Think Like a Cat: How to Raise a Well-Adjusted Cat--Not a Sour Puss

I have not finished this book yet but have gotten more than my money's worth. My plan is to reread this after completing it the first pass, and then referencing it often. I'm not actually nuts, I have good reason for my thoroughness.My husband and I recently lost our beloved cat Isis, after 19 years together. The loss was all but devastating to us. We have a second cat, an elderly male who is now 13-years old, and was also grieving the loss. After a couple of weeks of the three of us wallowing in pain, we decided to adopt a rescue animal-companion. We left ourselves open to adopting as many as three. It would give us a total of four cats which we felt we could manage financially, but more importantly we would be able to meet the time and attention needs of a maximum of four.Within a matter of 21 days we all but fell into three separate adoptions. The newbies range in age from about 5 months to just now 5 weeks. They had a range of issues from two of them being underweight, one being found off of the side of an expressway and the youngest that was weeks too young to be away from her mother or at the very, very least her other litter mates. Adding to our challenges has been misrepresented ages and that we brought them into the house in stages, but still rather fast.The oldest of the new adoptees, a male that was stated to be 13-weeks, (turned out to be closer to 18 weeks) came home to us on April 14th. The next a female stated to be 13-weeks, (turned out to be closer to 7 weeks) came home on April 30th. The assumption had been that the two "13-week old kittens" would be able to play and keep one another company. In actuality after two weeks of solid meals and a safe environment, the male blossomed adding nearly three pounds in the 24 DAYS we've had him. He is no longer the scrawny, feeble-looking, nearly feral kitten that he appeared to be. He's healthy and inquisitive and wonderful!BUT, now there is a clear 4-pound difference between these two kittens. Play must be monitored as he learns his strength and she learns her limits. Adding to that, we have a ONE-POUND kitten that came home with us on May 4th. They had represented her to be nearly 8 weeks, as it turns out she was much closer to 4. She was supposedly weaned, but "torn" is a better description. She wants to play with the others but it is even more important that limits be set for her. Adding into this collage of personalities and specific needs, we have our elderly cat. He is doing better every day but this has been no easy transition for him. So how does all of this relate to this book?The information has been incredibly helpful! Instead of attempting to force our version of integration on each of these incredible life forms, we are seeing life from their perspectives. It changes EVERYTHING! There are so many things that never even would have crossed our minds. I'm making "puzzle feeders" for our 5-month old to help him with some of his innate need to "figure things out". He also requires a GREAT deal more release for his excess energy, where the two girls need a great deal more rest. Separate spaces, safe hiding places, access to "escape routes" from one another, all of these things are different when looked at from the floor of our house UP, rather than looking around or DOWN on what is available to them. I have rambled on way too long, but I will say that I HIGHLY recommend this book!One quick note regarding the one-star reviews stating that this was either not informative enough or that they disagree with keeping cats inside the home, I just could not disagree more.I had no idea of the blood types of cats, had never heard of a puzzle feeder and never considered whether or not I could have a real impact on the emotional wellness of each of these tossed-together lives on anything like the level that we have. We are doing many things now intentionally rather than accidentally bumping into ideas that may have been helpful. It feels fantastic to offer such a stable environment to them all.When it come to the idea of keeping cats confined, I think this probably depends. If one has many acres of safe spaces for a cat then sure, in and out is probably fine. In either a suburban or urban setting this is just not the case. If one simply looks around at their neighborhood and notices the lack of weeds in the lawns due to routine weed-killing regimes, watches strays without adequate immunization, observes the number of cars in their area including distracted drivers, and considers the very real possibility of someone's intentional malice towards their cat, it changes the concept of "keeping them prisoner". Also, if one feels their home to be a prison, the cats are probably not the biggest issue they may have. Home should never feel this way to either us or our animal companions. I agreed with the author. We may debate whether or not to spay, neuter and/or declaw. We can debate whether or not they should be allowed to roam the neighborhoods or remain within the home. What we should not debate, should be able to in fact agree on, is that each of these decisions will impact the entire life cycle of another living being. They are completely dependent on us to make these decisions based not on our opinions, but rather what is in the best interest of the animals, based solely on facts. This book offers factual statements of what is in the best interest of our cats. This is a well researched book that offers those of us sharing our lives with cats, insights that we simply might not have considered or been offered in any other way.Great book that I have already planned to also purchase in paperback for quick reference.

I'm still reading this book, but I love it!! Right from the start, just looking at that adorable kitten image on the cover, I was hooked. It answers lots of questions I had (I don't have my own cat yet) and teaches me a lot about how cats think. In many cases, it's like humans think, as far as I can see!! Especially useful to me is how cats liked to be touched and not touched. Also the "click and treat' method of training kittens, I had never heard of!! Once you've read this book, you will never again think, "Cat's can't be trained." Pam Johnson-Bennett has a very warm heart for cats! You can feel it all through the book! Maybe a little less warm for people who are dumb or careless about how to treat cats in a good way!! Her writing style is lively and interesting, and is especially enjoyable in how she describes the behavior of a cats who are being treated with insensitivity by their owners. A bit of exaggeration makes you really be able to see why treating a cat without knowing what you are doing can be unpleasant for the cat—and unpleasant for you!All kinds of things are covered, from the emotions and needs of a cat to the host of medical problems a cat can get. I learned that cats like to live not only in a horizontal world, but a vertical world (think of cats climbing trees outside, and get a cat tree) (or kitty might climb your curtains! plus be bored) There's lots about the litter box, too. Peeing outside the litter box isn't to "piss YOU off." It could be just that the box needs to be changed. But peeing on your pillow might well be to let you know she doesn't like something you or doing, or in the case of visiting boyfriends, she might not like YOU. I learned that cats need to feel they OWN certain areas in your (their) house especially when there are other cats around. Or kids, and they will keep that area marked with their scent. Even just one level on the cat tree. They tend to need their own area to feel secure. Also, there are many ways cat's don't like being touched. I sort of knew this already—but keep an eye on your cat while you are patting them—they will start to show signs that they are getting tired of it, and you might wind up with a scratch on your hand. (I remember telling my friendly visiting cat, when I was brushing her and she was getting restless and I didn't want her to scratch me (again), "It's okay if you get down when you are tired of this!" And from then on, she'd get off my lap and leave when she was ready!! One of the most important things I learned about cats is not to think of them as "aloof" and unloving just because they are not just like dogs. Cats can be very loving—just look at all the images of them you can find online with their heads resting on their owners shoulder with their eyes beatifically closed in heavenly sleep! And why do they always sit on your book or your keyboard!? They long for your attention! But we need to remember that, just like humans, if they are not treated with love and guidance as kittens, they can bear emotional scars for the rest of their lives. Oh, and I must mention how extremely important it is for each cat to have a scratching post to use (they can share, of course.) Not only does it help them to shed their claw husks, but they use it to exercise all the muscles in their body, every day, as well as relieving stress. I suppose that could be one of the most important thing I learned that I hadn't realized—how sensitive cats are to all aspects of their environment, and how stressed and anxious they can get— and how that leads to cat behavior we tend to dislike. Well, more things I've learned from this book keep coming into my mind, so I guess I'll sign off now. There will be a lot left to learn when you buy this book, which you should do if you learned about cats many years ago, as I did, when we just "had" our cats, fed them, and chased them off the kitchen counters and let them outside and inside and back outside again. ("a door is something that a cat wants to be on the other side of"—remember that joke?) Dogs got all the training methods and respect!

I grew up with a house literally full of cats. I’ve catsit countless times. I thought I knew cats.Then I invited an 8 week kitten into my life. Last of the litter, and hand-reared due to complex labour. Solo kitten too. Man, it’s up to me to teach the dude how to cat….So I liked this book a lot. Chapters on play and the psychology of cats particularly important for me. It’s an easy read too; can dip into a chapter.My kitten like it too and has tried to eat it on a couple of occasions.

We are bringing home a Siberian kitten and this book was recommended to me - despite not being breed specific.I have really enjoyed reading this book - it is engaging and not dry. There is lots of medical information at the back of the book which will be useful to dip in and out of over the course of a cats life.I had four cats at different times many years ago which I inherited in different ways. Only one was particularly affectionate and from reading this book I can now understand why. I didn't realise the importance of a kittens early years in determining the behaviour of an adult cat or the importance of play for building up a bond with a cat. I also didn't even think about needing to brush a cats teeth so that it doesn't suffer from dental problems as it gets older (for anyone interested there are some good videos on Youtube on how to brush a cats teeth which I looked at because of this book).I don't want to repeat the mistakes of my past and hope to be the best cat owner I can be thanks to all of the advice in this book.

I recently got 2 kittens and having no experience of my own (only my boyfriend and a few friends who owned cats in the past) I found this book very informative, with no unnecessary breakdown of different breeds etc. It covers all topics I could imagine, maybe not in the greatest imaginable depths but it's enough for me. Highly recommend.

I bought this as I have just adopted a kitten and I found this to be a really good informative book. I haven't read it all yet but already it has given me some very useful information that I did not know although I have had cats before. It's a good read and a good reference book which could be useful to go back to in the future so even if not every part is relevant for me now it is a great book to have. The only downside is that my kitten doesn't like me reading it and therefore sits on it and likes to chew its pages so I'm hoping it won't get too damaged. Definitely worth buying.

I have recently become a first time cat owner. Having owned horses, rabbits, guinea pig's and dogs I was confident I could adapt quickly to understanding our new family member.... I was wrong! With limited experience with cats I quickly realised that if I wanted to build a great relationship and help give our rescued cat the life he deserved, I needed help. This book seemed like the ideal place to start!It gave me so much useful information and helped me understand these strange behaviours that our cat was doing - which turned out to be perfectly normal!It is written clearly in chapters for easy reference, I found the references to her experiences useful and funny (although probably not intentionally funny). It has helped me enrich my cats life and also understand so much of his behaviour, it also helped me understand the importance of the locations of food and water.I would recommend this to anyone wanting to enhance their understanding of their cat. The only reason I gave 4 starts is that there is quite a lot of references that are based around the USA which I didn't find useful.