Why People Choose the Cats They Adopt

What drew you to your cat? Out of all of the millions of cats in the world, why did you adopt your kitty?

A new study in the Journal of Veterinary Behavior tries to answer the question of why people choose the cats they adopt from a shelter. They surveyed adopters at Loudon County Animal Services in Waterford, Virginia.

Why People Say They Adopt

Unsurprisingly, most people who responded to the survey said that they adopted the cat for companionship for themselves.

What is surprising is the second biggest reason that people gave for adopting: to save the cat. Maybe this should be less surprising since the survey was done at a municipal shelter that at the time euthanized for time, space, and behavior.

Other reasons people gave for adopting were for companionship for their children or for their cat.

Why People Adopt a Particular Cat

The biggest behavioral reason that people said was very important wasn’t a surprise. They said it was most important that the cat be friendly toward the adopter. Friendliness toward children and other cats were also important criteria in deciding to adopt a cat to many adopters. So were the cat seeming to be a playful and happy.

An unexpectedly important adoption factor was the cat’s history or story. Could shelters use information given to them about a cat on intake to help get cats adopted more quickly? Looking at this study, the answer may be yes!

Survey respondents also named seeing toys in the cage with the cat as being a very important factor in making their decision. This is something else that shelters and rescue organizations can take advantage of right away. If people are more drawn to cats with toys, then let potential adopters see them with toys, especially harder-to-adopt cats like adults who adopters favor over kittens.

Physical characteristics such as a coat length or particular gender were less important selection factors for adopters, but those that felt either was important were more likely to prefer short hair or a male cat.

Behavioral Characteristics More Important to Adopters

Overall, the study concludes that behavioral characteristics are more important to adopters than physical characteristics when they are choosing a cat to be part of their family.

How does this agree – or not – with the reason you adopted your cat?

Research and further reading

Journal of Veterinary Behavior, Factors Affecting the Selection of Cats by Adopters
Loudon County Virginia Animal Service Statistics Archives

Image credits: depositphotos/belchonock, c-foto, photo-deti

Newton’s Take Your Cat to Work Day

Newton: It may be Take Your Dog to Work Day, but I’m going to shake things up.

Newton: You need me to take dictation? Okay, I’m ready.

Pierre: I can’t read this chicken scratch! You need to type this up.

Newton: That’s cat scratch to you. I don’t think this plan is going to work, Pierre. Don’t you need thumbs to type?

Pierre: You haven’t watched how the manpeep types, have you? No, you don’t need thumbs to type.

Pierre: But maybe instead of taking dictation, you should start with something you have already shown a talent for.

Newton: Like what?

Pierre: How about shipping and receiving? All cats are good with boxes.

Newton: I’m on it! Just keep that tape gun away from my luxurious tail fur.

Save

A Visit to the Cat Show

I often joke that everyone comes here eventually because it’s such a tourist town. Last weekend, it wasn’t humans who came to visit, it was cats, for the TICA Sandy Claws cat show, and I had to go the variety of cats being showed just a few miles from home.

I heard a man entering the hotel ballroom where the show was held say, “It’s much smaller than I expected!” I had not been to a cat show since one at Madison Square Garden in 1999, so I have no idea whether it was an unusually small show or not. There were six rings, and they were nonstop busy, even at lunchtime.

I watched a few rings be judged. The judge in the longhair ring was here all the way from Oregon, and I wondered if she had met our friend Summer, who has been in shows up there. She was the most interesting of the judges, explaining as she went what she was looking at and looking for.

She talked a lot about the confirmation of their bodies and heads and what she expected of each, and I learned how each type of cat had different standards she was looking for.

This kitty doesn’t have airplane ears. It’s a longhaired Scottish Fold, something I didn’t know existed! Here, the judge is explaining that this kitty has a very sweet face and big eyes, which is part of the breed standard.

This massive Maine coon kitty was the winner in the ring for long haired cats. There’s not really any way to tell from this photo, but he was really enormous. He seemed to fill the whole judging ring cage while he was waiting to be judged. Quite an impressive cat!

When the adult longhaired cats were in their judging ring cages, they waited patiently for their turn with the judge. It was the complete opposite in the kitten ring. Those cages were just mayhem. There was a bengal kitten determined to climb the top of the cage.

There was also a bobtail kitten who apparently thought the cage tasted interesting.

I noticed that the bottom part of the cage, where the cats sit, was sanitized between cats, but I didn’t see them actually cleaning every inch of the bars. This little guy was making sure he left his kitten cooties behind for the next kitty who sat in that cage.

After he lost interest in eating the cage, the started in on the little flaps hanging from the cage. I never got an explanation of what those were. They weren’t cage numbers, though, and it’s a good thing, because this kitten was determined to do them in.

He even got his neighbor in on the act!

The judge for the kitten ring didn’t talk to the audience or explain anything, but she clearly had her hands full with that crowd.

Do you recognize this cat? I thought at first glance it was an Abyssinian, but the head and face looked all wrong for the breed. I learned later it was a Singapura, a breed I had not heard of before.

I would have liked to have talked to the person showing the cat, but I never managed to catch her. Everyone showing cats was constantly rushing back and forth to show rings. A cat show is a busy place!

I only saw one Abyssinian at the whole show, but I didn’t get a photo of him because these little faces were in the next cage and they captivated me.

They were for sale, too! I have no idea how I escaped without bringing one of them home.

The cat show was a lot of fun, and it’s quite an experience for anyone who has never been to one. If there’s ever one in your town, it’s totally worth a visit!

Why Cats Love Boxes

In case you missed it, Saturday was International Box Day. While your kitty was enjoying that cardboard box, did you wonder why cats enjoy boxes so much? Scientists have studied the answer for you!

What Scientists Saw about Cats in Boxes

A Dutch animal shelter studied cats to see what their stress levels looked like when they were provided either a boxlike kitty condo or simply an open cage. Cats on shelter intake were selected either to get a hiding box in their cage or not. Then the cats were observed for two weeks, and their stress levels were assessed using a standard stress scoring system.

Cats who were able to spend time in boxes chose to spend over half of their time in them, so they made lots of use of them. By the third day, cats who had access to hiding boxes on average had lower stress scores. Over time, the cats without boxes slowly became less stressed until after two weeks their stress levels were about the same as the cats who had been provided hiding boxes from the beginning.

Why do Cats Feel Less Stressed in Boxes?

Cats get a feeling of safety from being inside that cardboard box. While it may look like your latest arrival in the post, to your kitty, that box’s enclosing sides represent a fortress.

As relatively small creatures, cats are wired to think of themselves as potential prey to many larger creatures. Curling up to sleep allows a cat to protect their most vulnerable parts, like their stomach, and curling up in an enclosed space like a bed with high sides or a cardboard box gives them an extra sense of being enclosed and protected.

How Boxes Can Help Cat Welfare

This is useful to know for your kitty at home, especially when bringing a cat home into a new environment like the cats brought into an unfamiliar shelter environment in the study. But it’s especially important information for cats in shelters.

For a shelter cat, acting less stressed-out can mean faster adoption. Faster adoptions by themselves can be lifesaving in overwhelmed shelters.

Stressed out cats, like stressed out humans, have elevated cortisol levels. Cortisol is an important hormone in your cat’s body involved in regulating blood pressure and immune function. This means that reducing the stress levels of shelter cats with boxes can help keep them healthier.