Posted on 02/22/2017 9:41:16 AM PST by fruser1
Owning a cat won't make you mentally ill, study says
Although you may hold suspicions about your neighbor who feeds the local stray cats, new research has found no link between owning a feline and exhibiting psychotic symptoms. The University College London findings cast doubt on previous research, which suggested that people who grew up with cats are at a higher risk of mental illness.
“The message for cat owners is clear: there is no evidence that cats pose a risk to children’s mental health,” Dr. Francesca Solmi, the study’s lead author, said in a news release. “In our study, initial unadjusted analyses suggested a small link between cat ownership and psychotic symptoms at age 13, but this turned out to be due to other factors.”
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Isn’t most of the cat related mental illness coming on later in the lives of older women who live alone?
Did anyone think is was affecting children?
That looks like two cat halves that have been glued together.
There goes the “Cat-S**t Crazy” t-shirt company I was going to start.
Maine Coons are known to have an affinity for water. My girl used to play "Spin the Water Bowl and Centrifugal Force be Damned". She would splash her giant 2.5" paws in the water bowl, spin it, etc., dowsing the floor with water. I designed a very simple but elegant bowl holder wrought of solid oak to hold the food and water bowls 3" above the floor. Makes it easier for her and Zizu to eat and totally prevents games with the water bowl.
My "security chief" is little Zizu, my DSH rescue. EVERYTHING must be under her supervision and she uses those clever little paws to open shutters on the window, open bags, open doors, and tease the Maine Coon. The Coon has taken to napping in the covered bed, her travel case, the little house on the cat condo tower, etc. to prevent Zizu from pouncing on her as prey. It's hilarious to see 8 lb. Zizu trying to tease a Coon twice her size!
I got Cootie back in Oct. when she was approx. 5 months old and and it took over a month before she finally came out from under the bed when I was out and about. Maybe another month before she stopped running to hide whenever I moved.
She's now about 9 months old and still will run away from me when I try to pick her up but other than that, she is my shadow. Weird........
If she's not in the den or dining room doorwalls laying on the floor looking out on the back deck, she's lying on the floor constantly watching me.
She's a hoot and full of energy. She'll play non stop with one of her bell toys for an hour, batting it from one room to another. As for the laser pointer, OMG, she'll chase that non stop from one room to another, basement and back, over an over again until I feel sorry for her not being able to catch it and turn it off.
She has so much energy and is such a contrast from my last cat Squeek who all she did was eat and lie in her little bed all day. Never any desire to play but would occasionally bat one of her several toys around when I wasn't present.........
You know, I’m no fag, but I just love cats.
The cat photos on this thread kinda make my day.
I have grass fabric wallpaper in my den that she started using as scratching and she's totally shredded areas around the den to the point that I had to line the floor with tinfoil. That seems to have put and end to that.
But back to the scratching post........what do I do?
Such as?
My wife might say having our five indoor cats keeps me more calm, less likely to go postal on some liberal.
Our son had a wonderful cat, either Maine Coon or Norwegian something. Boris could open doors and turn on water faucets. Of course he never turned them off and we would come home and find water running. After loosing two small russian blues to owls I got a desert lynx hybrid.... big cat, short hair, stupidest cat I’ve ever had but I do love him. He has a short tail which means he has poor balance and he knows it so although he goes out during the day he’s always home by 7 p.m. He knows he’s clumsy and stupid.
My Maine Coon Bijou really likes her horizontal cardboard scratcher. She walks right by the Ultimate Cat Scratch post, which is vertical. Little Zizu loves the vertical post, but will switch hit on the cardboard scratcher at times.
As a hidden form of resentment after I got Zizu, Bijou started something she'd never done in the 8 years I've had her: scratching my carpet in certain places. And she would deliberately wait until I went in the bathroom to do it! I used cat repellents especially to discourage scratching, but they were of limited use.
Nothing really happened until I heard her start scratching and roared out of the bathroom, screaming at her and clapping my hands. That put the fear on her and she NEVER scratched the carpet again. I also sprayed the cardboard scratcher with catnip oil and take time to profusely praise her every time she uses it. I think she started acting out because she was jealous of Zizu, but she was getting LOTS of attention and there was no need for her to act out by scratching the carpet.
That grass fabric wallpaper you have is a green light to a cat, to scratch. It's just the kind of texture they love to sink their claws into. I think I would try putting different, plain flat wallpaper up (if it's time to re-do it) or at least I'd cover those parts reachable by a cat on her hind legs with plexiglas, some aluminum radiator cover, a piece of surplus paneling, etc. That will certainly break her of the habit. If you can't reach it, you won't scratch it. At the same time, offer her a horizontal cardboard scratcher and maybe another vertical post, sprayed with catnip oil. Praise her when she uses them.
Thanks for the advice......I’ll see what I can do.
I was crazy long before I owned cats. They compliment my dysfunction quite nicely.
;^)
CC
That’s a Chimera, the results of 2 embryos fusing in the womb. If you took tests, each side of the cat would have slightly different dna.
CC
You’re absolutely right. Look at my post #55.
CC
I suspected that. Thanks for letting me know, and I’ve never seen a picture of one until now. Neat.
Must have seen a computer mouse! (rimshot)
BTW the cat’s name is Venus and she’s pretty famous on the web. She’s her own fraternal twin.
CC
He’s a beauty!
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