{"id":1419,"date":"2023-07-31T17:20:35","date_gmt":"2023-07-31T17:20:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/?p=1419"},"modified":"2023-07-31T17:20:35","modified_gmt":"2023-07-31T17:20:35","slug":"why-its-important-that-cats-are-viewed-as-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/?p=1419","title":{"rendered":"Why it\u2019s important that cats are viewed as family\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Recently I saw a post on a local neighbourhood forum regarding a cat visiting someone\u2019s home. The poster asked if anyone knew who \u201cthe little person\u201d in their picture was. The cat was friendly so it was likely they had a home, and the person posting was simply trying to confirm this. <br><br>The post was met with mixed responses, several  of which stated the cat \u201cwasn\u2019t a person, but an animal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While there\u2019s no escaping a cat is obviously a different species to us, and anthropomorphism can definitely be hugely detrimental to their well-being, it\u2019s equally accurate not recognising an animal as an individual can often have the same result. As with humans, there are some hard and fast rules that are mostly universally beneficial, but ultimately each person is different as are cats. Each cat will have a unique set of requirements. <br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From my own observation, cats being treated as possessions rather than a member of the family can potentially  be a contributing factor to them ending up in rescue. When a cat begins to exhibit something considered inappropriate behaviour, if they aren\u2019t seen as a family member, it\u2019s often the case much less effort will be put in to pinpointing what has triggered it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s extremely important to recognise your cat as an individual. Often, what\u2019s seen as \u201cproblem behaviour\u201d stems from a need to communicate an aspect of your cats care  that\u2019s not being met. If you put in the work  to consider what that might be and address the situation in a way agreeable to you both, it will greatly benefit your relationship with your cat. <br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/73D9CB0D-2011-4739-9360-02A9EED0DE84.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1430\" width=\"359\" height=\"321\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/73D9CB0D-2011-4739-9360-02A9EED0DE84.jpeg 750w, https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/73D9CB0D-2011-4739-9360-02A9EED0DE84-300x268.jpeg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 359px) 100vw, 359px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Recognising a cat is an individual will help you develop a much stronger bond.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Image source: Nextdoor forum.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recently I saw a post on a local neighbourhood forum regarding a cat visiting someone\u2019s home. The poster asked if anyone knew who \u201cthe little person\u201d in their picture was. The cat was friendly so it was likely they had&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1419"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1419"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1444,"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1419\/revisions\/1444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}