats, the anti-cat brigade, have claimed that sea otters and beluga whales have been damaged by toxoplasmosis. The toxoplasmosis has infected them through toxoplasma gondii oocysts in cat faeces which had been flushed down the toilet.

Somehow the waste finds its way into the sea. That may happen if water companies are not processing waste properly or it is allowed to drain directly out to the sea illegally, but it does happen sometimes.

If sea otters and beluga whales are indeed harmed in this way then it's a good reason to throw away cat poop in landfill in the usual way. It's more tiresome and troublesome but all-in-all it is safer and more sensible.

This also affects a decision on whether you train your cat to use the human toilet which is quit popular nowadays. I think the risk as described is very small so we can call this objection very minor.

RELATED: Fake news: New York Times’ article about house cats killing sea otters

Health checklist for all new cat arrivals

Is the kitten healthy? Checklist infographic by MikeB

Before you do a health checklist for all new cat arrivals you should have done a checklist as to whether you are in the right place physically, emotionally and monetarily to adopt a cat. I discuss the latter issues quite extensively on another page which you can read by clicking the link below;

Should I get a cat?

If you have adopted from a shelter your cat will have been through their standard checks and vaccinations. You should therefore both be in a good place. Likewise, if you have adopted from a purebred cat breeder, your cat will have been thoroughly checked and vaccinated and you will have received all the papers you need to prove pedigree and ownership et cetera. Once again things should be in place but here's a list nonetheless for those intermediate cases where you've adopted a cat informally and in case there are problems even when buying from a breeder.

Check list

It is advisable to watch your new cat's behaviour closely especially during the first 24-hours in your home. You can watch for potential health problems. The list below is prepared by Dr. Bruce Fogle and if you answer no to any one of the questions you should schedule a visit to your veterinarian on the same day or the next day he says.

1. Is your cat eating normally?
2. Defecating and urinating without any difficulty and without signs of distress;
3. No signs of diarrhoea or vomiting;
4. Breathing easily with no discharge, noise or effort;
5. Has nice, healthy pink gums and no unpleasant odours from the mouth;
6. Has a healthy, shiny coat without flea dirt towards the tail or indeed without any fleas;
7. Moves around in general such as getting up, jumping and lying down without difficulty;
8. Alert and active?

Number 4 might refer to lower urinary tract diseases such as typically cystitis, an inflammation of the bladder caused by a bacterial infection.

Number 4 refers to URIs; very typical of rescued kittens. They almost invariably have 'colds'; viral infections of the upper respiratory tract followed by bacterial infections of the eyes (pink eye).

RELATED: Diets to Promote Feline Oral Health

Number 5 is very typical of rescued cats with bad oral health. This is a reference to gum disease. And if the gums are not pink it is indicative of anaemia.

Number 6 is almost bound to be answered in the negative if you have rescued a cat because there will be fleas at the front of the cat and flea dirt at the rear end. You probably know that flea dirt is a reference to flea faeces which is processed blood basically.

RELATED: True or false: ‘Indoor only’ pets don’t get fleas and therefore don’t need a flea preventative

Number 7 is a reference to conditions such as arthritis or if it's a kitten to a congenital problem. It might also apply to ataxia i.e. a lack of coordination. 

Number 8 is a reference to general health and whether the cat is feeling well.

More than 80 kittens abandoned on California shelter doorstep over the past 12 months

I have wondered how many cats and kittens are abandoned at animal shelters in America. We know it happens quite a lot because we see news media articles about cardboard boxes filled with kittens, sealed with tape, and placed outside a shelter's front door in the dead of winter, overnight. The whole thing is ghastly but it happens. The kittens are lucky to survive. Such callousness and stupidy.

The employees at the Animal Friends Connection Humane Society, in Lodi, USA, estimate that more than 80 kittens have been left at their doorstep within the past year. Over a period of nine days last summer 25 cats and kittens were left at their shelter at 933 S. Cherokee Lane.

Abandoned kitten at Lodi animal shelter. Photo: the shelter.

I went to their Facebook page to see whether there are any postings about abandoned cats and kittens. There are reams of them. They go back several years but for example, on September 10, 2017 they posted that "Another urgent SOS for help with abandoned bottle baby kittens left on our front door, these babies need your urgent care. We desperately need help for five kittens. They were cold, starving, wet and possibly only 10 days old."

And then more recently on August 8, 2020, they posted:

"Again-5 big kittens crammed into a small tub filled with other 'stuff', abandoned on our side yard - left in the sun when no one was around. Thankfully, someone did see it and got to them before they perished in the heat today - they were very lucky little kitties. We are overwhelmed currently with kitties."

I could go on but I needn't bother because there is a series of posts along the same lines from this animal shelter. And kittens seem to be a recurring theme. It doesn't take much imagination to realise that a minority of cat owners are allowing their female cats to mate and procreate. These are the cats that haven't been spayed and which are allowed to go outside where they bump into a male cat who has not been sterilised and bingo, you have a family.

Either that or they informally breed cats inside their home but I would doubt that because if they were doing it they would probably give them away to friends and neighbours et cetera. These are unwanted kittens brought into the world because of a careless approach to domestic cat caregiving. These people place a heavy burden on small animal shelters such as this one in Lodi - location as per map below.

Lodi shelter has constant stream of abandoned kittens. Map: Google.

They are constantly seeking donations. They succeed but it must be a struggle. On September 3, 2018 they received six adult abandoned cats and they sought donations. 22 people donated a total of $590. I think that's very good. There are clearly lots of generous people in the area. It's a great shame that the good and generous people have to fund an operation to mop up the damage done by the selfish and careless people. Perhaps it was always like that.

Associated: 31 cats abandoned in wooded area of Monroe County, PA. They were left with open bags of food but no water.

Should a family of five living in a compact, subsidized apartment have two cats and a dog?

NEWS AND COMMENT: The Sun reports on the story of a family of five with two cats and a dog living in a mouldy flat in Manchester, UK. They want a three-bedroom house from the housing association from which they rent their home at a subsidised rate. They say they can't go on living in their housing association apartment because a daughter is suffering from health problems because of the mould. We don't know what is causing the mould but it might be condensation because after all there are eight sentient beings in their apartment breathing in oxygen and breathing out carbon dioxide!

Mum Charlotte says she cries herself to sleep as she's so desperate for her young family - and their three pets - to leave their cramped flat in Greater Manchester. Photo: The Sun newspaper.

But the question I always have when I read the stories is whether this family is in a proper position to adopt (or have) two cats and a dog. Many people would agree with me and say that they were never going to be in a position financially and in terms of accommodation to be able to properly care for three companion animals.

They are unable to care properly for their children without financial and accommodation support. They have to rely on the housing association to provide a home for them. That's okay. That's fully acceptable as some people have a difficult start in life but it is not clever to burden yourself further with six mouths to feed i.e. three children and three companion animals when you can foresee financial issues.

If financially they qualified for a housing association flat, they could have restricted their family to one child perhaps and perhaps one cat. That would be a state of affairs which fitted their apparent budget. But they seem to have gone over their budget and knowingly relied on the local authority to back them up financially. And the housing association is reluctant to take action. And it seems that they have gone to the press for assistance in pushing the housing association into taking some steps to rehome them.

I don't think people should have 3-child families and three pets on the basis they have to rely on subsidies to make it work. If you are self-sufficient, you can have as large a family as you like and as many cats and dogs as you like provided you look after them well. If you rely on a third party - the housing association or the council - to prop up your desires you are asking for problems.

No doubt, in due course, they will get their three-bedroom home but I believe that everybody should take responsibility for their financial affairs. They should also take responsibility for decisions regarding the adoption of companion animals. Animal adoption should be taken very seriously. It should be fully budgeted and people should be fully aware of the responsibilities that need to be discharged in order to care properly for pets.

Too often, people adopt animals on impulse or without proper preparation because they just want to live with a pet. The idea appeals to them and they bypass all the usual sensible processes of initially asking themselves whether it's a good idea and whether they can afford to do it and/or have the facilities to do it. This story is a case in point.

Unemployed couple on welfare face eviction with three cats, 40 fish and a tortoise

NEWS AND VIEWS: Simon and Joanne Graham live in Gloucester, UK and they are both on 'welfare' to use an American term or 'benefits' to use a British term. Their entire income is from welfare payments from the local authority. They appear to live in private rented accommodation but the landlord has successfully applied to evict them because he is changing the flat to other uses which is one of the grounds for eviction in the UK.

Simon and Joanne Graham with two of their 3 cats one of which appears to be a Ragdoll. Photo: Samuel Port.

The local authority will not rehouse them until they are homeless. In this instance that means Simon and Joanne and their menagerie including three cats have to be on the street with all their furniture and other possessions before the council will consider rehoming them.

In the meantime, they have been offered temporary housing but they say they need assistance with respect to their animals. The report in The Mirror states that the council has offered "nothing for their animals". They going to have to put their cats in a boarding cattery while they are homeless and until they are rehomed which they say will cost £150 a week. They cannot afford those outgoings. They have found someone to take fish temporarily.

They will be evicted on July 31. The council understand that they are in receipt of universal credit, personal independence payment (PIP) and I'm going to presume that they also receive housing benefit to pay the rent on their privately rented flat.

Comment: it seems that the rules for payment of benefits and the rules for homing people in council properties do not meet this couple's requirements. Simon Graham had a brain injury in a car accident. We are not told whether Joanne can work. It is difficult to comment because their predicament does beg the question as to whether they could do more for themselves such as find some work. But I don't know whether that's viable or not. They might contact Cats Protection which is a very large cat rescue organisation manned by volunteers who foster cats. They may be able to foster their cats temporarily while they waited for the council to provide them with suitable housing.

You could argue if you were being a bit tough that Simon and Joanna are not really in a position to have this many animals as they are living entirely on benefits. To have three cats living in a flat while you are both unemployed surviving on welfare is a bit of a stretch. It is placing demands on yourself which could be avoided. You could argue, without wishing to be mean, that one cat would suffice. And it seems that one of the cats is a purebred Ragdoll (held by Graham).

I, for one, have always limited myself to one cat because I don't want the responsibility of looking after more than one cat at this time in my life. It is a matter of self-discipline at the end of the day. And I could afford to support hundreds of cats if I wanted to.

Common sense ways to protect your cat from sunburn and possible skin cancer

Summary: what you know about protecting yourself from sunburn applies to your cat as well. Use common sense to protect your cat from skin cancer.

Some online articles are saying that they have an expert to tell you how you can protect your cat from sunburn and possible cancer. It's actually all about common sense. You don't really need an expert for this. The world and their dog know that you can get skin cancer if you are consistently sunburned. That's why we have sunscreen and stay in the shade (or most of us do unless you're obsessed with getting a tan). And everything to do with skin cancer applies equally to humans and cats. So, what you know about human sunburn you can apply to cats. That's the end of the discussion theoretically but I'll carry on because there are some slight differences.

Fluff was sunburned and had to have his ear flaps removed due to skin cancer. This cat is a bicolor. The piebald gene causes the coat pattern, mainly white fur with no pigmentation in the hair strands to defend against the sun's UVB light. Photo: Cats Protection.

The difference with cats is that there are only two places, really, where sunburn is a genuine problem and that is the tips of the ears because the hair is very thin over the ear flaps. And white cats are particularly susceptible because there is no pigmentation in the hair strands because of the presence of the dominant white gene. That, by the way, is why some white cats are deaf and have blue eyes or odd-eye color. It's the same gene doing its work. The gene prevents the development of melanin in the iris of the eye causing it to be blue through the refraction of light.

So, you have an ear flap with very little protection in white cats from UVB and UVA. The ultraviolet light in the sun's rays penetrate into the epidermis and dermis of the skin damaging the individual cells of the skin. It damages the DNA of the cells which causes them to produce cancerous cells.

If you want to know a bit more about the science of how cancer develops from sunburn, you can click on this link.

Common sense dictates that the way you protect a cat from this serious health condition is to keep them inside during the hot weather. This may be difficult but I'm told that in America around 7/10 of the cats are indoor cats anyway. That said - and this is not common sense! - most UVB is stopped by the glass in windows and therefore an indoor cat snoozing under the sun behind the glass of window should be okay in terms of getting sunburned ears. But check this point if you wish.

We know that cats like to find little pools of sunlight and the home if they are confined to it. I'm waffling a bit but you simply protect the cat from the sun if you want to protect them from sunburn. Common sense. Sunscreen, as mentioned, is an alternative. You can buy sunscreen for pets online on Amazon but you might wish to consult with your veterinarian before purchasing it.

And if you cannot confine your cat during the hot weather because they insist on going out it'd be wise to provide shady spots in your backyard. Cats will normally find the shady spots but the problem here is that some don't because if they did, they wouldn't get sunburn on their ear flaps, would they?

It is interesting that you can buy an ear wrap for dogs. It's a band which goes over the ears. I am thinking aloud. If a cat could wear something which protected the tips of their ear flaps that would be a winning result. The problem is that cats wouldn't realise the benefits and would simply do their best to get it off. And they'd succeed. They may also have a tendency to wash off sunscreen. I'd watch that.

The bottom line on this topic is that you have to keep your cat indoors if the weather is really harshly hot with bright sunlight throughout the day if you want to guarantee protecting your cat's ears from sunburn. This will certainly apply much more for all-white cats than other coat types.

P.S. At the other end of the spectrum frostbite can also lead to the amputation of ear flaps (and paws). Once again, a cat's ear flaps are particularly vulnerable because there is very little covering of fur.

Harmless objects might NOT seem harmless to a domestic cat

There is a popular video on YouTube and on the website Rumble with the title "Cat remarkably startled by harmless object."

But if you know a little bit about domestic cats, you have to come to the conclusion that the title is plain wrong. The person who wrote the title doesn't know domestic cat behaviour. This is one of those classic cucumber-and-cat videos. It's quite a good example although a bit dingy because the lighting is so bad.

 Harmless objects might NOT seem harmless to a domestic cat. Screenshot.

And once again the person who made the video had to scare their cat to make it which I don't like. But putting that moral issue to one side for a second, a cucumber placed behind a cat which the cat then turns and sees does not seem harmless to that cat. The cat does not know what the hell it is! It is a new, unknown object and it might be a threat. In order to play safe they jump out of the way. It's common sense. Note: the cucumber looks as if it could be an animal to a cat. It is a plausible analysis.

Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

People do this all the time. Many people are fearful of so many things and they avoid them. The Covid pandemic is a good example. People have been avoiding each other for 16 months. Even when they've been double vaccinated, they still go around wearing a mask in the open air or in their car. Animals and humans are alike in this respect; in general fearful of the unknown.

We should not, therefore, be surprised when a cat behaves like this. But people are surprised and amused at the same time period and we should not be amused either. This is neither surprising nor amusing behaviour. It is normal behaviour and an abuse of the domestic cat. But I'm becoming far too serious no doubt for the vast majority of people.

CLICK FOR SOME PAGES ON FUNNY CAT VIDEOS

But people should be aware that all these funny cat videos are at a price. And the price is the emotional welfare of the cats in the videos. A study found that a significant percentage of these cats are stressed and anxious because the person who made the video put their cats through a stressful situation in order to create something funny. And it is funny (strange) why people find frightened cats and cats put into difficult situations as amusing.

I would like to see a slightly higher standard of animal welfare and an attitude which reflects that if that is at all possible, please.

Is Chris Packham a cat hater?

Dr. John Bradshaw in his book Cat Sense writes that the "British wildlife TV presenter Chris Packham, a self-confessed cat-hater, appeared on BBC radio describing cats as sly, greedy, insidious murderers and calling for them to be shot".

Chris Packham. Photo in public domain.

John Bradshaw was writing about the predation of domestic cats and wildlife and how bias can sometimes be introduced into dissertations and studies by scientists on the predation of wildlife by cats. And the bias normally leans towards denigrating the cat. Perhaps the bias is inadvertent but it comes from an inherent bias within some people including scientists, sometimes.

Chris Packham's interview with Yahoo News way back on January 30, 2013 makes it clear that he is not a cat hater and that he admires the athleticism of one of the world's top predators. He doesn't want to criticise the cat per se but he wants to criticise the people who own cats and who don't take sufficient steps to ensure that their companion animals do not prey on wildlife.

He was responding, in the interview, to an article at that time about a Nature Communications study which claimed that in America domestic and non-owned cats kill up to 3.7 billion birds and 20.7 billion mammals annually. It was claimed that cats were more dangerous to wildlife than traffic accidents, pesticides and poison all together!

Dr. Bradshaw, by the way, said that in one study about the impact of cats on wildlife in the UK and which was carried out in 1997, the questionnaire sent out to cat owners was inherently biased. That study produced an estimate of 275 million animals killed in Britain each year by pet cats. He claims that the questionnaire was designed in a way which encouraged the people who completed it to submit their results only if their cat had brought in some prey during the five months of the survey. This introduced bias. The problem is that this figure of 275 million is still widely quoted by many influential organisations such as the RSPB, the British Trust for Ornithology and the Bat Conservation Trust. What is not fact, becomes fact over time and it is the cat who becomes a victim.

The answer to the question the title is that Chris Packham is not a cat hater but he wants cats to wear collars which he believes would reduce the predation rates on birds and animals by 45%. He also claims that if pet cats were kept in at night it would reduce predation rates on birds and animals by 50%. And he also says that a problem is that "cat owners do not neuter their pets". Well, I think a lot of them do neuter their pets but there are some who don't and as usual there is a minority of cat owners who are irresponsible.

Chris Packham believes that there are too many cats in the UK. I don't think we know how many cats there are in the UK! The same applies to America and other countries. We make estimates but we don't know exact figures. In 2010 it was estimated that there would over 10 million owned cats in the UK but the Yahoo News article states that the number had shrunk to 8 million.

But we have to add the recent surge in pet ownership during the coronavirus pandemic. I have read that there has been an increase of 3.2 million companion animals in UK homes over the 16 months of social distancing. That's an extraordinary increase but once again I suspect that these are estimates that we can't truly rely on.

Obviously, reducing the number of pet cats in the UK will reduce the number of animals that they kill. That is the simple argument of Chris Packham. It's an argument which is undeniable whereas proposal such as registration of domestic cats, limiting the number of cats that somebody owns, mandatory sterilisation and curfews might not lead to a recovery in local wildlife says Dr. John Bradshaw.

Don't do "something about feral cats", "do something about human behaviour"

For as long as I can remember the citizens of North America and other countries have often been saying: "do something about feral cats". What they mean is the authorities should do something about feral cats to reduce their numbers. The focus is entirely on the cat. And all-over North America, local authorities and state administrations have been scratching their heads for decades about what to do about feral, stray and community cats.

Image: MikeB.

Meanwhile, an army of volunteers are doing TNR work to reduce and stabilise the number of feral cats as best they can. More people are required but what they do is great work. They just get on with it while the politicians talk about it.

And because the administrators of minor and major jurisdictions are finding it impossible to grapple successfully with the feral cat problem, it seems to me that they should grapple with something which is far more straightforward and which would, in due course, albeit over a long time, reduce the feral cat population and that is to 'adjust' human behaviour.

If every cat owner was perfect there would be no feral cats. If every cat owner spayed and neutered their cats and ensured that they did not procreate, eventually the feral cat numbers would be reduced to zero. It would take a couple of cat generations to get there or about 30 years but the moment would arrive.

So, if the politicians had enacted some laws which obliged cat owners to behave more responsibly and if those laws have been around for 30 years, they would have percolated into the minds of all cat owners. And by now North America would have substantially solved the feral cat problem.

Today, when I researched news on feral cats, I got the usual response from Google: politicians of all types trying to solve the "feral cat problem". This is not a feral cat problem. This is a human behaviour problem. Can we please shift the focus away from the victims of bad human behaviour - the cats - to those humans who behave irresponsibly in respect of cat ownership?