instead of fleeing when there is no opportunity to escape. Learning can shape and reinforce the behavior.
2.7.3.4 Redirected Aggression
It is not uncommon for cats to redirect aggression to a nearby animal or human when the primary target of aggression cannot be accessed. This may occur regardless of the motivation, although fear, frustration, and/or territoriality are the most commonly recognized factors. Unfortunately, arousal levels often escalate quickly, associative learning can be strong and long‐lasting, and relationships between household cats or people that have lived together for years can be damaged due to redirected aggression.
2.7.3.5 Treatment for Aggression
Treatment plans for aggression motivated by a negative emotional state, such as fear, territoriality, and redirection, have basic commonalities. Avoidance of triggers outside of any behavior modification session is critical and may include minimizing human petting or holding of the cat, blocking the view of outdoor cats, or providing adequate space in a multi‐cat household. Space can be created by providing areas for hiding, elevated spaces, or other physical barriers (e.g., completely separate rooms or gates). A social relationship or association with another target can be improved through close‐proximity feeding, play, or training sessions using high‐value treats. Most cats can easily be taught behaviors to be used as alternative responses to fleeing or aggression. A cat showing low‐level signs of distress or aggression can be cued to move to a distant location like a bed or cat tree. Calming medications or adjunctive treatments may be helpful as well.
2.7.4 Fears, Phobias, and Anxiety
Fear is a normal, often adaptive emotion experienced in the presence of a threat, whereas phobia is an extreme and non‐adaptive fear response. Anxiety is the anticipation of a negative event, whether real or imagined, and can be become chronic and debilitating in some cats. These emotions can produce a range of responses, broadly referred to as Fight, Flight, Freeze, or Fidget (Landsberg et al. 2013). As previously discussed, escape, avoidance, or motionless behaviors are the most common feline responses for minimizing danger, but fear‐related aggression can occur when a cat cannot escape and/or learns aggression is the most successful tactic. Treatment for fear without aggression follows similar protocols to fear‐related aggression: avoidance, behavior modification intended to change the behavioral and emotional response to the trigger, and antianxiety therapies.
Noises can be triggers for anxious or phobic responses. This may be most noticeable with sharp, sudden sounds like thunder or alarms but also with novel stimuli such as visitors or a new baby. In fact, most sources of fear in the home are primarily related to social stress with another cat, dog, or human. However, hyper‐attachment, typically to human family member(s), is also possible and can lead to separation‐related distress. Excessive vocalization, eliminations outside the litterbox, or destruction are behaviors reported to occur in these cats when the family is absent or around their arrival or departure times. Some cats do not show signs of fear or distress at the time of a stressful event but develop chronic anxiety, which tends to manifest as displacement behaviors (“fidget”) including overgrooming, pacing, changes in social behavior, and vague sicknesses like vomiting, diarrhea, and chronic urinary tract disease. Treatment involves creating pleasant associations to separation from the family (Schwartz 2002).
Unfortunately, fear of the veterinary clinic and handling for procedures is ubiquitous in cats. One study indicated feline distress reduces a cat owner’s willingness to take the cat to the vet, and this, in turn, could have a deleterious effect on overall feline health and well‐being (Volk et al. 2011). There are several initiatives to help veterinarians and shelter staff create a less stressful experience through a reduction in noise and exposure to unfamiliar people and animals, low‐stress restraint, and antianxiety medications when appropriate (Fear Free Pets 2020; Low Stress Handling 2020). Behavior modification used to create pleasant associations with the carrier, restraint, and procedures such as nail trims and oral medication administration is an important aspect of fear reduction in the veterinary clinic and proper care at home. See Chapter 14 for more information about applying these concepts to shelter cats.
2.8 Learning and Cognition
Cats, like all species, are constantly learning and potentially changing their behavior as they navigate their environment. Learning and memory are aspects of feline cognition, or the manner by which a cat perceives, processes, and acts on environmental information (Shettleworth 2001). Sensory capabilities, working memory, understanding of the physical world (e.g., object permanence or manipulation of objects to achieve a resource), problem solving, and social communication are specific domains often assessed in cognitive research. However, some investigators have recently suggested that many previous studies have likely undervalued the cognitive capacity of cats due to the use of protocols originally aimed at assessing primate or canine cognitive abilities (Vitale Shreve and Udell 2015).
Just as early experiences have strong influences on the development of cognitive abilities, age‐related degeneration can create significant behavior changes. Cognitive dysfunction syndrome (CDS) refers to sensory degeneration, impairments in memory and decision‐making abilities, and emotional dysregulation. An aging cat may display disorientation, changes in social interactions, sleep‐wake cycle alterations, housesoiling, changes in activity, excessive vocalization, appetite changes, and decreased self‐hygiene (Landsberg et al. 2010). Most of these issues could be due to a primary medical cause; therefore, CDS is an antemortem diagnosis of exclusion, although postmortem histology reveals neurotoxic amyloid‐beta accumulation, similar to CDS in dogs and Alzheimer’s disease in human patients. As in other species, there is no definitive treatment, although antioxidant diets or supplements in addition to environmental enrichment may improve cognitive signs and quality of life for aging cats.
2.9 Conclusions
Cats are unique amongst domestic species in that they have evolved from a solitary ancestral species to become one of the most beloved household pets today. Interestingly the cat’s physical appearance and sensory systems remain almost identical to their wild counterparts. Recognition of the perceptual parameters allows us to better understand how the domestic cat responds to environment and communicates with social partners. Sociality is unequivocally the aspect of feline life most affected by the domestication process. Cats can display a wide range of social behaviors, and evidence indicates that early exposure to a variety of social and environmental stimuli is the most important postnatal factor for a well‐adjusted life in a domestic setting and resiliency to basic stressors. In addition, a moderate amount of handling and enrichment will ensure shelter staff improves the future welfare of kittens in their care and increases adoptability. It is imperative that shelter staff gain an understanding of feline natural behavior, communication, learning, and cognition to provide cats with an ideal environment, change unwanted behaviors, and improve the welfare of our cats.
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References
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2 American Veterinary Medical Association. (2018). 2018 U.S. Pet Ownership and Demographics Sourcebook. Schamburg, IL: AVMA.
3 Association for Pet Obesity Prevention (2019). 2018 Pet Obesity Survey Results. www.petobesityprevention.org/2018 (accessed 18 July 2020).
4 Barcelos, A.M.,
