The Way of Cats

Mixed breed cats are wonderful.

There’s usually some surprises going on. While cats of the same breed can vary, mixed breeds can vary, squared. There’s an infinite number of different combinations that can come up. I encourage everyone to try one of these “chaos theory” cats, where we leave our fate up to a bit of randomness.

Mixed breeds are just as likely to be a great cat as a purebred cat from a breeder. Mixes have a drawback, but there’s also an advantage.

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The tricky part of mixed breeds is that they often come from a stressed background. They can be the product of random breeding, often by people who don’t care enough about their cat to take care of them properly. They were carried by mother cats who are too young for the role, have trouble getting enough food, and only dream of vet care. The resultant kittens are rescued off the street, plucked from roadside ditches, or given away in parking lots.

Yet… these kittens grow up to be great cats.

Cats have a magical way of beating bad odds. Some cats get intervention soon enough to make a huge difference. Some cats are the result of accidents by well-meaning owners, who take care of the kittens the best they can and find them homes. A lot of them, like RJ, are so inherently loving not even the worst beginning can ruin them beyond repair.

Because every kitten has a genetic heritage. Whether it’s described on paper or inscribed in their little faces. Even the most meticulous breeder, or the most careless of circumstances, are no guarantee, one way or another, of how the cat will turn out. The first cloned cat, Carbon Copy, was created in Texas. But they are not identical. Her patches (almost all calicoes are female) are not the same as her donor cat’s patches.

It seems that the genes can be the same, but their expression is still random. We can duplicate the genetic code, but not the environmental factors which switch these codes on or off.

Each cat is different.

Whether we carefully deliberate over kittens from a good breeder, or drop by the shelter to see who’s there, choosing is still up to us.

It is probably the only factor we truly have control over.

The more we have decided what we’d like in a cat, and how to recognize it when we see it, the greater our chances of getting the cat we want.

No matter where the cat might come from.

Anything we like in a purebred can be found in a mixed breed. Any length or texture of hair, any shape of nose or eyes or tail. Huge Chunky chocolate bar paws or dainty little pointy paws. A range of personalities more varied than all the sample colors at the hardware store.

Cat or kitten, purebred or not, choosing carefully before we take the cat home is only the beginning of the cat relationship. It’s not the last decision we will make. Every day we have the ability, and the opportunity, to shape our interactions with the cat towards happiness; or towards misery.

Nature has already spun the big wheel, and formed the cat we are contemplating. But the environment will be equally influential.

And that’s us.

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It’s become common for people to discuss pack behavior in cats; who is the dominant one, how status battles are waged, the best ways to accommodate the cat’s hierarchal concerns.

Except cats don’t have pack behavior.

more cat pictures

Cats have social guidelines, attitude rituals, and friendship criteria. They have cats they find annoying, cats they get along with, and cats they regard as buddies. There are cats who want things very much and there are cats who are laid back.

But none of this is pack behavior, and none of it conforms to pack rules.

Dogs are pack animals. We can tell because they have buttons. A knowledgeable and confident dog person like Cesar Millan, the “Dog Whisperer,” can press their buttons and do amazing things based on his knowledge and understanding of dogs. I admire him very much.

But he can’t do that with cats. I can’t do that with cats. No one can do that with cats.

Because cats don’t have buttons.

Lions have “prides,” consisting of a few dominant males and a larger number of females. They are a cooperative structure. That’s the closest thing we can find to a pack in the entire feline kingdom. And it’s not a pack.

The dangers of trying to treat our multiple cats as a pack is that a) it won’t work, and b) it will create tensions and expectations in our cats that will be detrimental to the smooth functioning of our household. What domestic cats have, in the home, kept as pets, is a civilization.

Every dog pack has slots that keep it basically the same. Every cat civilization is independently created from the personalities of the cats, and each one is different.

Cats hang with each other, or not, depending on how much they get along with the other cat. Cats harass or cooperate with other cats depending on what each of them wants and what the other cat is willing to go along with.

The leverage we have is providing unpleasant consequences for behavior we don’t like, and pleasant consequences for behavior we want to encourage. That’s all. Cats are not going to obey us because we are strong leaders, or because they are afraid of us, or because we demand it of them.

Cats do what they want to do. Always.

What we might mistake for dominance is simply a cat who wants the high shelf more than the other cats. What we think is battling for alpha status is simply a cat who wants to be friends, and is frustrated by a cat who is rebuffing their overtures. What we might regard as our lowest status cat is simply a cat who dislikes a lot of confrontation, and avoids it of their own choice.

We have to make a space for each kind of cat.

Pack behavior does not exist in cats, and cannot be used as a management tool. We do the cats a disservice if we think they are working things out on their own. What we will get is a hodgepodge of bad behaviors which pleases no one.

We may not have the status or the instant obedience that would come as Pack Leader. But, as people with cats, we do have the responsibility to make every cat welcome in our home. We can and should stop cat bullying, draw out the shy ones, and make sure every cat gets the attention they want, in the way that they want it.

We are the Boss of Cat Town. Everyone can do what they want, as long as they don’t interfere too much with other cats doing the same thing. Then we can do what we want, which is to enjoy our cats as individuals.

Each and every one of them.

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