Do Cats Sulk?

Do Cats Sulk?

No, cats don't sulk.  I don't believe they do.  I don't believe that cats have these sorts of emotions. Sulking requires resentment and a simmering protest at being wronged or scolded, or punished.  Cats don't harbour resentment or go on protest marches or become surly and difficult as a way of protesting against the treatment meted out to them by their human caretaker.  You never see that sort of behaviour from a cat.

Photo by Nick Hewson

What you will see in response to scolding or punishment is possibly some confusion, some nervousness and anxiety. A cat may go off to a quiet corner after being scalded but that is not an indication that the cat is sulking but more an indication that the cat is getting out of the way and possibly hiding.

Increased or heightened forms of punishment will end up with the cat becoming defensively aggressive. Once again the domestic cat is not responding with sulking but in an entirely different manner, the manner of a domestic cat.

It is very easy to treat the domestic cat, which is after all a member of the family, as a small human infant. This of course is anthropomorphising the domestic cat and it can lead to some misinterpretations of cat behaviour.

The only way to care for a cat probably is to fully understand his nature and then to comply with it.  It's no good fighting against the behaviour of a domestic cat.  You will always lose and if you don't lose the argument you will lose the cat.

Rock Climbing Cat. Good or Bad?

Rock Climbing Cat. Good or Bad?

A man in America likes rock climbing and trekking.  He's a good guy.  He adopted a rescue cat: a little black kitten that was about to be euthanised at a rescue centre.  The little black kitten came over to him and picked out Craig.  Craig adopted her and called her Millie.  Now they appear to be inseparable because Millie follows her rock climbing guardian onto the rock face; she climbs rock faces with him.

Millie rock climbing - I have taken the liberty of publishing this photo here.
If there is a problem with that please leave a comment and I’ll respond promptly.

This is charming and it is interesting but it also looks dangerous to me.  I don't know how dangerous it is.  Craig says that Millie has sometimes fallen but he has caught her.  He also says that Millie sometimes wanders off and does silly things.  Perhaps Craig is doing silly things in taking her up the rock face with him.

But perhaps Craig is not taking Millie up the rock face with him;  perhaps she's simply following him because she likes it.  She likes the outdoor life.  It is full of fun even if it might be a bit dangerous but she does not know it is dangerous.  Craig, however, does and Craig has the responsibilities of a cat guardian which includes making sure that his cat is safe at all times and provided for.

So is Craig discharging his duty as a cat owner properly and wisely?  That is the $64,000 question. Some people will say he is because he is providing his cat with a wonderfully energetic outdoor life. Other people will say that his cat is simply following him and what he is putting his cat through is too dangerous.

I tend to lean towards the fact that it is too dangerous and Craig should find some other ways to be with his cat.

At the moment all is well but perhaps one day Millie will fall (Craig says that she has fallen on occasions but he has caught her).  One day he might not be able to catch her and she might die and then perhaps we can conclude that what is happening is wrong or bad but at the moment we're not sure.

Original article (opens new window)

Father Shoots Dog And Himself At Son’s Graveside

Father Shoots Dog And Himself At Son’s Graveside

If  you want to kill yourself then just stick to yourself and don't take any of your pets or children or anything else with you.  Keep it simple.  Killing yourself is a very personal decision!  It is the most personal decision anyone can make.  It is also a terminal decision.  It is the last decision you will make. A person who wishes to commit suicide does not have the right to shoot his dog before he shoots himself to satisfy a belief that both will be transported to the other side, the afterlife.

In this instance a distraught Mr Hinchcliffe, aged 52, wanted to be with his son again.  His son died in a car accident 8 months ago.  They were inseparable.  He couldn't bear to live without his son.  They did lots of things together with their dog, Jake.  They were threesome, a trio.  There were always together and they were great companions.

So when one of them died, one of the remaining wanted to join him in death.  That I can completely understand provided you believe in the afterlife.  But it should stop there.  Jake had a right to live.  He wouldn't make a decision to commit suicide because dogs never make these sorts of decisions.  Suicide is a human trait.  It is wrong to impose a human trait upon a companion dog or cat or child.

I would go so far to say that it is immoral to shoot your dog with a shot gun and then turn the shotgun or yourself in the belief that you will both be transported to the afterlife to join your son.  I am extremely sympathetic.  But it is the sort of thing that I would never do myself and what I mean I would never shoot my dog or cat before I shot myself.  If I wanted to shoot myself I would do it alone after making sure that my cat or dog was well cared for and contented.  I would make sure my affairs were in order and that my death had minimal impact upon other people and other sentient beings.

That is the only moral and ethical way to commit suicide.

Original story.

How Accurate Is Guinness World Records On World's Oldest Cat?

Poppy - Photo: David Hedges SWNS

Guinness World Records states that a tortoiseshell cat from Bournemouth, UK is the world's oldest cat at 24, which is 114 years of age in human terms.

I don't believe it.  How do they know for sure?  The cat's name is Poppy.  She certainly looks like the old cat.  She has all the signs of an old cat: a coat that has seen better days, tired eyes, a slightly scruffy nose and a slightly pinched expression.

Poppy is certainly 24 years of age and this is certainly a very old age for a domestic cat but I would bet my bottom dollar that there are a lot of cats in the world that are 24 years of age and possibly older.

It is said that there is something in the order of 500,000,000 cats on the planet.  I'm talking about domestic/stray/feral cats.  Guinness World Records can't ask everybody how old their cat is.  The only way they can work out which cat is the oldest is to hope that somebody comes forward and declares to them that their cat is possibly the oldest.  This depends on the nature of the person who comes forward.  Many people will be living with a cat who is older than 24 years of age they have no interest whatsoever in Guinness World Records and therefore do not contact them.

In the case of Poppy, Mrs West, her owner, wrote to Guinness World Records in Feb 2014.

There are many stray cats who don't have a cat caretaker.  Perhaps one of these many millions of stray cats is older than 24 years of age.  It is quite likely.  In the past the oldest cat in the world would have been over 30 years of age.  The oldest cat ever was Creme Puff (page 171 GWR). She was born 3rd August 1967 and died 6th August 2005. Her age on death was 38 years 3 days. On that basis, you would have thought that the world's oldest cat at 2014 would be older than 24 years of age, perhaps something in the order of 30 years of age.  This is why I tend not to believe what Guinness World Records state on this occasion.

The truth of the matter is that it is impossible for Guinness World Records to be absolutely sure that the cat that they select as the oldest is truly the oldest cat in the world.  They are making a guess at it almost because it is impractical and impossible to be certain.

As the credibility of Guinness World Records turns on the fact that what they state is correct, this particular record should be dropped from their repertoire, in my opinion, in the same way that they dropped the world's fattest cat or the world's largest domestic cat.  It is always impossible to be sure about these records and in any case they can encourage bad behavior.

The Irrational Fear of Cats

Witches are conjured up

The irrational fear of cats is called ailurophobia. A fear of cats may result in a phobia.  A phobia may result in a fear of cats.  The two seem to be bound together but we're not sure.  A phobia is a “persistent and irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that is excessive and unreasonable, given the reality of the threat" (American Psychological Association-glossary).

Ailurophobia is also called felinophobia. The former is more commonly used word. Ailurophobia is one of many anxiety-related disorders, which have been defined such as: agoraphobia (fear of crowds), acrophobia (fear of heights), and arachnophobia (fear of spiders).

A phobia about cats does not seem to be linked to a dislike of cats.  I guess it has to be a fear, an irrational fear.  What causes the fear?  I don't think even scientists are always certain about the causes.  The fear may be the result of a bad interaction with a cat at an early age.  That is the common sense answer.

Although many children may have a fear of certain animals at an early age, they often grow out of it but adults who continue to retain a fear of certain animals including of course cats appear not to have grown out of the problem.

The symptoms of a cat phobia may include: sweating, dizziness and breathlessness.  Sometimes the symptoms could be more severe such as heart palpitations and a full-blown panic attack.

Treatments range from traditional psychotherapies to behaviour therapies and hypnosis.