The Way of Cats

How great are the distances a cat can cover to get home? How do cats navigate? What conclusions can we draw between cat abilities and how we make decisions about their care?

It is theorized that birds, dogs, and cats draw their homing abilities from a combination of internal clocks, sun angles, and the earth’s magnetic field. According to this article, researchers discovered tiny magnetic particles of metal on the ‘wrists’ of cats’ fore and hind paws, though I was unable to find a further reference. However they do it, it is undeniable that they can do it.

One of the most incredible stories is when Howie the Persian cat crossed the Australian outback, over 1,000 miles, to return to his home. With such amazing abilities, how do cats get lost?

Well, first of all, they don’t mean to. Cats such as Howie are the exception. Just because there are documented cases of sky divers surviving when their parachute fails to open doesn’t mean we should try this ourselves. Just because some cats are able to surmount incredible obstacles doesn’t mean they all can, or that enough luck was with them to help them along the way.

Many cats don’t get lost so much as they get trapped somewhere else. Cats have explored trucks, boxes, and containers, and the lucky ones get found and returned. Cats have gotten their collars trapped on something, which is why I’m not a fan of collars. If they are breakaway, they will break away, and if they are not, they can guarantee our cat won’t get back home. ID chips are something that the cat will not lose.

The cat’s “homing center” can be disrupted in a move, which is why we need to keep them indoors for at least three weeks, to allow it to reset for their new place.

Research shows the largest percentage of lost or missing cats involve an outdoor-access cat turning up missing very soon after a house move. If they have not come to understand where their new home is, they will instinctively try to get back to where home was, no matter how far away. This is not a product of thought, but of instinct, and cats find it very difficult to override their own instincts, which normally serve them well.

Keeping the cat indoors can be a controversial issue, since many cat people feel strongly about letting the cat do something they so obviously enjoy. My own cats are indoor only. The deciding moment, for me as for so many others, is when something happens.

I got my first cat as an adult. She was a stray who came around asking for food. The other people in the apartment complex thought someone had just moved away and left her. Ennui was a laid back orange tabby who fascinated me with her self-possession and quiet ways. I always let her go in and out. Sadly, I didn’t know about the moving thing, and when, in my new apartment, she cried to go out, I let her. I never saw her again.

I don’t risk my heart anymore.

Many people have told me similar stories. “Well, we used to let them out,” they will say. “But then…” and they follow with a sad tale of the cat getting hit by a car, poisoned in a neighbor’s garage, or simply vanishing. It’s true, cats do love exploring the outdoors. But they don’t know the dangers.

We have to remember they live in a world they did not make. Their skills, while amazing, are simply no match for the abundance and varieties of ways they can get in trouble outdoors.

It is something to consider when we make the decisions that will affect their life.

To read more about incredible cat feats, and how science thinks they do it, see this PBS site.

For great tips on finding a lost cat, be sure to bookmark Psychology and the Missing Cat.

Got here from a Link or Search?
There’s more to The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See my LATEST CAT ADVICE.