How problems develop

Cats are not static creatures. New patterns of behaviour develop in them throughout their lives. Behaviour problems can develop in several ways, and the way tells you a great deal. Broadly speaking, the sudden appearance of some new and unwanted piece of behaviour is a sign of some new and serious difficulty, or of stress, in the animal’s life.

Bad behaviour does not usually “fall out of the sky”, and if it seems to, I start looking for what brought it on. If a cat that was clean suddenly starts urinating on the carpet, I would run — not walk, run — to the vet. Behaviour like that is a symptom, and you have to find the cause. Remove the cause and the symptom goes with it. Ignore the cause, and then try dealing with the symptom.

If your cat is physically well, look for any distinct change in its surroundings that might have set the unwanted behaviour off. Perhaps you tried a new brand of cat litter, or redecorated the house, or a wife moved in, or moved out, or you shifted the litter tray. Perhaps your cat’s world has altered in some way: new furniture, a new cat, a new daily routine. Since animals cannot tell you in words what has happened, a little detective work on the owner’s part, done from the cat’s point of view, is usually exactly what is needed.

Another reason a cat may develop new and unwanted habits is that it gets some pleasure out of them. A good example is the cat that gets up on the kitchen worktop. A cat that has never once been up there in its life may take to it permanently after coming upon a chicken breast. Finding and eating something good is a very handsome reward for getting on the worktop, or raiding the kitchen sink, or tipping over the rubbish bin. You can tell the cat that doing such things shows moral weakness; it will not be impressed. But change the situation so that the cat gets what it does not want at all — a jet of water from a plant sprayer, say — instead of what it does want, and you have the surest way there is of changing its behaviour.

Boredom is another key to behaviour problems. Most cats cope with being alone quite well; it is boredom that gets them down. Shut in a flat all day long with nothing happening, they take it as an invitation to amuse themselves. And “amusing themselves” can cover a very wide range of feline activity, most of which is nothing like as good from a human point of view.

Problems of this kind, the ones that come of boredom, usually show up in young cats under two years old, and in the active breeds such as the Siamese and the Abyssinian.

If your cat gets up to most of its mischief while you are out, consider getting it a companion. Even if your cat never becomes a real friend to the other cat or to a dog, the other animal will fill its day and keep it interested. I have known cats to pine for a lost companion after its death when they had paid it no attention whatever while it was alive.

Enrich the cat’s surroundings; give it things made for climbing on. The more horizontal surfaces there are in the house, the more interesting the house is to a cat. Leave surprises about the place — tiny heaps of catnip here and there, perhaps, or a feeder you can set to a particular time, so that you can give the cat its dinner while you are out. Leave a ping-pong ball balanced so that a nudge at the door from the cat brings it down and sets it bouncing. Be inventive. Your cat will appreciate it, and when the cat is happy you will appreciate it too.

Rotating the cat’s favourite toys is an easy way of keeping it interested. Divide the toys into three groups or more. Every few days put one group away and bring out another in its place. Where toys are concerned, variety really is the spice of life.

Be sure to play with the cat and teach it something every day. It exercises the mind as well as the body, and makes it likelier that the cat will stay awake while it is alone. Cats are clever animals, but they are not built to concentrate on anything for long stretches at a time. Push them to, and all you achieve is a sleepy cat.

Might you be part of the problem yourself?

A great many of us owners contribute to our cats’ behaviour problems without meaning to in the least. We think we are showing our cats love and support and behaving unambiguously, when in fact we are too domineering, too emotional, inconsistent, and far too ready to punish. Do you recognise yourself in any of those?

Mess in the house, and smacking

Many of you have probably been advised to rub the cat’s nose in its mess, or to smack it. Punishing a cat physically will only make things worse. You will certainly teach the cat something, but only one thing: to be afraid of you. You will teach it nothing whatever about how to use a tray. And since a great many tray problems are the result of stress in the animal, physical attacks only add to that stress — and more stress means more accidents.

Most people resort to physical punishment when they are thoroughly frustrated, when they do not know how to make their needs and wishes understood. But frustration must not be confused with training or teaching: the two are incompatible. Frustration is a loss of control, and your cat recognises it easily. Nothing matters more to a cat than its own safety. It will make for safety, and if safety lies somewhere away from you, your cat will either run from you or drive you off in order to reach it.

Changing the rules

Here is the classic example. Your beloved cat, who has slept on your pillow all her life, is now scolded and smacked for jumping on the bed, because your new friend does not like a cat in it. For the first time in years you wake up to find the lavatory paper shredded. You scold the cat, and it does no good at all. You think she is jealous and angry about your new friend — but think again. I can guarantee you that your cat does not wake up in the morning thinking: “I wonder how I can annoy my owner badly enough today to get myself told off?”

The cat is under stress, because her settled life has changed for no visible reason. She has been attacked in her own house by the person she adores above everything in the world, and for a reason she cannot possibly understand. Were she human she would be throwing biscuit tins about, crying or shouting in a rage. But she cannot, because she is a cat. The range of behaviour she can choose from to relieve stress is narrower: mewing, scratching, passing water or motions where she should not, chewing things or knocking them over. She chose scratching. She might as easily have left a wet patch on your favourite chair.

Ignoring the cat

She was your best friend, and frankly your only friend, when you first came to this town. You would come home from work, kick off your shoes and roll a ping-pong ball for her. She slept on your pillow and licked your eyelids in the morning when the alarm went off. She dined with you and cried with you. And now you have a job and a social life. You are only home from time to time, trying to spend as much of it with the cat as you can — but you are tired. And suddenly she has her claws in your favourite chair and is sweeping things off the shelves. She was always so good; why is she spoiling your life now?

Absurd as it sounds, your cat is asking you exactly the same question. Why are you spoiling hers? Do not expect to cut a cat that is used to people off from company altogether and get no reaction at all from your four-legged friend. She has no idea what is going on in your life. The one thing she knows is that you used to be there and now you are not. Perhaps it is time to find her a companion. A grown cat that has lived with other cats can be a very good answer, and there are always grown cats in need of a home. If you are busy with work and with daily life, this is not the moment to take on a kitten.

Rewarding the behaviour you do not want

You are stretched out on the sofa in front of the television, worn out. A mew comes from the kitchen. Then another. You try to take no notice, but your cat will not have it. Another call, louder and more insistent. And you give in. “Want a snack, do you, my boy?” you ask, getting off the sofa and heading for the kitchen. “All right then, come here.” Then you collapse on the sofa again, hoping for a little peace and quiet.

What has just happened? In short, you have been well trained. But since your own training is not the subject here, let us concentrate on the other side of it and say that your cat has just been rewarded for mewing. What is the likeliest result? It will mew more in future. Worse, you have just taught it to mew repeatedly — and persistence is not a quality you want to develop in a cat, since it takes root firmly in animals of this species.

So there are two rules for dealing with cats, though we are told the same rules apply to bringing up children and to marriage as well: 1) Successful extortion is always repeated. 2) If you are going to give in, give in at once.

Inconsistency

Allowing, and even encouraging, bad behaviour when it amuses you and then punishing it when it does not is the quickest way of developing unwanted behaviour in an animal of practically any species. Here is an example. As a kitten she flew at your fingers, and you found it delightful. You made your hand into a spider walking across the floor; when she pounced on it you laughed, rolled her onto her back and tickled her stomach while she bit you with her small kitten teeth. Now, a grown cat, she flies at your feet in bed when you turn over. When you wave a hand at her and say “Don’t!”, she bites harder and rakes you with her hind legs. You think she has probably gone mad, and wonder how it can have happened. After all, her behaviour is unacceptable — is it not?

There are the immortal words of a wise man: “Be careful what you wish for — you may get it!” It was you who taught the cat to behave this way, so do not blame her for doing it. You have to be careful not to encourage a kitten when it climbs up your trousers, flies at your fingers, bites your hand, chews your hair, sucks your earlobe, seizes you by the legs and so on.

Cats are astonishingly logical creatures, and their behaviour is rarely without grounds, however it may look to us at first. Our job, as the people who guard them, direct them, care for them and are their friends, is to look at things from the cat’s point of view and respond accordingly. In most cases a cat’s behaviour can be changed once we understand the motives behind it. Cats are really not so mysterious at all, however mysterious their actions may seem at first.