The Way of Cats

I have won a Blog Award from our friends across the pond.

I am proud to add this to my other awards, as seen in the sidebar; my “Site of the Week” review from About.com, and my blogged Community Rating of “great.”

To quote from my notification:

The Pet Community ‘Cat Blog’ award has been created to recognise the best Cat Blogs on the internet. A blog is judged on several criteria before the award is given out, these criteria include ‘Frequency of Blog update’, ‘Writing Style’, ‘Enjoyment of Read’ and ‘Blog Design’. This award is to say your hard work on your blog is appreciated and enjoyed by pet lovers within our own online pet community.

I am honored and thrilled. This is a great way to start the New Year.

They have an extensive site there at Pet Forums, and are in the process of building an online encyclopedia. So go on over and check it out.

Tell them the Way of Cats sent you!

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There’s more to The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See my LATEST CAT ADVICE.

People often look at cat intelligence the wrong way. They think cats aren’t obedient, won’t do tricks, and won’t come when they are called. This is not necessarily true, but it’s true often enough for people to bring up as a drawback of cats.

Yet, does it show the cat is stupid? Or does it show the cat is smart?

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Science has studied cat intelligence, and concluded that it is not only there, it is comparable to that of a six year old human. Of all the mammals, a cat’s brain has memory and emotional mapping most comparable to our own. Cats use tools, figure out mazes and puzzle boxes, and display long term memories, especially those involving spatial configurations, their specialty.

Fortunately, we most encounter cats outside of the laboratory. In our own homes, cats display amazing intelligence. We just don’t notice it, locked in our ways of thinking of the cat as a passive creature who only chases toys on the floor because they seem like prey.

The obvious is right in front of us. Is the cat so stupid they don’t know the mouse made of fabric that just lies there isn’t really a mouse? Or are they regarding it as a mouse substitute, and perfectly good for pretend?

We smile when small children zoom toy cars around the room and tie a towel over their shoulders to become a superhero. What an imagination! Yet when cats use their imagination to transform balls of paper and bits of string into prey, we don’t make the same connection.

It is the same connection.

Imagination is a sign of higher processing in the brain; using a substitute thing to replace a real thing is how humans do so much of what makes our lives more comfortable and enjoyable. Our houses, our cars, our clothes; all started as an imaginary thing that someone used as a blueprint for reality. Cats don’t have the same drive we do to make things actually happen. They were smart enough, ten thousand years ago, to hitch a ride with us, who can.

Cats started out in the small niche of rodent control. Cats have many advantages over dogs in this job; terriers are diggers and barkers, while cats go about their task with silence and stealth. We should consider how well cats do that job. They can’t readily widen holes to get at their prey the way dogs do. To be the efficient predators they are, cats had to become, not the strongest, but the smartest. They had to outwit their prey to be able to catch it.

What cats do, with the inanimate mouse toy, is only completing the cycle, and that’s what we most often see. We see the cat bounding after their prey in the final act of what has been a much longer drama. When we offer the cat a more complete prey experience, such as with remote controlled mice or wand toys, we see more of what is going on in the cat’s mind. Given more intelligent prey, cats will study the object, find places to view the object, set themselves up to ambush the object, and then complete the action with their pouncing.

Cats who meddle with our stuff are asking for the complete drama, not the thirty second sound bite. They want to use their nimble minds as well as their nimble bodies. They are looking for objects which hide and dart and offer more of a challenge. This is not the behavior of a stupid creature. This is the behavior of a bright mind who is bored and looking for more stimulation.

People who love cats interact with their cats and discover that such cats wait at the door for their arrival, snuggle close when their people aren’t feeling well, and will do things just because they know it will make their people laugh. These are the responses of living beings who recognize other thinking and feeling creatures.

So why don’t cats obey, do tricks, or come when they are called? Well, they do. If they want to. If we love them enough to make them want to.

That is always the hidden element with cats. They do what they want. If they love us, because we have loved them enough to take care of their bodily needs, and their mind needs, they will be far more likely to cooperate with us.

People who treat their cat as an intelligent creature have discovered the cat is an intelligent creature.

If we don’t recognize that, just which one of us is the dumb one?

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There’s more ways to understand our cat with The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See all of my posts on WHY CATS DO THAT.

Why do some cats tend to start wailing and walking on us at three in the morning?

Because their sleep cycle is faster than our own. We can all go to bed perfectly happy, but they are not designed to sleep as long as we are. So, in the middle of our night, they wake up refreshed, ready for action, only to discover we are not doing anything, really.

And here they are, bored and lonely. Surely we have gotten enough sleep by now!

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Cats who wail, walk on us, or otherwise indicate they want us to get up in the Middle of The Night might not be as completely to blame for the situation as we might think. Because of all the training mistakes people can make, the most likely one to happen is doing the wrong thing in this particular situation.

The wrong thing to do in this situation is… anything.

That’s right. We could have created these monsters. Because if they are trying to get us up, and we get up, we have just trained them. Doing that thing, that thing they just did, will work. As dedicated cat scientists, they do not write papers or high-five each other in the lab, but they will most certainly do that thing again.

The proper response to a cat trying to get us up, for playtime or breakfast or anything else short of a screaming smoke alarm, must be: Nothing. If we have to react, like from a paw on the face or several foot-pounds on a tender spot, we can mutter and thrash and turn over, but we can’t do anything else. And we certainly can’t get up… that’s what they are after, isn’t it?

We don’t have to be a Russian named Pavlov to realize that it doesn’t even matter if we curse or yell or act upset when we get up… if we get up. What they did worked since we got up. The cats figure the goal can be fine tuned later. What’s important early on? Results!

We have to make it not possible for them to get what they want, so they can shift their goals.

Chances are, if we have this problem, we have already trained the cat. Now we have to retrain the cat.

Create a “depths of the night” toybox or other quiet distraction that we put out in the living room when we go to bed. This contains things they like but will only be available to them at night. Explain that this is for playing with while we are still sleeping. If we could have it opened by them as needed or by some remote method, all the better.

They have to see that they are not getting us up at 3 AM, but we are still meeting their needs at such times. Of course, the toys and treats must be quiet; no balls with bells in them! But anything that engages their minds (how do we get the toybox open?) will keep them from being bored.

Play them into the ground before bed so they will be going to sleep when we do, but when they wake up, they will have something to do that is not available at any other time.

We might also need to have an aversive feedback when the meowing starts coming from downstairs. We can leave the vacuum cleaner out in the hall, with the plug nearby. A quick blast of noise in response to their noise makes them rethink their approach.

If they don’t get what they want from meowing, keep a bottle of air or water nearby, where we can reach it without making too many motions or getting up. If they appear in person, a quick blast into the air, not even directed at them, makes them realize that this is not the response they want, either.

If we need to make a pitstop in the night, make it as quick and quiet as possible. Don’t turn on any lights or otherwise confuse them about our intentions. Putting nightlights in the right places, or keeping a flashlight by the bed for such trips, will be sufficiently different from our morning routine to let them know that even though we are up, we are not really up. We are not awake (don’t respond to the cuteness!) and all they will get is the usual nothing.

If the cat makes overtures when we go back to bed, all they might get is grabbed and hugged as we fall asleep. If that’s what they want, great. If not, they will have to seek amusement elsewhere.

Remember, once we are asleep… we are asleep! Even our reactions must come from the depths of sleep. They can’t get any attention, except the kind they don’t like, by waking us up.

As dedicated scientists, they will only be moved by results they like. Showing them that this experiment is a failure will let them get busy coming up with new solutions to their 3 AM boredom and loneliness problem.

Or they will keep doing it.

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There’s more to raising and training a cat with The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See my CAT TRAINING TIPS.

A reader writes:

My eight year old Persian has started howling for no reason I can figure out. He gets along with the other cat and the four dogs and the vet says he has no physical problems. Yet he will, at any time of day or night, go to a corner or the front door or kitchen, anywhere really, and begin to cry a very primal howl. He seems completely unhappy about something and I can’t, for the life of me, figure out what it is.

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Dear Readers,

Kudos to the cat person who wrote me; she was smart enough to check for medical problems, which can be why a cat asks for help. But if the cat checks out okay, what else could the problem be?

Persians are almost always Gamma cats. These cats have many attractive qualities, especially for the newbie cat person. They tend to not get into things, their play is less rowdy, and as adults they are laid back, even shy.

But these attributes come with a price. Gamma cats are not designed to demand attention, even if they need it. Their person must be willing to seek out the Gamma, be attuned to their mild ways of requesting things, and react with calm delight to any overtures their Gamma might make.

Gammas try to lead a life with the volume turned low because they are so sensitive to muchness. Play, discipline, and affection practices that other cats either shrug off or eat up can be too much for the delicate Gamma. We must always be gentle with them, whether we are warning them away from the computer or greeting them on our arrival home. The biggest risk a Gamma runs is not knocking things over; it’s withdrawing and not being pursued by their person.

I figured that was what had happened to my reader’s cat. With other pets in the household more at ease with demanding what they wanted, her Gamma was inadvertently being ignored. It’s like the punchline of the old joke, “Everything’s been fine up to now!” True to his nature, the cat just suffered in silence, until he couldn’t be silent any more.

I suggested my reader start making a fuss over him twice a day, with sweet talk and petting him while his feet are on the ground, the ways Gammas like. She reports the difference has been dramatic. It is our 1st night in two months without a howling episode and I am loving having my boy back.

This makes me very happy, too.

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There’s more ways to care for our cat with The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See all of my posts on CAT CARE.