There are millions of heated arguments between husband and wife, boyfriend and girlfriend every day. You can visualise it. There are probably 10 million of them happening right now in North America alone.
Update: I have been criticised in a comment for referring to America in the above statement. I am apparently America bashing. I am not. When a person writes about the domestic cat you almost have to write about North America because it is by far the largest domestic cat “market”. I instinctively refer to North America for this reason and because by far the most news about the domestic cat on the internet comes from the USA. It is routine. My reference is simply an example. There are probably a million arguments between people in Britain right now and some anxious cats as a result. It is not relevant where the cats are. The only relevancy is the behavior of people.
Heating arguments between spouses generate a lot of noise, animosity and a bad atmosphere. They create the kind of atmosphere and environment that is the opposite to what you want for your cat but do people recognise this?
A cat will tend to be upset by the noise. It depends on the cat. However, most cats will be edgy after a blazing row. A cat might be more difficult to handle. If you stroke a cat after a heated argument he might show signs that he isn’t happy with it. The opposite, perhaps, to his usual reaction.
We owe it to our cat to factor in the effect on our cat of what we do between ourselves.
I have a feeling that domestic arguments and violence have a greater impact on the cat than people give credit for. The cat is normally not in the equation. Arguing couples normally don’t give it a thought. They should. It may put the brakes on arguing.
Of course it also has an effect on the children. The effect can be quite serious and result in low self-esteem for the child for the rest of her/his life.
“I think it would be prudent to take care that that you, and commenters do not alienate Americans”
Why so?
I speak as I find and if anyone doesn’t like my comments then hard cheddar I’m entitled to my opinion just like Micheal is entitled to write what he likes on his own website.
If any supersensitive americans are alienated then it’s their own look out,it’s about cats not about peoples feelings.
As I see it North America was just an example, it could be anywhere in the world but Michael chose that place to use in his article. What does it matter? The important thing is that it is about cats and how domestic arguments upset and even traumatise them and that is the issue. And it is quite true, cats can distinguish raised angry voices or worried voices from normal every day voices, to me it’s a form of abuse just the same as children witnessing anger in the home is. Let’s not miss the point of an interesting article by spitting out the dummies over the scene setting part of it, just substitute England, China or Timbuktu for North America as you read it, it matters not as it’s happening everywhere.
Thanks Ruth 😉 I try and be fair and present balanced arguments. As I wrote in response to Harvey’s comments, most “cat news” etc. comes out of the US so one naturally tends to refer to that country.
Perhaps you are correct but when I wrote that line I sort of wrote as if I lived in America. I did not give it a second thought. It is habit. Because 90% of what happens on the internet about the domestic cat happens in the US I have got into the habit of referring to it. I don’t think even think what I said was critical of the US because arguing is what people do. We all do it. And I did not say that all 10m arguments were done in front a cat.
I guess I’ll just have to bear in mind a bit more than normal the sensitivities of Americans.
I don’t think you are an ‘American basher’ Michael.
I think that because as you say, most PoC visitors are from North America you are identifying with them by mentioning ‘arguments in North America’
Most people like to read their own countries statistics, news etc. It doesn’t mean because you only mention theirs that arguments don’t happen in all other countries.
It’s like writing about declawing, that shouldn’t upset Americans either because the truth is that it happens there, it’s not a criticism of ALL Americans, it’s to educate those who are pro declaw.
Taking anything personally isn’t a good idea at all on any subject, if we took it personally every bad thing that is said about England we’d be very upset most of the time.
I hope that makes sense?
Anyway I agree, arguments are bad for cats, they become stressed if it happens a lot, they don’t know what it’s about, they only hear the loud angry voices. We need to remember how sensitive a cat’s ears are and why they may react with a hiss if one of the arguers goes to stroke him because after all, he can’t take sides.
Hi Michael. I think it would have been better to be more generic by using the term “world-wide”, or something similar Mentioning certain countries can be interpreted as inferring that the problem is specific or more common in those countries. I know very well that the USA was mentioned simply to draw attention to the large numbers involved but it is easily seen differently.