Hunt, Catch, Kill, Eat

Did you know that cats were never domesticated in the same way that dogs and horses were? Humans never caught a cat and trained it for their purposes. Cats chose to live with us and are essentially still wild animals. Yes, that's right - you have a wild animal living in your home. 
Thousands of years ago when humans started to farm land, they accumulated grain stores. Rodents love grain and so became pests. But cats love rodents and so arrived to take advantage of the abundant food source. Humans realised that the cats were doing them a favour and so let them stay and even sleep in their dwellings. It was a win, win situation and that's how it all began.
So it became a mutually beneficial relationship but not one of domestication on the cats' part.

Lets talk a bit more about that wild animal living in your home and how you might understand its ways.
The title of this post says it all. A cat's raison d'etre is this - HUNT, CATCH, KILL EAT, GROOM, SLEEP. And that is it, in that sequence, several times each day. A continuous instinct that drives your cat to behave in the way it does. Even just knowing that casts a light on why your cat does what he does.
You will often see your cat wash after having eaten and then go to sleep. There you are seeing the last three stages. But what about the first three, the hunt, the catch, the kill. Cats who go outside will be doing this naturally and they will either catch prey or they will chase leaves etc. and then come in to be fed, happily fulfilling their instinct but if your cats live indoors then they do not have access to fulfil these instincts without your help. Remember, these are deep urges within your cat which will not go away and need to be fulfilled on a daily basis, several times, so you must help them. In practical terms this means providing them with toys to play with, but more than that, playing with them. (Having an indoor cat is a much greater commitment than having a cat that goes outdoors so do please consider this before you adopt a one.) 

This is just a summary of what it means to be a cat and to own one. If you would like help with your cat, its behaviour or just want to learn more then please book a Happy Cat Consultation.