We cats have been social distancing for years. It is what we do. We timeshare space when we live in the same house as other cats.
Humans often don't notice us doing that. But often even if we share the large bed, we will share at a distance. We only eat close too if our stupid humans force us to.
We keep our distance from stranger cats - and spend many hours just staring at each other, occasionally breaking off the eye contact, before moving away to an even safer distance.
We practice safe space all the time.
Urgent advice for humans,.... imitate your cat.
- Read this book during the crisis. Order here.
Are humans safe? We need a new etiquette to deal with diseased humans. I call it the butt kiss.
Humans are, unlike cats, very bad at washing. Standing for two minutes under the shower is no substitute for the thorough careful washing we give ourselves from nose to tail.
Now their general lack of hygeine is catching up on them and they are in a panic about a new virus. Worse still it seems they may be able to pass this on to us. Or so the Hong Kong authorities seem to think. Read it here.
They say humans should not be overly concerned and should not abandon their pets. But what about us cats? Surely we should be concerned. Our health may be at risk.
Should we abandon our humans? I think not. But, if you have a human that slobbers over you, or breathes in your face, turn your back and present butt.
If they must kiss and slobber, they can kiss our backsides!
Dear George,
Now that the holidays’ chaos and stress is
over I’d like to get your opinion on a very much overlooked topic….which is
“traveling with cats”!
You see, my Mom wanted to visit relatives
across the pond. She got quite excited by the idea of “us” visiting cousins in the
faraway land but soon her excitement fell flat once she realized she could not
take me with her in the cabin! So, she gave up on the cousins and decided to go
local which meant…..by car! I think I did dress for the occasion (as you can
see in the photo) but I wasn’t happy at all! I have to complain because I
didn’t get the passenger’s seat! Nooooo! She put me in my carrier in the back
seat! This wasn’t fair!
I wanted to enjoy the view but she wouldn’t
have it any other way! I’ve seen other cats traveling in the passenger’s seat
and not in a carrier! So I decided to punish her and make her life miserable so
I meowed all the way back home.
She seems to be hurt by my behaviour and
since I love her very much and have no intention to punish her unnecessary I’d
like to get your opinion on this issue. Maybe I was too hard on her?
Maybe…..maybe
….she was right?
George, help please!
Minky
Dear Minky,
I am sure you would have liked to be in the front seat and able to move around the car, but this is a safety issue. Humans are unreliable travelling companions and we have to be protected from their irresponsibility. They can forget that cat safety is paramount.
This is how I once wanted to travel in the car - it was a serious error on my part.
Let me tell you about Ada, a cat that was traveling unrestrained in a car. As her driver negotiated a small road, he was involved in a minor collision with another car. He forgot about Ada altogether, leaped out, and started sorting things out with the other driver.
Terrified, Ada leaped out too and took refuge in the hedge. She sat there rigid and unmoving with fear (luckily) so could be picked up by her driver. If she had fled rather than froze she might have been lost forever.
I hate saying this. Your human was right.
Your cat box was on the back seat and fastened down with a seat belt - important to stop it flying forward and hitting the driver on the head, precipitating a serious car crash.
Yours George.
PS. Important details here for car travel, and airline travel in North America here with details of American airline policy on pets. Regulations about bringing in pets to the UK are complex and can be found here.
Help for cats whose humans show behaviour problems.
This blog is devoted to the study of human behaviour. We cats, who live with this sometimes unpredictable and always feeble minded species, can benefit from seeing their behaviour in its proper scientific context. The study of feline dilemmas, training problems, and difficulties with humans, can only benefit all of us. All of us train our humans - to buy the right food, for instance, but many of us do not have knowledge of how to improve our training methods. The human species is obviously not as intelligent as the cat, but nevertheless can learn quite a lot - if properly managed. Topics of interest include the use of claw and order, purring as a human reward, rubbing your human up the right way, when to bite, spraying as a method of making our wishes known, ignoring the human, human harassment, human inattention and sheer human stupidity. I welcome your questions. Photos can be sent via my secretary's website, www.celiahaddon.com This blog has been chosen as one of the top 50 feline blogs by Online VetTechprogramms.org