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Cargando... Cat Sense: The Feline Enigma Revealed (2013 original; edición 2013)por John Bradshaw (Autor)
Información de la obraCat Sense: How the New Feline Science Can Make You a Better Friend to Your Pet por John Bradshaw (2013)
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Inscríbete en LibraryThing para averiguar si este libro te gustará. Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro. This fascinating book explores the domain of the world's most popular pet, the domestic cat. Surprisingly, very little scientific research has been done on the cat, but Bradshaw compiles the outcomes of recent research in this book. The book begins with a natural history of cats and how they developed a relationship with humans. The famous independence of cats comes from how they first were first domesticated. Cats were "hired" to be mousers, a job that they did on their own as opposed to the more social aspects of the dog's work of herding, hunting, and guarding. Despite their independence, the affection of cats is real. In addition to touch and grooming, a raised tail is a signal of friendliness. While cats meow often with humans, it's rarely used among wild and feral cats. While cats can bond with humans (especially if they're socialized before they reach 8 weeks) they are less likely to want to spend time with other cats due to their territorial nature. Getting a second cat to keep your original cat company rarely works. In fact, a cat coming to a new home may find that they yard of their humans' property is already marked by a neighboring cat, leading to stress and standoffs. The issue of allowing pet cats outdoors on their own is a contentious one. Bradshaw argues that the evidence that cats decimate local wildlife are built on faulty data (although cats can be bad for certain environments, such as islands, and feral cat communities anywhere). In some cases, cats may be beneficial to bird populations since they hunt other predators such as rats. Nevertheless, Bradshaw offers a lot of tips on how best to allow cats outdoors should you choose to do so as well as enrichment to help keep indoor cats happy. Bradshaw believes that when cats leave a dead animal as a "treat" for their humans that they simply remembered once they got home that there was much tastier store-bought food and lost interest in the animal they caught. The last chapter is a little strange in how Bradshaw considers how to select traits in domestic cats in order to breed them to be better companions to humans and to living indoors. He does make a good point that the growing practice of neutering pet cats means that future kittens are more likely to come from feral cats who have traits opposite of what we desire in cats. Overall it's an interesting book that's taught me some new things about my favorite pet. Favorite Passages: "Unlike the dog, which was domesticated much earlier, there would have been no niche for the cat in a hunter-gatherer society. It was not until the first grain stores appeared, resulting in localized concentrations of wild rodents, that it would have been worth any cat’s while to visit human habitations—and even then, those that did must have run the risk of being killed for their pelts. It was probably not until after the house mouse had evolved to exploit the new resource provided by human food stores that cats began to appear regularly in settlements, tolerated because they were obviously killing rodents and thereby protecting granaries." As a full fledged on her way to be certifiable crazy cat person, I was really excited to learn more about cats. Reading this book definitely opened my eyes to things I didn't know about before and changed the way I look/think about my cat's behaviors. I think my favorite part was learning more about black cats and how they came to be as they have a special place in my heart. All in all, I really learned a lot from this book and have been spouting facts at anyone who will listen (and even some people who don't want to). sin reseñas | añadir una reseña
Distinciones
"A must-read for any cat lover, Cat Sense is a revolutionary new account from one of the leading scientific experts on these little-understood animals. As he did in his acclaimed, best-selling Dog Sense, Bradshaw combines the most up-to-date research with fascinating case studies to paint an unprecedentedly detailed portrait of the domestic cat"--
"Cats have been popular household pets for thousands of years, and their numbers only continue to rise. Today there are three cats for every dog on the planet, and yet cats remain more mysterious, even to their most adoring owners. Unlike dogs, cats evolved as solitary hunters, and, while many have learned to live alongside humans and even feel affection for us, they still don't quite "get us" the way dogs do, and perhaps they never will. But cats have rich emotional lives that we need to respect and understand if they are to thrive in our company. In Cat Sense, renowned anthrozoologist John Bradshaw takes us further into the mind of the domestic cat than ever before, using cutting-edge scientific research to dispel the myths and explain the true nature of our feline friends. Tracing the cat's evolution from lone predator to domesticated companion, Bradshaw shows that although cats and humans have been living together for at least eight thousand years, cats remain independent, predatory, and wary of contact with their own kind, qualities that often clash with our modern lifestyles. Cats still have three out of four paws firmly planted in the wild, and within only a few generations can easily revert back to the independent way of life that was the exclusive preserve of their predecessors some 10,000 years ago. Cats are astonishingly flexible, and given the right environment they can adapt to a life of domesticity with their owners-but to continue do so, they will increasingly need our help. If we're to live in harmony with our cats, Bradshaw explains, we first need to understand their inherited quirks: understanding their body language, keeping their environments - however small - sufficiently interesting, and becoming more proactive in managing both their natural hunting instincts and their relationships with other cats. A must-read for any cat lover, Cat Sense offers humane, penetrating insights about the domestic cat that challenge our most basic assumptions and promise to dramatically improve our pets' lives - and ours"-- No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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Bradshaw's main argument is that cats are not nearly as domesticated as dogs, and that we need to treat them like the barely-tamed predators they are for them to be healthy and happy. I was expecting some chapters about how to pander to an indoor cat's instincts, for instance by providing them with places to climb or certain kinds of toys, but his discussion of how to improve the situation for cats focuses on breeding programs.
As a life-long owner and observer of cats, I really didn't learn much from this book. If you're new to cat ownership, there's probably some useful stuff in here. ( )