A Michael Broad Blog
NEWS AND OPINION: I have read a rather shocking report in The Times this morning (December 7, 2023). The article tells us that “child cruelty rates have doubled in five years, research has shown”. The information relates to England. My argument is that the domestic cat and the human child are in similar relationships …
There are two important issues concerning domestic cat character: friendliness and socialisation. They do overlap but they are distinct. Whereas socialisation ‘acclimatises’ the kitten to the presence of humans and dampens down a cat’s fear of humans, friendliness can be inherited, and it is a personality trait which makes the kitten/adult bolder and more …
There is only one way to interpret the behaviour of this stray, female domestic cat who leads the video maker on a rainy day towards a lobby area of what appears to be an apartment block where she has her kitten. How else can you interpret this but to say that she wants and …
The mother cat’s owner, Lauren, says on TikTok: “She brings her kittens to Toby when she needs a little break”. A colleague of mine is not quite so sure and thinks that the mother might be taking her kittens to the dog to show them to him. My guess is that this is an …
This is a question posed by a social media user accompanying a video of a beautiful ginger tabby cat enthusiastically licking a young kitten who is also a ginger tabby cat. The questioner does not explain if the kitten is the offspring of the male cat. It looks certain that they are. The interesting …
The picture, which I think is an excellent example of this genre of photograph, is of an ex-Battersea rescue dog, Bertie, parenting and nurturing kittens that were abandoned on the roadside and rescued when they were a mere few weeks old. They were taken in by a member of Battersea’s foster staff. Her dog, …
I argue that cats recognise their mothers based on the evidence including how their recognise their human guardian.
If we are to assess whether domestic cats protect humans, we have to look at the nature of the relationship. In terms of the physical ability to protect a human I think the answer is yes but there are limitations as the domestic cat is so much smaller than a human. But this article …
