I am not sure who first used the phrase “cat television” but I believe that it was Jackson Galaxy, the American cat behaviourist. It is a very appropriate and descriptive term because for the domestic cat who is confined to the inside of the family home, their television is the window through which they should be able to see some activity. The best kind of activity is the movement of wild animals as it is bound to be of interest to a first-class predator. In this video the activity comes from the family’s children who are playing with a ball. It’s a nice symbiotic arrangement. The kids are enjoying playing in the backyard (garden) and the cats are enjoying watching the kids playing in the backyard! The kids of both the human and feline kind are occupying themselves to the delight of the adults.
Because cat television is so important to full-time indoor domestic cats, it makes sense for their human guardians to place cat condos at windows or employ one of the myriad of accessories that you can buy online which attached to the window or the windowsill to allow a cat to rest there, usually over a radiator and to occasionally look outside. Another aspect of cat television is the sun coming through the window into the house. These should be particularly favoured viewing areas for domestic cats because they can soak up the sun and get some fun. It’s like humans watching a box set of Homeland or Animal Kingdom. It is something they can look forward to, to brighten up their lives and stimulate their brains.
In that vein, the garden should also be arranged to ensure that the bird box can be seen from the cats’ favourite window. This will lead to that well-known feline behaviour of cat chattering (vacuum activity) when cats through frustration while looking at birds are driven to make rapid biting movements as if they are biting down on the neck of a bird to kill it. Some experts say that this is a cat practising the biting kill what others might argue it is an instinctive reaction to looking at birds they can’t get at so they chomp down on thin air rather than the neck of a bird. It doesn’t matter because it’s about as near as they get to doing what they are best at which is killing an animal with their jaws. It’s a bit of satisfaction for them and good news for humans in protecting wiildlife. Give cats a beautiful cat television for Christmas.
