The better a cat owner you are the more intensely you feel the responsibility of cat caretaking. It works in the other direction as well. The less concerned a cat owner is about her cat the less responsibility there is.
For a good cat caretaker, the feeling of being responsible for the safety and welfare of your cat can be intense.
In fact a measure of the quality of “cat ownership” could be how intensely the person feels towards discharging their responsibilities. The level of concern comes from an empathy with your cat’s predicament and emotions together with knowledge.
Casualness indicates poor cat caretaking. Concern as demonstrated in what a person actually does rather says is a measure of the quality of cat ownership.
Failing to take on the responsibilities of cat ownership leads to failing to neuter your cat and to let her/him breed and a reluctance to take your cat to the vet if required. These are just two examples.
A good person can be a bad cat caretaker because of a lack of knowledge. The more you understand cats and the dangers the more aware a cat caretaker is. Knowledge brings awareness which in turn brings greater responsibilities.
It is the old adage: ignorance is bliss. If a cat owner is unaware of what is going on in terms of cat welfare generally, he/she does not feel the weight of responsibility. The truth is a lot of cat owners are, to varying degrees, ignorant about cat welfare in all its facets.
People like Dee and Ruth have a high level of intensity when it comes to cat welfare. This comes from knowledge combined with concern.
For the cat owner sleep walking through their role, cat caretaking is easy. The less easy it is to look after a cat to high standard, the more concerned and aware you must be.
All cat owners should feel the responsibilities of caring for their cat. It has a similar degree of importance to looking after another person.
AC is my arch enemy. Until TNR came in here is 2012, it was illegal to feed any free roaming cat. Now, I just feed and shoot them the bird. There is nothing they can do about it.
They only know about my closest colony, and I guard them with my life. Believe it.
Think I’ll move to Florida, Dee! If there are any TNR caregivers in this town, I’ve yet to hear about their activities.
Last time I made contact with the local ‘Animal Control’ (euphemism for ‘End of the Road’), the woman director sternly lectured me for daring to sabotage the A.C.’s modus operandi by feeding hungry stray cats. I have no way of knowing how many cats down here are neutered. Certainly none where I live. I.e., the A.C.’s birth control method is to starve the strays.
As always, Sylvia Ann… WOW! to your comment.
At least where I am at and know many feral colony caretakers, they feed their ferals no less than they feed their own domesticated cats, myself included.
Yes, it’s hard and so many sacrifices have to be made.
But, when we hopped onboard to caretake, we weren’t allowed conditions.
Caring for cats is very hard work if we are doing it right. Honestly, I wish, so many times, that I could just open a door and let them out to enjoy the outdoors for 3-4 hours a day and I could relax or even sleep an extra hour without feeling guilty that cats are hungry and need to be fed.
No such luxuries.
If there is any soul in this world that feels caretaking cats is easy, they need to not to have any.
Agreed with Ruth and Kylee <3
Some people feel that we are ‘over the top’ in the way we care for our cats but we chose to have them in our lives and we owe it to them to give them the best life we can. Anyway to me it’s a pleasure to make them happy!
I think those of us who do passionately care for our own, also care about other peoples cats and the welfare of cats not only in our neighbourhood but worldwide. We try to educate people as much as we can.
Anyone can be excused for not knowing much about cats if they haven’t had any around, but there is no excuse for not finding out more or listening to good advice.
Kylee is right, cats don’t ask for much.