It appears that in 2023 we are still somewhat unsure as to why male domestic cats kill young offspring of females to whom they are unrelated. One study published in 1999 found six cases of infanticide by the domestic cats living in rural locations. These appear to have been barn cats. They found that fully adult and sexually mature male, rural domestic cats killed six kittens within the first week of life. The scientists state that "The killing pattern was generally the same as that described in lion". A clear statement that there are similarities in behavior between lions and domestic cats. The females tried to save their newborn kittens without success. They reacted aggressively but couldn't prevent the killing of their kittens by these unknown male cats. The scientists hypothesised the following: Male domestic cat infanticide is due to the same reasons that male lions kill offspring in order to sire their own offspring with the females who'd lost their kittens as t...

Personally, I am sick and tired of seeing domestic cat behaviour described as 'weird' in YouTube videos. It really is time that people grew up on the subject of domestic cat behaviour. Humans are describing cat behaviour which they do not understand as "weird".  The word describes something which is unnatural when this is natural cat behavior under the circumstances in which they find themselves. Stop using the word please. This is a human issue. In fact, you could go so far as to say that the weird behaviour is being demonstrated by people in failing to understand domestic cat behaviour which they have an obligation to understand if they are to be good cat caregivers. It is not the place of humans to denigrate cats about their behavior because humans have failed to understand it.  Below is one of those irritating 'weird cat behavior' videos of which humans are so fond. The problem is that YouTube video makers like to develop click bait to encourage people to...

Esme, a black cat living in the US, is famous for being branded a 'thief' by her owner, Kate who even went so far as to place a big sign on her property next to the items that she had "stolen" from her neighbours.  It's a bit of fun but some people like me can both see the fun I also see something which is not quite right about this. There was a bit of a backlash by people who claimed that the owner was shaming her cat publicly. The news media presenter you see on the video said that cats don't have shame. They can't feel emotional shame. And therefore, it is not possible to shame them. A fair point. Nothing to be ashamed of But the fairer point is to say that there is nothing to be ashamed of 😃. It is entirely natural feline behaviour. Natural for a cat living in the human environment where they have difficulty expressing their natural instincts to hunt. Natural hunting behaviour When a domestic cat does this and "steals" objects belong to nei...

Would you remove your cat while they sleep on your daughter who's on the living room sofa? Why not leave them alone. So much better. Would you take your cat off your sleeping daughter. Image: screenshot. I feel that I need to comment on this video. It shows a large family domestic cat sleeping on the video maker's daughter. This is the kind of thing you see all the time.  Kitten sleeps on bunny. In public domain. Although you normally see a domestic cat sleeping on another animal such as a large dog (or a bunny!) for instance. But it is no surprise to see the family cat treating the daughter as "another animal". It looks like a very peaceful scene. It is a situation which needs to be preserved and it shouldn't be interfered with. However, the mother of the child wants to interfere and intervene. She thinks that the cat is going to wake up the daughter and therefore she wants to remove cat. But there's no sign that the daughter is going to wake up. The cat and ...

Doomsday Clock moves to 90 seconds to midnight as nuclear threat rises. The declared intention of the owner of this site, Valley Girl, is to comment on videos so here we have a video which is not directly about cats but indirectly it is. It's about all of us. Some viewers of the video are cynical about it implying that it does nothing to help. But for me, it is not meant to be symbolic of a danger but a dire warning. It is meant to galvanise and gyrate humankind into changing their ways as soon as possible. Apparently, it was set to seven minutes to midnight 1947. There's been a gradual deterioration since that time. It seems to be completely progressive. If it keeps on progressing like this and deteriorating, it's going to be midnight. Midnight means the end of the world as I understand it. So, humanity is now closer to Armageddon than ever before. And that is as judged by a team of top scientists. You can see by the video that global conflict has helped to push the world ...

The video actually doesn't add a great deal to the general knowledge of most domestic cat owners. Thanks to the Internet, there's been a massive increase in knowledge about domestic cat behaviour. And perhaps the most important aspect of domestic cat behaviour is biting their owner 😒. Or scratching their owner for that matter. And this is linked to the most important aspect of feline behaviour: hunting. It is their raison d'être - their reason for living - which I've mentioned in other articles. And domestic cats are programmed through their DNA to respond to moving objects as the narrator in the video mentions. Stimulated hunting They're 'programmed' to respond to moving objects by attacking them because it's going to be a prey animal. They also have the same response to sounds. Domestic cats can locate a target prey animal through the sound they make thanks to their excellent hearing. But if an owner waves their hand around in front of their domestic ...

The question in the title is suggested by Google. It is a question which is highly critical of the domestic cat. Unfairly so. There is a philosophical dimension as well as a practical one in answering it. But let's agree that domestic cats do damage furniture and other possessions sometimes. They don't do it maliciously. They don't see furniture and other possessions as "possessions". As humans do. As you no doubt know, domestic cats need to scratch vertical and horizontal objects as part of their natural behaviour. Image in public domain. This is Monty. Possessions are important to humans. They like to buy and own nice objects. They like to care for them and keep them tidy, shiny and smart. The domestic cat is living in the human environment. They have the mentality of a wild cat wandering around North Africa under the sun. They have no regard for 'possessions' as humans do. When a wild cat scratches a tree to mark their territory and sharpen the claws, t...

This police shooting took place in a secure car park in Ascot Drive Police Station in Derby, UK, on Friday Morning. Marius Ciolac ran a building and electrical business until it was dissolved in February. The reports are that Mr Ciolac had been due in the criminal courts three days before he was shot. The criminal case against him was dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service. We don't know why but he was apparently in the police station car park with a knife and that a window had been smashed. Cordoned off area where the incident occurred. Image: PA Media. Derbyshire police apparently confronted Mr Ciolac and shot him. It is reported that he suffered gunshot injuries after armed officers were deployed to the station. He died in hospital. Later on, there was a report that he was carrying a bag at the time he was shot and in the bag was a cat. There were no reports about the cat until later on when animal advocates and people concerned about animal welfare asked about the welfare of ...

Helios is an unneutered male ginger tabby. These are popular cats with a reputation for having nice personalities. Not sure if there is a connection between coat and personality but that's the reputation. Ginger tabbies are also called red tabbies and yellow cats...enough. Man shows off his cat's pom-poms. Screenshot. Helios's Pom Poms The thing that I immediately picked up on in this video is that Helios looks as if he is 'whole', unfixed, not castrated because he has those typical chubby cheeks. And his owner makes a point of it saying that people love his chubby cheeks. I do too. I guess most of us do but you have to have pom-poms. Sorry the video is not embedded. Why did this guy stop other sites showing the video? Click on the link below please. Helios's owner also makes a big deal about his cat's testicles. He shows them off to the world. Unpleasant human behavior. I think this is undignified and disrespectful. Almost pornographic I'd say. It is...

Well, this is quite a nice video from the AVMA. The AVMA is the association representing American veterinarians. They have no power over them because many American veterinarians declaw cats not as a last resort but as a first option. In the video, the veterinarian does mention that declawing is a last resort but this is ignored. Despite that weakness, the video, I think, is useful in that it addresses some basic issues to do with the human-cat relationship. It is always useful to go back to the basics and remind ourselves how best to relate to domestic cats. 'Respect the cat' is my mantra. Cat and man emotionally distanced? Screenshot.

This little fella loves his pink pig. He becomes very aggressively possessive when his human guardian delicately tries to take it from him. I can understand. I guess he regards his human 'owner' as another cat who is trying to take it from him. It is his plaything. It brings him pleasure and as such he refuses to give it up. This sort of possessiveness occurs often with food bowls. You'll see cats arguing over access to food in multi-cat homes. These are circumstances under which bullying cats can dominant the more timid cats in the home. In fact you'll see cats arguing with the owner if they like the food in a bowl and the owner wants to move it. They think the owner is taking the food from them and hiss and growl. It is not a good experience for the owner who loves her cat and is doing the best they can for her feline friend. Kitten is aggressively possessive over his pink pig. Screenshot Another source of dispute in multi-cat homes is access to the litter tray. In...

Curious cat video: a cute one which reminds us that cats like to stick their noses into things. So curiosity killed the cat? Is that right? It is an old saying which implies that the domestic cat is too curious for their own good. Their curiosity gets them into trouble. It is a idiom-proverb which warns humans (you can't stop cats doing it!) that if you investigate too far and too much it can bring trouble on you. Note: sometimes these sorts of videos stop working and if that has happened I am sorry . But the origin is in an entirely different word: "care". The original saying was "Care killed the cat". In this instance 'care' means concern and concern leads to worry. If you worry too much it can harm your health. The origin of the saying "Care killed the cat" is found in a 1598 play by Ben Jonson. His play contains the line: "Helter skelter, hang sorrow, care will kill a cat, up-tails all, and a pox on the hangman." I wonder why...

Sessions of love. Screenshot. This is a beautiful little video of sessions of love between domestic cat and human. You know how it is: the loving starts spontaneously. Hell, I'd say that it is the cat who normally starts them. But the human has got to be sensitive to their cat's body language and behavior and they have to create that loving feeling in the home. It's the background love and emotional warmth that leads to the love sessions that we see in the video. A lot of human care and attention goes into getting to this state of affairs but it is not hard work. It just comes naturally to the person who genuinely loves their cat companion. So, do the loving sessions last longer if the cat starts them or the human? What do you think? I think that you'll find that it depends which of them is most likely to stop the session first. My guess is that normally humans stop before cats because cats can go on for ever. Well almost (by settling down on your lap for instance). And...

The domestic cat can be intensely curious. They are inherently and instinctively motivated to respond to quick movements and sounds which might correspond to the sounds of a prey animal. Domestic cats can locate the source of sound very accurately .  The intensely curious domestic cat stimulated by fast movements. Screenshot. They will pick up a quick moving object in their peripheral vision and investigate to find out if it is a prey animal. This cat is responding in this way to what sounds like a liquid being poured into a container. It doesn't matter what's happening off the screen.  What matters is how the cat is reacting which is with great intensity and curiosity. The pupils of the eyes are wide open. This is because it's inside the home and there is not a lot of light. Also they may be wide open partly because this cat wants to see as clearly as possible.   The domestic cat's instinctive reaction to fast moving objects can interfere with how people interact w...

The cat on the treadmill video where the cat just flops is a classic reinforcement of the perception that a good number of people have that the domestic cat is lazy. People who dislike cats add to that by saying that they are useless and they sneer at you, and so on . All rubbish, I am afraid! Most often when writing about the "lazy cat" people make fun of it. It is one of those funny cat stories, photos or videos . This is the more serious side, in defense of the cat side - typical of me. I don't think cats are lazy. Taking a global view, wildcats are certainly not lazy especially the small wildcats. They do a lot of hunting at night, frequently all night and they travel what we would consider long distances. The sand cat can travel about 20 kilometers a night searching for food. Lazy? When wild cats are efficient at catching prey or when prey is abundant they will have more time to rest and sleep - common sense it seems to. As to the companion cat, the humble dom...