Communi Cat Ion
Speak! Learn!- Uncover!
Complete Training Guide for beginners
Full Color Photo illustrated book
Gary Rich
Table of Contents
Introduction
Sometimes I look into my cat's eyes and try to figure out what she's thinking. I want to speak to her and tell her about myself. I see that she listens to me. I think she understands me. When I'm sad, she comes to lie down next to me and purrs. When I'm in pain, she finds the sore spot, lies down, and relieves the pain.
She makes me feel better. Sometimes she walks up, looks me in the eye, and starts meowing. I understand that she's asking for something. I know my cat, and, more often than not, I can guess her mood and desires by her habits and behavior. There is a mutual understanding between us; we are happy.
This book is for cat lovers. It will help you recognize the thoughts, desires, behaviors, and moods of your pet in order to foster mutual understanding and love between you.
A brief history
Did you know that the ancient ancestors of our felines are as old as dinosaurs, little creatures living in the forest millions of years ago? While larger dinosaurs became extinct due to lack of food, these smaller creatures survived, and, through the centuries, came into our homes as the cats we know and love today.
Even in ancient Egypt, cats were revered as sacred animals because they guarded grain storehouses against rodents. Cats have also always found homes on ships and submarines But what good is a cat on a sub? Living in constant confinement, far from home, crewmates need a psychological release, and a cat is an excellent living "antidepressant."
Just petting the animals can have a beneficial effect on the health of the sailors blood pressure may be lowered, morale improves. Furthermore, a cat's sensitive nose works much better than any gas monitor and can instantly detect an increase in concentrations of harmful gases in a submarine's compartments.
Cats in public service
In the United Kingdom, the Royal Navy has maintained a guild of ship cats for several centuries. Each furry sailor has laissez-passer and may serve on any of the ships of Her Majesty's fleet. The tradition continues to this day.
Cats serve in the UK Prime Minister's residence, the foreign ministry, the Ministry of Finance, and in museums, including the famous Russian Hermitage and Winter Palace. Cats live in the palace itself and come to work every day. They are paid a salary in meat. Each feline has its own passport complete with a photo, just like people. And in Japan, a cat even works as a railway stationmaster.
Cats can predict earthquakes. They detect positive ions in the air, which are released in huge numbers during the build-up of an earthquake.
Another interesting fact: during World War II, cats often sensed an imminent bombing and warned their owners. Europeans, in thanks to their furry friends, established a special award for animal bravery engraved with the words "We also serve."
The most famous cat lovers
Cats were loved by the monarchs of Europe (Queen Victoria of Great Britain) and heads of state (British PM Winston Churchill), not to mention Sister of Mercy and British public figure Florence Nightengale, who kept sixty cats, or the writer Mark Twain, who had nineteen cats. The great physicist Isaac Newton is credited with inventing the pet door.
How cats defeated Napoleon
Among these great people, however, are those who didn't like cats. They include Napoleon Bonaparte, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, and Caesar. The famous English Admiral Nelson knew that Napoleon was afraid of cats and, ahead of battle with the approaching French army, released about seventy cats onto the battlefield. Napoleon was frightened greatly, demoralized, and lost the battle.
Misconceptions of cats' intellect
Many mistakenly believe that cats are not smart enough to be trained. It is also known that cats become attached not to people, but their homes. That said, every cat has its own character, and its behavior can often surprise and confuse an owner. There are endless stories of cats' characters and behaviors, but what is true? What are our cats really thinking? What do they like and dislike? How can we understand their language and desires?
Cats do not think abstractly and have no idea of the concept of the past and future. Here, some might be offended and try to prove that I am underestimating our feline friends, that they are more than base reflexes.
The absence of abstract thinking does not mean that a cat instantly forgets any given event that has just occurred. It will remember the event, but only when some meaningful stimulus reminds it.
You should not consider your cat's experience to be a series of past events that it remembers. Rather, you must consider what is happening in the present. But sometimes, a conditioned stimulus, an event that has been clearly imprinted in your cat's brain, will link it to the past.
For example, if a cat is bitten by a dog, the stimuli that will link the cat to these traumatic memories are the smell of the dog and/or its barking, appearance, etc. It just so happens that these stimuli are so powerful that a feline will remember the attacker and begin to fear, or sometimes, on the contrary, show aggression to animals of a certain color or breed, or a person of a certain sex.
But if this "link" in the form of a conditioned stimulus is not present at any given moment, a cat is simply not thinking of the event. Our cats do not sit in an armchair by the fireplace on a cold evening, indulging sad memories of some tragic event that happened five years ago. Only we do that.
The future is a different question entirely. Cats are unable to imagine that which hasn't happened yet. They cannot dream. That is, they cannot imagine something that doesn't exist. Consequently, the biggest problem of adapting a cat is preparing it for upcoming events. There is no way to do this; they are not aware of the future. They live strictly in the present.
For this reason, any move, change of family composition, change of food, rearrangement in the home, or a trip to the vet can be stressful for our felines. Humans can prepare themselves and their nervous systems for a frightening event.
For example, we can adjust to a trip to the dentist or gradually come to decisions about changing jobs or residences. Cats are unable to do this because, to them, the future does not exist.
However! Cats can intuit how to behave after awhile in order to avoid trouble, but, once again, they are guided by stimuli. For example, an owner takes the cat carrier out of the closet, turns around, and his cat is nowhere to be found. By itself, the carrier isn't a threat, but a conditioned response, the fear of a trip to the vet, can be very powerful for a cat.
Traveling in the carrier becomes a kind of hyperlink to this specific fear. Upon seeing the crate, the animal begins to feel the same fear and tries to hide. Some animals learn to detect these stimuli so subtly that their hosts begin to suspect them of being telepaths.
But cats have only the here and now, plus some intelligence and associative thinking a kind of flashback that pops up in the brain in response to positive and negative stimuli. This is why any changes in a cat's life are to it what sudden natural disasters are to us. If you still don't understand what exactly the absence of abstract thinking means, remember that toddlers also lack this ability. First, try to remember the events of your adulthood. How you passed this or that exam, or your thesis topic, for example. Can you remember them?
