
This is an off-the-cuff post and it is probably a slightly complicated subject which may require more than I am willing to give it. It is more a discussion document than the complete package.
As they are retired, older people are around the home much more. They are able to get involved with their cat much more which would lead me to believe they would be good with a more active or demanding cat. However, older people are less motivated and more static and therefore are more likely to prefer a docile, less demanding cat.
Also older people become less able to do things properly. They screw up because their skills deteriorate. This implies older people would prefer a docile, undemanding, easy to keep cat.
As for younger people you’d have thought they’d prefer a more active cat but….younger people are working hard nowadays in a more competitive world which obliges them to be away from home a lot and/or with less energy and time to devote to their cat when they crawl home from the hard slog of the workplace.
This leads me to believe that younger people might prefer a docile undemanding cat. This in turn leads to the conclusion that modern humankind increasingly prefers a docile highly domesticated and undemanding cat able to be content with his own company.
If I am correct, I have to come to the conclusion that the sooner the domestic cat loses his/her wild cat tendencies the better.
I have consistently come to the sad decision that the fact that the domestic cat is less domesticated than the dog is detrimental to the cat. The domestic cat has to become more domesticated to suit modern living.
There are other factors too. Older people are likely to downsize which means to an apartment. Apartment living is fine for a cat if it is on the ground floor and the gardens are large and safe for cats (if let out) and provided neighbours tolerate cats. There are complications. Once again this leads to older people opting for an easy to care for cat able to cope with full-time indoor living (possibly).
Younger people are more likely to move. Moving is bad for a cat. The best sort of cat to cope is a docile cat who has little interest in expressing his wild cat heritage.
Yep…young people and older people want the same cat: undemanding and highly domesticated.

Ruth, are those pancakes on the carpet?
No kidding, Dee. Kattaddorra and Babz, esp. Babz, raised these clowns to participate in such antics. lol. Love it! shoot. mrowr. what the hell? 😉
Maybe you could use that as a topic. How many shelters/local humane societies actually do this? (I will check with mine here in the Midwest USA, and get back to you, if you’d like.
What does Ruth(Kattaddorra) have to say on “in step because of lifespan.” ?
Right, Dee 🙂
I now have one cat, ‘my’ Shrimpster; my daughter has her own family now. She adopts rabbits from shelters. They call her when they have a rabbit that would have been put down. She nurses them back to health, physically and mentally, besides grad.courses in Psychology and volunteering, while taking care of my two-yr-old grandson and husband 🙂 Akin to what you do, I imagine <3
There should be a motto or a mantra, whatever, which is hammered home into all new cat owners:
“Don’t be attached to your furniture” or something like it. All cat owners should live by that.
Sorry Walt and Jozef.
You come by it naturally.
Just look at your role models…