It shows how much communication means to them.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Cats don’t act things out for each other. We might not realize that they have a sophisticated communications system that already works well.

I’ve seen cats convey concepts like, You try that mysterious device first, The squirrel is back at the computer room window, and The bowls have vanished from the kitchen! Yet, to my human eyes and ears, it’s been only a brief bit of nudge-nudge-wink-wink.

But humans need to have it, more or less, spelled out for them. And that’s why some of my brightest cats, and even my not so brightest, dramatize their needs and wants for me.

Especially after they know it works.

Puffy would drag himself over to our feet and raise… one… trembling… paw. He was really good, and he would usually get something for his performance.

Mr. Bond likes to play hide and seek from behind my laptop screen. Even if he’s making a big fuss about hiding behind it.

While Olwyn likes to come into the kitchen, and ask us why we’ve summoned her there. Whether we have, or not.

How can we let our cat know we like these performances? How can we encourage them to try more dramatic license?

Watch them. We might be surprised at how the cat reacts when we pay attention to them, even when they are not asking for it. Cats will try to see how they can reliably attract our attention for future reference.

Study them. If our cat is trying to snag our attention, what do they do with it? If they roll over, extend a paw, or flop down on us, they are asking for affection. But if they act coy, and twirl around, they are asking us to follow them.

Respond to them. Get up, or move in their direction, using a phrase like Show me, which will always signal the cat that we are ready to observe what they would like us to observe. Perhaps we will figure it out when we get there. Perhaps we will need more help.

Cats will continue to do whatever gains, and expands, our attention. The more we appreciate, and applaud, their efforts, the more they will try to communicate.

Every actor needs an audience.

Got here from a Link or Search?
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.

As exhibition rules changed, the Tonkinese met opposition; this breed highlighted the very traits bred out of the modern forms of Siamese and Burmese. Their bodies are midway between the stocky cobby types and the elongated Oriental types. They offer twelve different color patterns. They have adaptable Beta personalities instead of the driven Alpha temperament.

“Tonk” fans (who have steadily grown in numbers) don’t see this as a controversy. They see this as the point.

Pictured: Best of Breed GC, BW, NW PURRTEK’S MOSCATO, Platinum Point Tonkinese Male
Photo: © Chanan

While Tonks are gorgeous cats with a short, sleek, thick coat that is lovely to view and touch, it’s the unique Tonk personality which continues to win hearts and minds.

These are social creatures, who must have interaction with others.

A neglected Tonk will read us chapter and verse of the unfairness and indignity we are showing over the last five minutes. Then they will instantly forgive us when we suspend our other activities for the more important task of playing with them… and hugging them.

Because it’s not just play they crave. Tonks generally make wonderful lap and cuddle cats. This makes them benign rulers with willing subjects. Most Tonk fans have at least two, in addition to other cats, dogs, and children. Tonks are interactive marvels, happy to make suggestions to anyone. And usually getting their way.

Tonk fans feel the “best of both worlds” scenario is played out in their home every day. Sometimes this is a highly active, explosively athletic, cat, who races through the house at warp speed. Other times, this is a teddy bear cat, pulling us back for one more hug.

They are a good strategic choice for the cat fan needing to win over a cat skeptic. Tonk fans have many tales of how their Tonks won over a reluctant romantic partner, who then becomes the first one to suggest… another Tonk! It’s not in a Tonk’s nature to take rejection philosophically.

In fact, Tonks don’t accept rejection at all. It’s second nature for them to mount a charm campaign to win over even the most reluctant of souls. Then they graciously accept the new fan’s humble acknowledgment of their greatness, and bear no grudges.

This “friend I haven’t met yet” aspect of the Tonk personality also makes them a good choice for greeter cats, store cats, and other cats who like meeting the public. Most people feel they “look like a breed, but what kind?” which intrigues the Newbies and moves Tonk fans to share their passion.

When we do all the right things for our Tonks, we will have one of the easiest cats to keep happy. Their recently hybrid nature means a sturdy genotype along with the purebred predictability. Their ready assessment and acceptance of other creatures means few conflicts in the home. And they have been known to win over even the Scroogeiest of hearts.

Tonks need a cat tree or other sturdy piece of cat furniture, access to the couch and beds, lots of friends and lots of toys. So don’t subject a Tonk to being the only cat alone in a home all day.

Due to their popularity, a Tonkinese mix might appear in a shelter near you. Because of their beautifully balanced qualities, the Tonkinese influence is probably strong, and their distinctive appearance makes them reliably recognizable.

Want a Tonkinese? Find an ethical breeder who cares about their cats, or check out the cats needing homes at Purebred Tonkinese Rescue. Check North America at Petfinder.com to see if there’s a mix nearby, just waiting for a home.

Love certain breeds?
There’s more about getting the cat you dream of at The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See MORE ABOUT CAT BREEDS.

If we can get the cat to try things in some new way, or adapt to some changes we have to make, both of us will be happier.

But the cat is skeptical.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

This kind of cat skill came up as a consequence of our car being in the shop for a long while. I am able to take the bus for some things. But certain out-of-the-way errands are trickier to manage. Like the stop at the feed store for their special dry food.

Well, it’s an emergency, and we’re all suffering. As the dry food dwindled, I bought a bag of grocery kind to mix in as a stretcher. The cats picked out a lot of the new food, acting like a kindergarten class with free Pixy Stix, and lay around in satisfied shapes. I knew that would happen; like humans with their own junk food, cats love the “sugar rush” they get from the high levels of carbohydrates.

In this case, the manufacturer has fooled cats into eating food they wouldn’t find appealing by spraying it with meat juice. And it works.

But we can’t bribe our cats with junk. At least, not all the time.

As their dry food threatens to run out entirely, I manage a trip to the health food store. I know they have several types of cat food there, and I have not checked it out since I bought a trial can, and the cats went on hunger strike. Mr. Bond did his famous, Excuse me, this is not food. I don’t know what they told you at the store, but just look at it. I mean really.

So I explain we have to “sell” this new food, which has wholesome ingredients. Thus, I expect the cats will be disappointed. Dear Husband rises to the occasion magnificently. He got out the container we keep the dry food in, gaining the cat’s attention, and poured in the new food. Then he exclaimed, “Look at this. It has bits!”

Sure enough, there are three different colors and shapes in the new food. Thank goodness. I immediately express my own enthusiasm, saying how wonderful it looks. The cats actually like it.

Maybe we just lucked out. But at least I now have another kind of food I feel good about giving them. We had some fun, and got the cats to approach a new food without disappointment.

If we are apprehensive, or uncertain, or otherwise feel the cats won’t like something, we will project what we expect, and our cats will pick up on it.

If we offer them things with happiness and confidence, these will be the emotions our cats will reflect.

Remember; to sell it, we have to believe in it.

Got here from a Link or Search?
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.

So we can best help a shy cat, calm an angry cat, or draw out a scared cat, when we get more beings into this effort.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

One of the problems of the shy, angry, or scared cat is that they are not sure how to interpret what we are saying, and how to tell if we are sincere. Other people or cats may have a way of reaching this cat.

If the troubled cat finds two sources telling them the same thing, then our message is more believable. This creates new training possibilities.

Dogs getting treats always draws the cats, too, because the central “getting a treat” concept is easy for them to pick up, even if they don’t want the treats in question. It’s the principle of the thing.

This makes the cats and dogs look more kindly at each other. This makes them less prone to chase each other and be annoying. In other degrees, this applies to children, teenagers, parakeets, and other brainy creatures if we have them.

When the troubled cat sees other beings having a good time with us, it’s easier for them to see themselves having a good time with us.

We don’t need a troubled cat to see the advantages of having more attachments. Cat companions keep our pets from getting lonely. Cats who enjoy our frequent visitors make their visits more fun. Any steps we take to encourage respect, and enforce it, creates benefits for us, now and in the future.

People often try the reduction method when it comes to personality clashes in the home. This is when we try to take things away to solve the problem. We keep certain pets in certain rooms, or we order certain parties to leave each other alone.

But if this is not working, or not working as well as we’d like it to, we can try the addition method, which provides the missing personality element. We can do this ourselves, or by getting another pet.

The addition method is particularly useful if we are faced with a need on the part of the cat. We can’t ask a thirsty cat to go without water. We can’t ask a lonely cat to adjust to loneliness.

As a social creature ourselves, we prefer the company of other social creatures. So we all need each other.

No matter who we are.

Got here from a Link or Search?
There’s more ways to get our cat to be affectionate in The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See all of my CAT AFFECTION posts.

What we give is what we get.

more cat pictures

Of course we want to make our cat happy. That’s what having a pet is all about. Because when we show we want to make the cat happy, the cat will want to make us happy.

But it’s not just love. Respect, love of learning, and a sense of humor are all attributes we do share, and should share.

The more we share traits we like, the more we discover our cat has these traits too.

We won’t know how much and what kind of interaction a cat might like until we try to engage them more often, and more interestingly. The more care and effort we put in, the far more we get back.

I regard cats as sentient beings. They have intelligence, learning ability, self-awareness, a wide emotional range, and a brain that is more like a human’s than a dog’s is.

While the great apes have much in common with us such as bipedal walking ability and opposable thumbs, the cat has a very different body shape and some instincts that we do not have.

Yet the cat has an almost identical physical structure in their brain that will interpret emotions into thoughts and actions in a way that is very close to our own.

We may take different paths to achieve independence, satisfaction, fun, and comfort.

But we wind up in the same place.

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

My cat came back (from the vet/from being lost/from staying with someone else) and now it’s like the poor cat’s gone crazy. How do I get my old cat back?

Dear Readers,

They may have been to the vet/lost/with that person before, even many times. But this time, something was too much.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Cats are bright animals, but the conceptual leap required to understand exactly what happened is beyond them. So then a cat needs to find a stress target. This big mess of sad and frightened feelings arrives back home; and their survival instincts urge them to find what has changed that has brought this upon them.

In their natural habitat, cats would be right. Something attacked them, or made them sick, and they should either avoid it, or drive it out of their territory. But in our homes, this instinct can be distorted into a cat targeting someone or something which had nothing to do with it! We can help our cat de-stress by trying these strategies:

Burn up their excess energy. Stress pumps up the cat’s feelings and leaves them a bundle of nerves. So let’s try playing them into the ground more often. A tired cat is then a relaxed cat, which leads to a cat getting enough deep sleep. This will get our cat feeling more like their old happy self.

Defend the helpless. Whether the cat is targeting living or non-living objects to let out their distress, we need to redirect that energy. The poor target is sure not to like their situation, and then they become another source of stress. Remind our traumatized cat that They like Mister Whiskers! and That chair didn’t do anything to you! Use our distress or happiness to steer our cat away from pointless acting out.

Express distress the right way. We must show them something that actually works. Misbehaving de-stresses the cat for a little while (at least I’m not thinking about how upset I am!) but not for long.

We often fuss over the cat after a bad experience. There’s nothing wrong with that. But we must not be too different from our usual self, either.

What the cat needs is their previous routine.

That means our cat has to be held to the standard of their previous behavior.

We can feel sorry for the cat. We are glad when the cat is affectionate with us, and grateful they don’t seem to blame us. So we are even less likely than usual to step in and make the cat stop the new, bad, things they are doing.

When that is exactly what we have to do.

When we act like we used to, we encourage the cat to act like they used to. When the cat is feeling less stressed, and more like their own selves; they will stop trying to act out all their stress.

We reverse the downward spiral; how their apprehension makes them harass other cats, and get harassed back, which makes their fear worse.

We let our cat know we still love them, and that nothing has changed.

This is the path to getting our cat back.

Got here from a Link or Search?
There’s more ways to get our cat to be affectionate in The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See all of my CAT AFFECTION posts.

When we have a cat doing something interesting, it’s highly likely at least one other cat is observing and learning. We need to watch some “cat theater” ourselves, to make sure what they are teaching each other are not the wrong things.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Cats don’t have to be social to learn from each other, but it helps. Seeing another cat accomplish something creates instant interest, and cats actually enjoy admiring glances from other cats. They will then be likely to repeat this same maneuver, and the other cats will study it.

Every cat Reverend Jim has encountered has been a profound influence on him. Because of his deprived background, he tends to study other cats intently, but he doesn’t actually imitate them.

Instead, he seems to grasp the concept of what the other cats are doing, and then come up with his own way of accomplishing or understanding a task. In many ways, another cat showing RJ that something is possible creates linkages for him.

It’s not that RJ is simply imitating another cat. The key is when he understands that the other cat is doing something to get what they want.

Having his own kitten has been a great boost to RJ’s development, since he sees Olwyn figure stuff out at his developmental level. It’s not that RJ is not bright; he is.

But he’s still a kitten in many ways. His age, coming up on three years old in a month or so, is still in the kitten range, especially for such a naturally large cat as his most prominent breed, the Maine Coon. But it’s his deprivation that originally stalled him, and now slows his progress.

We started out having to teach him how to play. I even developed a special cat toy to help him grasp concepts and work with his natural intelligence and independence.

Since Dear Husband had never raised a kitten before, he did not see what I saw in RJ; the slowness, the times he would seem to “lock up,” and the way he was seemingly unable to initiate many kinds of contact. Then, we got Olwyn. Seeing a normal kitten negotiate the world made him realize what I had been saying about RJ all along.

Cats learn from other cats all the time, even if they don’t have a deficit to make up. This is why our procedures to keep them out of trouble have to be as smart as our smartest cat.

We only need one cat to figure it out; but after that, any cat can do it. Even after the original cat is no longer there, having a Cat Civilization means these tips and techniques will be passed on.

Which is just another reason why I love having a Cat Civilization.

Got here from a Link or Search?
There’s more about multiple cats in The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See more posts on the MULTIPLE CAT ADVANTAGE.

They were sort of invented by my cat. I was making fountains and putting them around the house and found him using them far more than he ever used his water bowl.

I think they are lovely. It’s especially nice that it evokes a jungle appearance, especially when we add a cat.

All of our cats now love to drink from fountains. Learn more about why cats like fountains.

It’s good for our cat, and it’s good for us, too.

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.

That’s what they do.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

All the hiding, the silent movements, the ability to let only their eyes appear over an edge of the landscape; this is how cats hunt.

This is how cats live.

While cats are more than capable of streaking after fleeing prey, their ambush moves are designed to get them close enough to catch that prey before it bolts. Cats are very fast, but only for a short time. The wolf technique, wearing down the prey with stamina, is not something which works for cats.

Despite what I hope is a serious lack of rodents running around in our homes, cats still gotta do what cats gotta do. So toys, other pets, and our feet can become their targets.

Their love of ambush is also why they love to hide. Giving them places to hide (RJ is currently enjoying the cardboard shipping box our new coffeemaker came in) can be an easy way to keep our cats happy. Play tunnels are another way to keep the good times rolling; sometimes, literally. These play tunnels are often able to be collapsed and put away, keeping them fresh to our cats. Leave a toy in storage long enough, and it becomes new.

If our cat’s ambushing becomes annoying, it’s probably a sign they aren’t getting enough play. A playmate or a wand toy session will help them expend enough energy to be satisfied.

We can direct them away from our feet by carrying toys with us when we approach dangerous areas, and using them to distract our attacking cat. This also teaches them their toys are a good substitute. Remember, dangling laces or jingly shoe decorations are just asking for it.

In the wild, cats would be either hunting, or looking for hunting opportunities, for most of their waking hours. Their meals tend to be small, and thus, frequent. Giving them approved ways to act out such compelling instincts creates a happy cat.

And happy people.

Got here from a Link or Search?
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.

However, in the broader view, I can’t improve on this statement by Jean-Michel Cousteau:

Cousteau makes the point that these whales are living in a highly inadequate environment; one that conflicts with their instincts, and neglects their emotional needs. We are, indeed, driving them crazy, and under the circumstances we should be surprised these incidents are so few.

I firmly believe that such animals as whales, dolphins, elephants, and chimpanzees should be left alone in nature. And yet, I live with cats, and in the past, dogs. How do I reconcile this?

It’s simple. There are wild animals and domesticated ones. Then there’s cats; who are actually a blend of the two, but expressed in a way which makes their lives with us more, not less.

Whales, dolphins, elephants, and chimpanzees are not only wild animals; they are wild animals who live in communities with highly developed interactions which supply their emotional needs. These territories are wide-ranging enough that they need a lot of space; in the case of aquatic mammals, a whole ocean. Duplicating their environment properly becomes so problematic that we might as well leave them in their original one.

However, I certainly don’t subscribe to PETA’s extreme view that all pets are slaves, and should be set free. Domestic animals are usually so different from their wild ancestors that they will not do well in their original environment. PETA then kills them.

That’s a strange attitude for people who want ethical treatment of animals, isn’t it? I suppose if there aren’t any animals living with humans, there isn’t any ethical problems. That attitude would solve child abuse by sterilizing everyone. Soon, no problem!

This isn’t making ethical decisions.

This is avoiding making ethical decisions.

Dogs are highly domesticated. Whether they started as wolves or jackals (opinions differ) they are quite different from their ancestors, thanks to living with us for hundreds of thousands of years. No one who encounters a well-loved dog can sustain the belief that they aren’t happy about it.

While cats, perhaps because of their shorter time span with us (about 10,000 years) are not that different from their more wild relatives. Many breeds, such as the Norwegian Forest Cat, have moved from domestic to wild to domestic again in a relatively short period of time. But, like dogs, they are not suited to being released “into the wild.”

They are not adapted to the semi-human environments they find themselves in. Lack of prey, disease and parasites, and human mistreatment make their environment far from a wild paradise. Cats, like dogs, are best suited to live as pets.

So our home is their natural environment. Their lives with us, marked by affection, abundant food, and medical care, is what they are designed to enjoy.

So let’s leave the wild alone. And the wild we have already brought into our homes?

Let’s enjoy that. Both of us.

Got here from a Link or Search?
There’s more ways to get our cat to be affectionate in The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See all of my CAT AFFECTION posts.