To learn more about these beautiful animals, we reached out to feline behavior and feeding coach Jennifer Van de Kieft, also known as the Cat Advocate.
She’s on a mission to provide cat guardians with strategies and tools to address behavior issues, better understand their feline companions, and strengthen the human-cat bond. She told Bored Panda that "some common misconceptions about cats are that they are aloof and the easy pet to care for. Cats are not aloof. Like any relationship, what you put into it is what you get out of it."
"If you do not provide affection and attention towards your cat, they may respond in kind. If you talk to your cat and provide attention, you'll find they are far from aloof and are loving and affectionate animals," Jennifer said.
"Another big misconception is that they are easy to care for compared with dogs," Jennifer Van de Kieft said. "'You provide water, food, and a clean litter box and they are good to go.' This is not true. Cats can thrive in captivity if provided with lots of enrichment."
"Since cats are designed to spend their waking hours hunting and foraging for food, providing exercise, challenges and other enrichment activities is part of being a cat guardian. They require more enrichment than most people realize. They are smart animals that need to have their minds engaged," the feline expert explained.
The "crazy cat lady" character might also be nothing but a trope! A 2024 survey of 21,106 pet parents from 20 countries found that more men (52%) than women (48%) are cat owners.
Regardless of gender, cats play pivotal roles in our lives. Cat owners appreciate the entertainment (48%) and stress relief (44%) their four-legged friends provide. However, being a pet parent also comes with challenges: 32% feel guilty about leaving their pets alone, and only 42% find their neighborhoods to be very pet-friendly. Additionally, 26% of pet parents say that traveling with their pets feels demanding or challenging.
For those of us with less experience, cat body language might sometimes seem hard to read. Jennifer said, "Cats show affection by wanting to be near you, meowing at you and possibly rubbing up against you."
"Each cat is an individual in terms of how much touching they like. As a general rule, cats like high-frequency but low-intensity interactions, meaning they want to be near you, but don't necessarily want to be touched all the time."
Just as we don’t want cats to scratch our faces, they also have some no-nos when it comes to interacting with us. So if you meet one and want to make a good first impression, "do not approach or get too close as this may be frightening to the cat. Let the cat observe you from a distance," Van de Kieft said.
"Do not make direct eye contact as that can be viewed as aggressive," she added. "One of the best strategies is to ignore the cat and let the cat approach you. If the cat does approach, you can extend your hand or fingers, let the cat smell it, and decide if they want you to pet them. If they do, they may lean into your hand, which is a good sign that a small pet is acceptable."
