Cat Sense, John Bradshaw

Cat Sense: How the New Feline Science Can Make You a Better Friend to Your Pet, John Bradshaw
ISBN: 9780465031016
Read November 23, 2013

Nonfiction: Cat behavior.

The author has a particular point to make, and he's not shy about making it over and over and over again - cats have done really well so far to keep up with changing expectations, but we're moving too fast for them to keep up without us beginning to purposefully breed for behavior and attitude, like we do with dogs.

Whether his point will make an impact on the larger cat-breeding societies, who knows, but I for one think that he's right.

Besides his overall axe, he does present some really good studies (footnoted and bibliographied) showing cat ancestry, the history of wild cats, the archaeological evidence for cat-human interactions (scanty though it is) and then on into modern cat genetics.

There was also a decent section discussing training cats (yes it can be done) and talking about the variations in personality that have been noted in different breeds, and for different coat-colors.  He uses that of course as a springboard back to his grinding, but again, it's a solid point, and if the spay/neuter/indoor cat movement catches on worldwide, the cat population will be solidly in the hands of cat breeders, who right now seem much more interested in splashy coats and "wild" ancestry (the wild-domestic blends that are causing so many owners havoc now because they aren't tame cats) than in producing cats that can live indoors, in small habitats (apartment-sized) shared with other pets, especially other cats.

Right now, that's something the cat isn't really great at - it's up to us to help them make it as a modern pet.