Why do cats hate vacuum cleaners? Some cats love them!

The default situation is that domestic cats hate vacuum cleaners because they are noisy and a strange, dangerous creature roaming around the living room. 

The domestic cat does not understand vacuum cleaners. The worst thing about them is the noise. Most of them are noisy. 

But if you dig around the Internet even a little bit you will find that some domestic cats adore to be vacuum cleaned! They obviously get used to the noise while the experience of the vacuum cleaner against their fur and skin clearly beats any downside that they might experience with the noise. There'll be competing forces: noise is negative while the pleasant feeling is the positive.

The enemy of cats! Normally. Image in public domain.

In the video, where you see a ginger tabby thoroughly enjoying being vacuumed, the vacuum cleaner is pretty quiet which probably helps a lot in ensuring that the cat accepts it. If a cat accepts being vacuumed it must be a good way of removing some loose hair strands and the occasional flea!

There are many human devices and objects that the domestic cat doesn't understand which is something that cat owners should be aware of. I'm sure most of them are but, you know, the domestic cat is very close to their wild cat ancestor in terms of character and behaviour, which is also something most cat owners understand. 

But this means that they are living in a human environment which can be a little bit alien to them sometimes. It accounts for the fact that 99% of domestic cats are really frightened of the vacuum cleaner. 

They are frightened of any object which is noisy and with which they are not familiar. And it doesn't have to be noisy to be scary as is very evident in the many videos of cats jumping up in the air in sheer terror when they turn around and see a cucumber on the floor. 

Or any other unfamiliar object close to them. Of course, the reaction depends upon the particular cat's character but the default reaction is caution arising out of fear and therefore they run and hide.

To be honest, I do not like videos of cats being frightened of cucumbers. It's certainly amusing to many people which is why they are highly successful videos but let's think of the cat for a moment; the video maker has frightened their cat in order to make a successful video for YouTube. I'm being boring. I'm being too serious. But as I'm concerned with domestic cat welfare more than anything else in these articles, I have to bring up this point.

I have mentioned it before but around 30% of all cats in funny cat videos have been found to be stressed because the funny cat video is based upon a domestic cat doing something strange or be terrified of running away or hiding or failing in a jump of some sort (the big 'fail') and falling to the ground. Failure is funny to a lot of people especially when it is a cat doing something they should good at such as jumping.

It's disrespectful to laugh at a cat failing.

Cameroon stuck in the Dark Ages when it comes to black cats

Cameroon's cultural attitude about black cats is over one thousand years out of date. It is time for change.

The term "Dark Ages" means the Middle Ages. As you can see, I am saying that the country of Cameroon on the African continent is stuck in the kind of cultural attitude with respect to black cats that existed in Europe during the Middle Ages which by the way lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries.

Black cat is vilified in Cameroon due to ancient superstitions. Image in public domain.

To put this another way, without being in any way disrespectful of the country; Cameroon, in general (there will be exceptions) has an attitude towards black cats which is about a thousand years out of date!

There are still senior, respected people in Cameroon who genuinely believe that if they see a black cat at night they should run in the opposite direction. And there are many people who think that if they eat a black cat, it'll make them agile and perhaps protect them from the evil spirits that imbue the body of a black cat.

How do I know this? I've just visited a website about African culture and an article written by an African man. So, this is not a white man (me) criticising an African culture - this comes from the words of an African living in Africa.

It seems that children in Africa are taught that black cats are bad omens. They are stuck in the era of witchcraft. I've seen this before in other countries in Africa. It is very much a firmly fixed cultural perspective and it is frankly depressing to see it.

The Andadolu Agency spoke to people in Cameroon about their understanding of domestic cats and black cats.

One person said that "When I was little, I was afraid to see a black cat, especially at night because of all the bad things that were said" (Jean Paul Mbarga).

Mbarga is plainly fearful of black cats. He said that, "Around me people continue to speak badly about it in witchcraft stories". 

People in Cameroon are still talking about the black cat as if 'it' is living with a witch in some dark forest. And they are passing this knowledge on to their children.

A Cameroon politician and traditionalist, Jean Marc Ngoss, perpetuates these thoughts. He says that their ancestors knew what they were talking about. He adds that there must've been some real reasons why black cats are still perceived as bringing bad luck. And therefore, he still believes it.

For example, he said, "Ancestors who gave rise to these beliefs around the black cat were not madmen. Rather, it is the new technologies that are contributing to the doubts." He blames new technology!

He also said, "Since our ancestors and parents began to stigmatize a black cat sighting, especially in the dark night, it is certainly after a good number of experiences. There have certainly been ancestors who experienced harmful events many times after meeting a black cat. They have come to the conclusion it is a bad omen."

So you can see that senior people in the community are passing on these long-standing cultural thoughts which are based on superstition. They are thoughts that are a thousand years old and more.

Not all Cameroon people think like this obviously. For example, a veterinarian was asked about black cats and he said that, "To my knowledge, the black cat is not particularly different from other cats. It is probably its color that creates stereotypes. Those are cultural. Currently there are fewer black cats that you see among people and even in the wild population. This can also be explained by selection. Of course, people don't prefer to have black cats and some riverine populations kill them."

The newspaper interviewed a lady, Ngalle Felicite, about black cats who said that she has changed her view about them as she grew older. She no longer discriminates between cats of different colour.

She admits that when she was a child, she was very afraid of cats. And black cats in particular. But when she grew up and her family adopted cats to keep the rats out, she learned to live with cats. She learned to love them. And she had a black cat when she grew up which became her favourite.

But she says that people who come to her home and who are afraid of black cats regard her as a bit strange. She still loves that particular black cat who followed her everywhere. Sadly, it appears that her favourite black cat was stolen from her, killed and then eaten.

The veterinarian said that it's about education which it is. Education can and will over time erode and eventually get rid of superstitions which are simply unsupported by science.

I find it very sad that in the 21st century, the culture of a country like Cameroon is stuck in the Dark Ages. It is to the detriment of domestic cats in general and black cats in particular. It costs them their lives in that country. It is terribly wrong.

Cat owner coughs and his cats run in terror

Firstly sorry if the video formatting is strange. I have no control over it. It still works - just.

For me, being a cat lover and a purist, this video which might be described as a "funny cat video" is a bit disturbing because apparently the owner of these five cats is amused by the fact that when he coughs loudly his cats run away in terror. Of course, as the floor is hard they slip and slide on it which is an added aspect of the video which makes it even more funny. That's why it was filmed in the first place and why it was uploaded to the Internet. Funny cat videos are hugely popular and have been for a decade. But what about the cats? Why did a simple cough terrify them? I think that we need to ask that question and answer it. The only possible reasonable reason is that this man has used his voice to frighten his cats in the past. Perhaps he has shouted at them or ordered them about and they've become sensitive to his voice when the sound he makes is aggressive in nature. Perhaps I'm wrong and to protect myself I would say that what I'm saying are allegations. I don't know for sure but it is strange that making an innocuous sound can terrorise cats like this. I don't find it funny. What do you think? Please leave a comment.

Cat Food with Tranquilliser

I had not heard about this cat food until today. Perhaps I am out of touch. I can certainly see the usefulness of this cat food. Although I can also see its dangers.

The product is Royal Canin Veterinary Diet Feline Calm (a mouthful of a title). It is dry cat food that contains a naturally occurring chemical that is a tranquilliser.

The tranquillising ingredient is described as "casein milk proten hyrolysate and L-tryptophan (that is a shortened version).

Lovely shelter cat. Mackerel tabby & white.
Mendocino County Animal Care Services

Picture above: Shelter cats can be very stressed. Do they feed them Royal Canin Veterinary Diet Feline Calm?

On a forum it is said that the chemical that calms cats is Zylkène. On the Zylkène website it is described as "natural product derived from casein, the protein in milk". I therefore have decided that this dry cat food does contain Zylkène. Zylkène can also be given to dogs.

You can buy it in pill form. You can buy it in the internet in the UK and probably elsewhere.

How do you know if your cat is stressed and might benefit from being fed Royal Canin Veterinary Diet Feline Calm?

Well on the Zylkène website, they ask some questions in the form of a quiz which helps you to decide.

Examples of questions are:

• Is your cat going into a boarding cattery soon? We know that can be stressful for our cat (and us).
• Does your cat over-groom?
• Are you about to introduce another cat into the household? This can cause a change to the dynamics in the house and the existing cats might become stressed. Sociable domestic cat.
• Is your cat hiding more than what might be considered normal? Cats need places to hide as it is natural behavior.
• Have you moved home recently?
• Does your cat soil the home?
• Is your cat a full-time indoor cat? This is an interesting point to make. Obviously the manufacturers of this product believe that a full-time indoor environment can be stressful to some cats.
• Does your cat like to perch on high platforms more often?
• Are your cat's pupils dilated often?

The upside to this product is obvious. There are numerous circumstances under which our cat can become stressed. For the short term, feeding this food will probably help provided the cat likes the food.

On the downside there may be a temptation by car caretakers to use Royal Canin Veterinary Diet Feline Calm as a standard food to keep their cat permanently chilled out. This might be an opt out from taking up the responsibilities associated with cat caretaking.

An alternative is to buy the pills but then you have to give your cat a pill. They say it is easy to give, however.