Having posted recently that cats ‘are stressed because we treat them like dogs’, it seemed a good idea to share the Shortcuts Blog article: Are you stressing out your cat? How to spot the signs
Spend less time taking photos and more maintaining litter trays.
Cats are stressed. Ahead of a BBC documentary called Cat Wars (not exactly a soothing title), the anthrozoologist John Bradshaw has claimed that cat owners expect too much of their cats. Conditions such as dermatitis and cystitis are increasingly common, and often stress-related. “If cat owners understood their pets better, they’d recognise the demands we’re putting on them,” he told the Radio Times.
This is understandable. The UK’s cat population is estimated at over 10 million. Cats are no longer simply pets. They are social media stars. If you live with a cat, you are living with a kind of celebrity. Or, your cat is living with your sense that you are living with a kind of celebrity. (Symptoms: frequent taking of cat selfies, downloading of the photo app Snapcat, use of the hashtag #CatsofTwitter.) Apparently, living in close proximity to other cats is likely to cause your cat emotional strain too. Here’s how to de-stress your cat.