Can a cat be traumatised by watching a stuffed cat being destroyed by dogs?
This is a nice philosophical question. In the video on Reddit.com a ginger cat plush toy is being fought over by two pet dogs. Watching in the wings is the family’s ginger tabby-and-white cat. The cat looks concerned while the dogs destroy the plush toy. I wonder if the cat fully understands what is going on. Perhaps he believes that this is a real cat being killed by dogs. That might traumatise him. It begs the question whether, in general, domestic cats can be traumatised by things that they see, as can occur in humans. Can cats suffer from PTSD, for example?
My personal opinion is that cats can suffer from PTSD. You won’t see it written about. However, cat physiology is similar to that of humans. Domestic cats have emotions and feelings. They are highly observant. They have good eyesight. The point that I’m making is that all the elements are in place for domestic cat to potentially suffer from PTSD if they experience an horrific event unfolding before them. The mental health of domestic cats is still a mystery to humans.
We know a bit about it but there is little of consequence written on the subject of what goes on in the mind of the domestic. It would help if we knew more. It would help our relationship with cats. I don’t believe that enough cat guardians are sufficiently concerned about the mental health of their cat companions. The fact that some veterinarians and cat behaviourist recommend administering mind altering drugs such as antidepressants to domestic cats as a treatment indicates that the “professionals” recognise mental health issues in domestic cats.
Embedded videos from Reddit.com don’t work very well because half the image is missing. I am sorry for that. However, you get the gist of the video from what you can see. Sometimes videos held by other websites disappear for various reasons and if that happens in this instance, I apologise.