Working versus Working and Working Cats

Over the years I’ve encountered several people whose excellent writing skills I discovered purely by chance. Prior to those fortuitous revelations, I thought these people avoided writing because they couldn’t spell or found the rules of proper punctuation more confusing than those of quantum physics. But in all cases, I discovered that they did write and wrote quite well.  But they never shared what they wrote because they wanted it to be perfect when they did.

What does this have to do with working versus working, and working cats? That sentence, which reasonably may strike some of you as idiotic, sums up the problem. We accept a definition of a word, for example working, that was hammered out by someone we figure knows more than we do. Next thing we know, we read or hear it used in a manner that implies a completely different meaning from the one we considered perfect.

When applied to cats, the word “working” traditionally referred to animals who used their predatory skills to keep some human’s property rodent-free in exchange for a sheltered place to sleep and access to additional food and fresh water if needed. A willingness to perform this function in proximity to humans most likely signaled the first step in the feline self-domestication process. Sufficient cats still perform this work that most people will acknowledge that cats are predators, although some may resist this awareness more than others.

True working cats or those who periodically get in this mode in response to changes in the prey population also have a working relationship with people. They don’t necessary dislike them, but they may have little desire to spend a lot time playing or snuggling with them, especially when they have work to do. While some people who adopt an emotion-based view of animals may resent such feline behavior, those who understand it will find it reasonable. Cats who spend the night patrolling and hunting to keep an area rodent-free want to sleep during the day. Human interference with that sleep undermines these animals’ ability to do their work. As a result, this may cause them to stay away from or even take a swat at daylight-attuned folks who want them to play pet-cat instead of worker. But pets belong to a different working category that we’ll consider shortly.

Until relatively recently the bulk of the domesticated cat population ranked as true working cats. Then a brief period of reduced awareness of their existence and value occurred when human emphasis shifted to looks rather than function and house-cats came into vogue. Cats who possessed the job skills and qualities such as the looks and adaptability necessary to succeed in the pet housecat environment were bred. Those who couldn’t adapt to full-time confinement became in-and-outdoor cats.  The latter is the category to which my cat Bamboo belongs. Normally if he’s outside during the day, he’s sleeping unless the dogs or I are doing something that catches his attention. Because I’m a very early riser, he goes out way before sunrise if it’s not raining or too cold for his tastes. Once out he usually goes to the garage, my garden shed, or other prime rodent territory where he hunts until it gets light when he comes back in.

Back in the days when people knew about normal feline behavior because free-roaming cats were the norm rather than exception, in-and outdoor cats would be put out at night. They then would return in the morning and sleep while the kids played or the adults did their chores. Later, diurnal humans lacking this knowledge would project their own preferences onto their cats and let their animals out during the day and expect them back in for night. Among other problems this created, it forced some naturally more nocturnal and predatory cats to start hunting birds because there weren’t that many rodents around in the daylight hours.

Other cats who washed out as house pets were deliberately abandoned by their owners or abandoned those people and functioned as the aforementioned working cats who went about their rodent-killing business with minimal human contact. Those in this group who found even minimal human contact too much went off on their own. After many generations of breeding, the progeny of this latter group achieved feral status.

The final group of working cats consists of those whose primary job it is to make nice to us. Most of us recognize that getting along with some people can be hard work that requires a lot of skill. This can be hard work for cats too. Like dogs, the most skilled feline companions deal with our idiosyncrasies so effortlessly we’re convinced they can read our minds…

Which to some extent they can in that, unlike cats engaged in other kinds of work, these animals appear to be more  attuned to subtle changes in humans’ physiology. Unlike some in-and-outdoor hunting cats like Bamboo who may move to a different room when we seek solace of one sort or another, these cats voluntarily will put up with all kinds of human behaviors—although some may purr loudly or lightly bat us in the face to speed the process.

This feline propensity has fueled an interest in the use of cats as a source of therapy for people with certain disabilities. Unlike the use of dogs for this purpose, little emphasis has been placed on the proper breeding, selection, and preparation of these animals to ensure their physical and mental health, as well as that of the  people who come in contact with them. While some cats embrace this work, others find it stressful. When that occurs, the physiological and behavioral results also may stress instead of help the disabled person.

The issue here isn’t that one group of cats is superior to or lives a life that’s superior to that of others. It just points out that different cats gain fulfillment spending their lives in different ways. Fortunately some organizations like the Tree House Humane Society in Chicago now address the needs of those cats with a predatory work ethic who would not do well as pets via their Tree House Cats at Work Project. (If you click on the “more” link in this description, it will take you to a pdf file that discusses how the program works in more detail.) Meanwhile, Oscar is a fine example of a cat working within the human healthcare system who performs a particularly unique service.

Think you and your cat would enjoy providing comfort for those in hospitals or shut-ins at home? Pet Partners is the place to go to find out how to go about doing it.

As you read this, you probably found yourself thinking of your own cat or other cats you know or have known. And you might have found yourself more attracted to those cats whose particular job skills appeal to you more than others. Most of us have such preferences and consider them perfectly normal. Recognizing that, just like people,  a particular cat may possess skills that differ from another also enables us to select a cat capable of fulfilling our sometimes highly specific expectations. When we take the time and care necessary to do that, the result is a human-feline relationship that works for both of us. When we don’t…well, in my experience when human and feline definitions of the cat’s role differ, most cats won’t hesitate to let us know this in one way or another.

But what about working vs. working and working dogs? They’ll be the subject of next month’s commentary.