According to T S Eliot the naming of cats is “a difficult matter, it isn’t just one of your holiday games.”  Apparently all cats need three different names – and the one we worry about choosing is the first…but least important!  They also need “a name that’s particular, a name that’s peculiar, and more dignified”, not to mention a name that only the cat knows, and apparently spends much of his or her time thinking about.  Hopefully you’ve met Daisy (aka Princess) and Poppy (aka Pointy Tail) already.  We didn’t give the Princess her name, but did decide to rename Pointy Tail – who was “Nellie” when we first met her.

I think naming cats is more for our benefit than for our four-footed friends!  We naturally attribute human characteristics or behaviour to animals, or even objects.  Some see this as a sign of childishness or stupidity, but recent research by Nicholas Epley, a professor of behavioural science, says that it’s actually “a natural by-product of the tendency that makes humans uniquely smart.”  Recognising the mind of another human being involves the same psychological processes as recognising a mind in other animals, a god, or even a gadget. It is a reflection of our brain’s greatest ability rather than a sign of our stupidity - so it’s OK (for example) to speak to your car as if it is a human when it “refuses” to start on a cold morning but think of it as fine-tuned metal when it performs perfectly.

Human babies are named before they have much opportunity to display personality, while generally we name our animal companions according to their character, or perhaps the character we want for them.  Apparently more than two syllables or tough pronunciations could result in your cat becoming confused and never learning their name!  These mystical creatures, that Eliot tells us spend time in a rapt contemplation of the thought of their ineffable name, would apparently become hopelessly confused if you decided to call them Marshmallow instead of Mallow, or (God forbid!) Chairman Meow!

I was amused to find that websites devoted to choosing names for cats (yes, they do exist!) suggest selecting a name that the cat will recognise is important – how many cats respond to their human calling “their” name (unless it suits them, of course!)?  Gill has reminded me we did think of renaming Daisy but decided not to “because she answered to it”!  (Daisy, as I’ve previously remarked, is a very vocal cat and would probably happily answer to “Chairman Meow” if she thought there were biscuits on offer!)  “Poppy” somehow felt right in exactly the way “Nellie” just didn’t – so Daisy and Poppy they became.

Evidently some cats’ humans find it difficult to select first names for “their” cats.  For them there are cat name generators!  First you select whether the cat is a “boy” or a “girl” (this can be tricky if you’re not in the know, and one of my previous cats changed suddenly from a boy to a girl when the vet told us, after many months of being certain Sixpence was a he, that SHE was fine!) then you choose the theme or style of name you want – anything from cute or sporty to biblical or movie-related.  If only we’d discovered these websites before, Poppy could have been “Sapphira”, “Desdemona” or perhaps “Sprockets”!

Daisy, as I’ve mentioned before, is a calico cat – and there is at least one website devoted to names for these “rare and uniquely beautiful” cats.  It seems we could have chosen “Piper”, “Saffron”, “Sahara”, “Taffy”, “Truffles”, “Kiki”, “Opal” or “Lucy”.  The website also suggests some Egyptian names for calico cats – including “Nefertiti”, which obviously also breaks the two-syllable rule!

Another site makes choosing a cat’s name feel like applying for life assurance – you’re first asked for the cat’s main colour(s), then the pattern type, before asserting whether the cat has white socks (why?) and adjusting sliders to establish how down to earth the cat is, how big and how intellectual (presumably an intellectual cat would fill in the form without human assistance!).  You can then supply three adjectives that suggest the cat’s attitude and personality and can specify what letter the name should begin with.  I tried this one today for Daisy, and it suggested “Mademoiselle Haughtylickle” which pretty well sums her up.

In the end, though, do we have the right to choose names for these amazing, adorable creatures?  If we accept T S Eliot’s view that we are adding to the name the cat already has, surely it’s our duty to select suitable names – but there is an amazing amount of advice around about whether it is OK to change a cat’s name.  The accepted wisdom appears to be that it’s acceptable in the case of kittens and cats that have been abused and rehomed but not for cats that have had a happy life and, perhaps, sadly outlived their human companions.

Does it matter if you name a cat?  Well, a study has found that a cat probably understands when you’re calling its name…but it may choose not to listen!  It seems the cat might not understand that the word is a label for them — just that it is a sound that may predict or precede food, cuddles, attention or something else.  I don’t think that fact will need much profound meditation or rapt contemplation for humans that share their lives with cats.

Andrew Lane

“In or out?”  is a question most people owned by cats find themselves asking now and again (and again!)  Cats always seem to want to be on the other side of any door, and don’t really understand the concept of a door stopping them getting where they want to be.  Our cats regularly beg to be let in through the conservatory door, even though there’s a perfectly good cat flap in the side door.  More often than not they will then go through the house, out the cat flap and back to the conservatory door to start the whole process again!

In talks to groups, young and old, we explain how domestic cats are descended from the African Wild Cat – indeed their DNA is almost identical.  This helps explain so much of a domestic cat’s needs and behaviour.  In general, cats haven’t changed much during domestication and their behaviour remains very similar to that of their wildcat ancestors. They remain perfectly capable of surviving in the wild, and indeed many revert to a feral or wild existence.  While other domesticated animals generally derive from herd or pack animals, cats are still, basically, solitary hunters – and there aren’t many closed doors in the African bush!  Anyone who has ever felt that their cat’s love for them is, basically, cupboard love is right to some degree I’m afraid!  While wolf descendants performed useful tasks that made them indispensable, cats really just pleased themselves (nothing changes!) and took advantage of the availability of food and shelter.  They never really understood doors, though!

A quick internet search will suggest either that keeping cats in is cruel, or that letting them out is immoral.  There is, however, much more to the question of in or out.

Cats are crepuscular, liking dawn and dusk for hunting and most activities, and sleeping in the middle of the day and night.  Many animals follow this crepuscular pattern, especially stealth hunters, as prey is easier to catch when it can't see you well – most crepuscular animals have good sight in dim light.  Our two wild animals, Daisy and Poppy, are both hunters.  We’d rather they were not but it is, after all, in their genes.  So we restrict their activities at dawn and dusk by locking the cat flap and keeping them indoors at night.  They don’t like it, but can usually be bribed by the rattling of the biscuit tin or bag.  When they are locked in we know the wildlife in the garden – also active at these times – is safer, and more importantly so are Daisy and Poppy.  There are nasty humans out and about at night too, and a recent court case has highlighted how vulnerable cats can be to disturbed and depraved people.

Cats Protection’s guide on Indoor and Outdoor Cats recognises that “ideally all cats would be allowed access to the outdoors to express their natural behaviour.  However, cats can adapt to living indoors, particularly if they are used to it from a young age.  Some cats need to be confined indoors due to medical conditions and others prefer an indoor life.”  Our family in Scotland adopted a beautiful black cat about a year ago.  (I say they adopted Nova, but judging from pictures and reports I think she adopted them!)  She is kept in for health reasons, as Philip explains:

“For us, the decision was medical.  When Nova joined us, we were expecting to let her out regularly (and had even started letting her out for an explore).  One day, while sitting on my lap, she had a seizure.  Several weeks later, she had another.  After visits to the vet to rule out anything serious, it was confirmed as epilepsy, which is rare in cats.  Epilepsy in cats has a similar impact to them as it does to humans, including the confusion that follows a seizure.  Given how cats are rather fond of climbing we were worried about Nova having a fit while up a tree and falling, but more concerning was the idea of her having a seizure and then running the wrong way in the confusion that followed and getting lost.”

It’s important to remember that keeping a cat indoors doesn’t magically stop it being a wild animal, and indoor cats need lots of stimulation.  Like all cats they need play activity and they need places to hide.  They need to sharpen their claws (preferably not on your best sofa!) and they need to satisfy their instinct to climb.  Nova has a whole wall with cleverly placed shelf platforms for her to climb and two small humans (we call them grandchildren) dedicated to keeping her amused!

We also have family in the US, where the outdoors is far more scary than in Southampton or Linlithgow.  Over 90% of American cats lead an indoor-only life, spending all of their time within the home and never being permitted to venture outside.  In America a cat seen loose and unsupervised outside of the home will usually be assumed to be lost or a stray or feral cat!  The concern is that cats are commonly attacked by loose dogs and wild animals, such as coyotes, raccoons, foxes and even alligators!  In addition, the American Feral Cat Coalition estimates that there are approximately 60 million feral and homeless stray cats living in the US.  Many of these may carry diseases that can be passed on to domestic cats if they come into contact with them.  Of course many of these risks also exist, perhaps to a lesser degree, in the UK.  Vaccination of domestic cats in the UK is routine, whereas in the US some vets recommend restricting vaccinations because of the risk of vaccine reactions causing sarcomas at the injection site.

In the end Daisy and Poppy are loved, and happy – and the same is certainly true for Nova and for our family’s cats in America.  It’s up to individuals to assess the risks to (and from) their beloved cats and decide whether to keep them indoors or allow them free access to the outdoors.  At the end of the day there’s more than one way to keep a cat.  It’s not a competition, it’s culture.

Andrew and his wife Gill are Education speakers for Cats Protection, which offers free talks to schools and community groups of all ages.  For more information go to https://education.cats.org.uk/

When we give talks about cats to groups, especially youngsters, we often ask if they talk with their cats.  The “with” is very important here as what we’re talking about is two-way communication – not just a meow from a cat that wants something, and a “what do you want now?” from the human.  We’ve talked before about how cats have really only developed and adapted the meow in order to manipulate humans, but people who really know cats know they have lots of different ways of communicating with other cats and with us.  They communicate vocally (meowing, purring, and hissing) and with their bodies and behaviour.  They are masters of subtle body language, and the “slow blink” is just one of the more subtle ways your cat says, "I love you.”  It's a gesture that we can return.

Our willing victims hopefully go home after the talks and stare at their cats - possibly for the first time – because what we want is to get them slow blinking with their feline friends.  We stress that the cat needs to feel at peace and not threatened – because that is what the slow blink is all about.  Cats slow blink at other cats to show they do not feel threatened, and they are not a threat to the other cat.  In the feline mind, feeling able to close your eyes, even briefly, when with another animal is all about trust.  When the cat closes his eyes, he is allowing himself to be vulnerable to his person.  Hopefully, these humans learn to interpret all their cats’ facial expressions, and the very fact that they become more receptive should lead to responses in kind from the cats.  People that find cats standoffish usually don’t realise the problem is probably with them rather than the cats.

People who do establish a rapport with their cats should soon get to understand feline facial expressions – and cats’ faces are very expressive!  A year or so ago, however, the Daily Mail published the results of a study in America where participants watched short close-up videos of cat faces taken from various positive and negative situations but only showing the face and not the circumstances.  The study didn't involve participants having to guess whether a cat was happy, sad, hungry or angry - they just had to say whether it was a positive or negative emotion showing on its face. Alarmingly, the study revealed that the majority of people surveyed only got about 60 per cent of the expressions correct with just 13 per cent scoring above 75 per cent.  I took the test myself (https://catdogwelfare.wixsite.com/catfaces) and I’m pleased to say I scored rather better than average!

We study Daisy and Poppy’s expressions a fair bit.  Poppy is generally quite open, with a permanently happy face, because she relishes human contact and trusts people – often, we worry, too much.  Daisy is more complex – but because we know her we can interpret her facial expressions and know when she doesn’t want affection and when she craves it.  To us their facial expressions, and what they communicate, are obvious but in talks we show examples of the differences in cats’ eyes, ears and whiskers that show very clearly how they feel.  It’s surely part of sharing your life with an animal that is capable of love, fear and anger – and very capable of expressing those emotions – to get to learn and understand their expressions.  That’s a huge part of cat communication, and we must always remember it works both ways!

I’ve concentrated on communication through facial expression because I think it is fundamental.  In the talks we also try and show how expressive cats’ tails are – and that often surprises people not used to cats.  I love to see cats strutting along with their tails held high, often with the tip curved over.  To cat lovers it’s an obvious sign the cat is happy and confident.  I worry when I see people trying to talk to cats when their tail is tucked away or – worse – when it’s puffed up or whipping from side to side.  An adorable video on YouTube shows a sighted cat guiding a blind cat by wrapping its tail round its friend while walking alongside.  Nobody could doubt the expressiveness of a tail after seeing that, and nobody could doubt that the sighted cat is communicating with the other cat with every step and every gentle touch.

If you’ve seen two cats squaring up to each other, you’ll have seen yet more cat communication.  One cat might arch its back and puff itself up to look bigger and scarier, the other might crouch down and communicate subservience.  Cat communication can often be misunderstood, and we warn people that if their cat rolls on its back it’s probably not inviting you to rub its tummy.  This is the so-called Venus Cat Trap, and – again – it’s actually about showing trust.  The cat is exposing its most vulnerable part to you, to demonstrate that it trusts you.  On the other hand, it could be a cat that likes tummy rubs!

We haven’t touched on vocal communication because, surprisingly, it’s really the least important as they don’t use sound much with other cats (apart from hissing).  As I’ve said before, cats have developed sounds that elicit reactions from us – if you’re a cat owner and you don’t like feeling manipulated, I’m afraid you just have to live with it!  Lots of studies have focussed on how cats communicate with each other or on how they communicate with us, but my belief is that cats will use whatever tools in their communication armoury that work, whether to another cat or to a human.  It’s a bit like the first time we go abroad and worry about making ourselves understood in foreign parts.  We find ourselves using every tool we have including, and most importantly, facial expression.  We almost unconsciously and automatically read and react to others’ body language all the time – and cats do the same but are much better at it!

Here’s the link to the video that I mentioned:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmmyJ6qQBNI

Andrew Lane

Andrew and his wife Gill are Education speakers for Cats Protection, which offers free talks to schools and community groups of all ages.  For more information go to https://education.cats.org.uk/

I have hesitated so long, and procrastinated so much, before starting this piece that Pauline has probably given up hope of ever seeing it.  Gill and I keep telling the groups that we give talks to how domestic cats, just like their ancestor the African Wild Cat, are solitary animals – but now I must tell you how Princess Daisy, of whom I have written before, now shares her life with a long-legged boy cat called Tiggy.

Up until Easter this last year Daisy quite happily shared her life with the beautiful, unassuming Poppy, who I nicknamed Pointy Tail.  Poppy had almost completely shut down when we found her in a local animal rescue where nearly all the cats were kept in one large room and the bigger cats had the first choice when food was served.  Poppy was the least assuming, so waited until the others had had their fill.  It took her some time to develop her personality, but she and Daisy became as close as two non-related cats are ever likely to become and would have continued to grow closer had we not had to go through the terrible experience of losing Poppy to cancer.  I won’t dwell on that awful time here – most of my readers will have experienced the sadness of losing a much-loved feline friend.

As I said at the start, we explain in our talks that cats are solitary animals.  While dogs are descended from wolves, which live in family groups, cats are descended from African Wild Cats and still exhibit many of the behavioural traits of their forbears.  Cats don’t need to live in groups – but they can.  We’ve all seen colonies of feral cats that gather round food sources and loosely resemble lion prides, but even within these colonies, relationships are complex and the cats will hunt alone.  Surely it makes no sense to suggest cats can mourn the loss of a companion and, indeed, pine for them?

The question of whether animals grieve has been much debated over the years.  Certainly, animals that live closely together will notice things have changed, and in our own experience our remaining cats seemed to understand and say farewell when one was sadly hit by a car outside our house.  Calico cats, like Daisy, are generally reckoned to be more intelligent than many cats and are often very talkative, with an extensive tonal range to their voices.  We have long conversations with Daisy, who varies her responses to fit the mood and circumstances.  We know her, and her responses, well – and have no doubt that she pined for Poppy.  She was also off her food and clearly moping around, so we decided she needed company.

I can almost hear many readers suggesting our actions were more for our own happiness than for Daisy’s.  Cats Protection warns that “one of the most common misconceptions when it comes to cats is that they get lonely and need other cats for company”.  Despite everything we had read and passed on to others we felt we were doing the best thing for Daisy – and many learned bodies state that sociable interaction with another cat can greatly enrich a cat’s daily life.  So we tried introducing Emma – and that was a big mistake.  Emma was, and I’m sure still is, absolutely adorable.  She loved us from the moment she first set eyes on us and hugged us to within an inch or two of our lives.  She came from a 25-cat household, where she had been living (existing, rather) in a rabbit hutch.  She probably loved us with the same amount of passion with which she hated Daisy.  There was, sadly, no way these two could inhabit the same space – indeed Emma would prefer it if Daisy did not live on the same planet.

We happened, soon after sadly returning Emma to her fosterers, to be chatting to a couple that know Daisy well, having looked after her in their wonderful – but sadly closed - cattery whenever we were away on holiday.  They reckoned we were making a mistake trying to introduce a female cat, as whenever Daisy stayed with them and went for her daily walk up and down the cattery, she only had eyes for the male cats.  Our wonderful fellow Cats Protection volunteers came up trumps again and introduced us to Tiggy (though he wasn’t Tiggy then, and is only just getting used to his new name!)

Tiggy had already had a hard life, even though he was only about a year old.  He had been, thankfully, taken away from his previous humans by the RSPCA – largely because something they had been smoking convinced them that he could fly if they threw him out of a second-floor window.  When we first met him we loved his long legs and tail, his beautiful markings and his habit of hiding his food under the nearest blanket.  We brought him home and set about a long, slow introduction to Daisy.  For weeks and weeks he lived in our spare bedroom – we even bought a cat platform so he could look out of the window and a cat harness to help him slowly explore the garden.  Daisy was obviously aware of him, but didn’t seem terribly bothered, even getting into the habit of wandering into ‘his’ room for a snack before bed!

It would be lovely to report that all is completely well between our two lovely cats, and things are almost normal.  Daisy is wary of Tiggs, especially as – being so young – he just wants to play chase most of the time.  Tiggy is changing and relaxing a little more each day but still likes to go out from first thing in the morning until last thing at night, only coming in for a quick snack or to try and tempt Daisy, who he adores, to play.  Daisy does chase him every now and then, so we hope he is helping her stay active and happy.  We notice that Tiggy will often be in when we come home but immediately go out, and we put that down to subconscious memories of his early months.

In the end, it is lovely to have two beautiful cats again, and we love them both to bits.  We’ve just put the Christmas tree up and have no idea how Tiggy will react.  Wish us luck!

Andrew Lane

Andrew and his wife Gill are Education speakers for Cats Protection, which offers free talks to schools and community groups of all ages.  For more information go to https://education.cats.org.uk/