Interviews With The World’s Cat Owners

I would like to interview one cat owner from each of the world’s countries. A big deal! It is believed that there are about 196 countries. I think the completed body of work would provide a useful insight into the present status of the domestic cat on the planet.

The interview would be conducted in one of two ways:

1. a written response to set questions or topics (by email), which are prompts and needn’t be adhered to strictly or..
2. a video response to the same set questions (preferred) and sent by email. The video must be low quality otherwise you can’t send it by email. That sounds odd but it makes things manageable. Image quality is not critical anyway. OR the video can uploaded to a hosting company like YouTube, by the maker, and then embedded on PoC.

The reason why a video response would be preferred is because it provides more information even though the answers are responses to the same questions. This is because you can see the place and get a sense of what a person is thinking through body language and tone etc.. The video should be “raw” in quality. In other words, neither fancy nor carefully made – my video below is what I mean. The footage can be emailed to me and I’ll make into a video that can be seen on PoC.

The idea of set topics is useful, I think, as it takes one variable out of the equation making it easier to make comparisons between countries. Although the requirement of set questions need not be adhered to rigorously.

The language is English and I would hope the responses would also be in English but it is not essential. Let’s see you – that is the most important thing!

Below are the questions I would like to ask and my version of a video — the sort of thing I am thinking of ;). If you can add or amend to the topics, please leave a comment.

Update: I have added a higher quality version:

A video response should be no longer than about 2 minutes and your cat should be in as well at some stage if possible 😉

The Guideline topics:

• What is your name?
• Where do you live? Which country and do you live in or out of town?
• Do you live alone or with a family? If so how many people are their in the family?
• How many cats do you live with? What is his name or what are their names?
• What sort of cats are they (moggie or purebred?)?
• What sort of home do you live in?
• Does your cat go out and if so how is the situation managed?
• What are the dangers to your cat?
• Do you have access to a veterinarian? If so, how good is she?
• What food do you feed your cat?
• Does you cat use a cat litter toilet or go outside to the toilet? What sort of litter is it?

With the object of keeping things as simple and as straightforward as possible those are the questions that come to my mind. If the person responds in a video (s)he can read them from their computer while being filmed.

The difficulty is finding people to interview! However, PoC does have worldwide connections to a certain extent. Here is a starting list:

• India – Rudolph Furtado
• Netherlands – Dani Roseboom
• USA – Ruth (Monty’s Mom)
• Brazil – Giane Portal (fofurasfelinas – famous  cat photographer)
• England – Kattaddorra perhaps?
• Switzerland – Marc

That is a short list 😉 However, it is a start and it can be built on over time. I would like feedback on this idea if people have time.

I don’t know if this idea will work but:

• at least we can do some interviews and
• it might be fun trying to get the lot (or even ten!)