Adopt these New Year’s Resolutions for your own cat

The title is misleading because you don’t have to make a long list of New Year’s resolutions for your own cat. There is one principle which cat owners should adopt which will turn them into cat guardians and caretakers. The ‘ownership’ label can be ditched by resolving to throw out any old fashioned notions that you have about humans having dominion over animals and that animals are on the planet to serve us.

In place of “dominion over” you should adopt “living with” – on a equal basis, as near as possible (respect the cat). In making a New Year’s resolution to take a fresh stance in your relationship with your domestic cat(s) many benefits will flow for both cat and yourself.

Living with a cat on a equal footing encourages the human to make compromises on living conditions. I am referring to making your home environmentally as suitable as you will allow for your cat.

Most homes, even those of cat experts and cat lovers (and I currently include myself), probably have a nice cat tree (condo) tucked away somewhere which the cat loves and that is about the extent of it (Mark and Ruth have done more!)

We can do more to care about our cat’s emotional needs and comforts as well as our own. A lot of cat guardians baulk at catifying their home by adding fixtures and fittings to walls because they are concerned about the aesthetics of the interior of their home. Rightly so, their home should like nice. They want their home to look great. It makes the home owner feel proud but this presents a barrier to ‘catification’ as Jackson Galaxy calls it.

Almost all examples of home interior catification concerns building vertical spaces. Humans live horizontally and house builders build horizontal spaces. Cats live both horizontally and vertically. In the past I have suggested that house builders could incorporate catification features into new-build homes as an optional extra for buyers who are concerned cat caretakers.

In lieu of that cat owners can purchase Jackson’s book “Catification” as a New Year’s resolution and follow his advice about adding some novel and mind stretching vertical spaces for their cat(s) which are integrated into the house’s interior.

There are many examples in Mr Galaxy’s book and it won’t take a lot of expense and neither will it ruin the aesthetic appeal of your home. In fact it may enhance it. What about that back room being used to store junk?

Now, adding more interesting vertical spaces should also allow your cat to be a bit more active which leads to the next big cat caretaking issue: obese cats. There is no doubt that there is a requirement for cat guardians to pay more attention to their cat’s waistline for 2015. Feline and human diabetes is spiking.

Also your cat will be emotionally more content. Contentment leads to better health via less stress.

These two simple resolutions (a) do a bit of modest home catification and (b) ensure your cat is more active and eats less, will bring rewards for your cat’s health. If cat owners too often fail to take their cat to the vet – and they do so far less than for dogs – then it is a good idea to take some simple steps to help prevent feline diseases. These two New Years resolutions will go some way to meeting that objective.

Idea for the post: Adopt these New Year's Resolutions for your own cat – Chicago Tribune.