Many of the undesirable behavior of cats result from inadequate or even harmful elements within their environment.
Often these result simply from us not knowing just what cats need in order to feel safe and be happy. Prior to making our cats happy we need to make sure they feel safe.
Personal Safe Places
It is not enough for our cats to be within a home which you feel to be safe and secure – cats need safe and secure places within that home that are, not just particularly, but only, for each of them.
This is true if for one cat or multiple. All cats need their own spaces. These spaces should be large enough to fit only one, have three sides and and can be exited fairly easily in a secure direction. That is a fairly rigid description. They really only to feel protected and comfortable in a space they can’t be surprised in. (They may also need communal spaces – depends on your cats.)
Many cats like high places from which to survey their surroundings and low places in which to hide. Think of cats in the wild – and most all cat behaviorists insist that cats have one foot in domesticity and three in the wild. You’ve probably seen videos of Chetahs on top of mounds or sitting on a fallen trees, surveying the surroundinds, and at other times retreating into dens in the ground or behind rocks. Most homes have ample places which you may not consider useable but they find perfect.
Her Own Resources
Just as we feel more secure, more grounded and in control when we have around us the resources we need, so do cats. Resources include food, water, bathroom facilities, recreation areas, play things and areas for sleeping and resting. If your cat is an indoor/outdoor cat this also includes the cat door(s).
If you have more than one cat it is important that access to a necessary resource can’t be hampered by another cat.
It is vital that a less dominant cat need not go through a more dominant cat’s ‘territory’ to get to vital resources or be challenged in any way when attempting to do so. Such conflicts cause considerable stress and not necessarily only in the cat being challenged. Challenging can be stressful too and such scenarios are almost certain to result in undesirable behavior, such as marking, clawing, aggressiveness, etc., and can easily give rise to physical ailments as well.
The Need For Cats To Be Cats
Cats are not little children and are very different from dogs. They are cats and need the opportunities to express their ‘catness’. Catness is what cats do because they are cats. Everyone who has a cat knows they like to play and scratch and possibly run about, and have their own ways of doing so. Cats need to play in part, simply for the fun of it. They play for the needed exercise and also to invoke and exercise their natural predatory talents. They also want and need interaction with us.
Play helps them remain alert, active and engaged. Today there are a vast range of cat toys, cat furniture and interactive devices designed with considerable awareness of what cats like. Some of these they can play with on their own through their own manipulation. Some are motorized and can provide extended periods of activity and some allow you and your cats to play together. These come in a variety of styles so you don’t have to compromise the aesthetic of your home. Be sure to have several toys and to cycle them in and out so they remain engaged.
Human Interaction
Even feral cats who have been out on their own for some time, then rescued, seem to crave, need human interaction – at least once the human as proven to be trustworthy. Cats vary greatly in this department, some needing and wanting a great deal of human interaction, others extremely independent and wanting largely to be provided for but generally left alone – but not completely alone. Even the strong, silent types receive a sort of nourishment, or perhaps assurance and comfort with some degree of human caring and physical contact.
The extremely informative book “Barron’s Encyclopedia of Cat Breeds” rates all the breeds on this quality (and a host of others) on a scale of 1 to 10. Many of us have cats that are not one specific breed, however, and even within a breed there are variations, so we need to allow for the individuality of the cat because no two are the same.
The degree of comfort cats feel with human interaction is in part determined by their experiences as kittens but even this is not a ‘written in stone’ determination. Our orange tabby, Bijou, lived on the street from the time he was a kitten until we found him (he found us) at around 8 months old and he loves, from time to time, to come onto a lap and be pet and he warms up to strangers pretty quickly too. The important thing is to provide him all the attention he wants but not to force our or allow others to force their attention. Even the most passive and needy cat has a degree of autonomy that needs to be respected.
What Cats Don't Need
An environment that respects the acuity and importance of a cat’s senses is as vital as providing for specific needs. Cats’ sense of hearing and smell is far more acute than ours and what may not affect us in the least may have a powerful, and disturbing effect on our cats. Loud, harsh music can be hurtful to a cat. (They can positively melt in ecstasy hearing music they like, however. Bijou loves the harp.)
Artificial scents such as those from cleaning agents and air ‘fresheners’ are not appreciated by cats. (There is considerable evidence that they are extremely harmful to humans too. Do a search on ‘truth about air fresheners’. You’ll never use one again.)
Everyone knows that cats leave their own scent in a variety of places (including on us) by rubbing. This deposit of their scent on objects in their environment helps establish a sense of security. They know this is ‘their’ place. That is why they do this more when the environment becomes more stressed, as with the addition of a new cat or other new inhabitant or new furniture or objects.
It is often said that a cat rubs against us to establish a ‘communal’ scent. This may be so. It may also be that it is the ‘combined’ scent that they are creating and appreciating. Like, ‘Us, we’re together’.
In any case it is important to allow this scent-leaving and not try to clean it off. If they are not able to scent their environment, of which we are a part, they may become so stressed as to begin eliminating outside their litter box, or begin scratching or spraying, or developing other inappropriate and unwanted behavior.
Undesirable behavior in a cat almost always arises from being stressed and unhappy. Just as it is our responsibility with an infant to know why they are crying and to try to alleviate the discomfort, it’s our job to understand what our cats need and how to satisfy those needs.
Cat Trees
Or something similar, should be considered essential, not a luxury, for a variety of important reasons and which will benefit both your cat and hour home. Here is a post on that.
As mentioned, cats need playthings but it is one thing to give a cat toys to play with, it is another to allow that play to take place and even to encourage it. It might be annoying at times, or your cat wants to play when you don’t want that. That happens. Just be sure there are plenty of opportunities for your cat to be what he is.
The result of attending to all this, which seems complex but really isn’t, will be happy, healthy, well adjusted cats contributing to the harmony, happiness and enjoyment of your home.