Hello, I'm Simon! Welcome to Simon's Cat Logic.
We'll be finding out from a cat expert why cats behave the way they do!
Today, we are going to look at Crazy Time!
So Crazy Time is based really on all four my cats, but in particular Jess,
who I always think of as being the craziest out of all four of them.
She's the oldest of my cats, a little tortoiseshell
and tortoiseshells are known for being a little bit crazy anyway.
Of course she gets this kind of pent-up of natural energy, as all animals do, and rather than going outside and
running around the trees and things she suddenly goes crazy and runs around up and down stairs,
climbing over furniture,
but that's Jess all over!
[ Why do cats do this? ] So many owners wonder why their cats do this?
Well if you think back to how cats are in the wild,
they spend, you know, maybe up to 40 hunting trips, so a lot of energy expended.
Whereas when we think about our cats, they often have a much more sedate lifestyle,
so that's why they still feel the need to burn off excess energy.
[ What can we do to help? ]
One of the things you can offer your cat is interactive fishing rod toy play.
So this is where you'd get a rod with a string and some feathers at the end
and move it around as if it were a prey species, so it depends on the style
of play that your cat likes, whether it's a bird type in the air like this
or whether they want a mousey type across the floor.
No self-respecting prey species ever goes up to the cat and says "Hi, here I am!"
So try to avoid waving a toy in the cat's face, have it moving away from them.
Cats also can't see that well under 25 centimeters which is another reason why
cats don't really seem interested in playing when it's so close to their face.
They are a bit more far-sighted so again move the toy away from them and that's when
you see the pupils dilate and they go into the crouch position
and do the bum wiggle and go after that toy.
It's important to let the cats catch and kill the toy because this
gives cats the sort of satisfaction of catching it
and by doing that, that helps them release endorphins or happy hormones,
so that they feel very good when they are playing.
Now once you finish playing do store the fishing rod safely out of the cat's reach.
[ Did you know? ]
Cats are crepuscular this is scientific way of
saying they are most active during dawn and dusk and that's because that's when
their prey is most active as well. So a lot of owners will find that their cats have
their crazy time at night, which can be very frustrating when you're trying to get to sleep.
The nice thing about Crazy Time is every cat owner recognises it.
So as soon as I did the film I knew that a lot of people will go "Ah, that's my cat, my cat does that!"
because it's such a cat thing to do!
Hello, I'm Simon. Welcome to Simon's Cat Logic!
We'll be finding out from a cat expert, why cats behave the way they do.
Today, we're looking at ... Love.
I've had cats all my life, and it really helps me when I'm thinking of my stories, because
obviously cats can't pick up baseball bats or, you know, climb up windows, or use their hands.
Animation allows me to use my imagination, but also I can base it solidly in what a cat would think.
By having cats all my life, I kind of know the inside of their heads and how they work things out.
Well, 'Butterflies' is a nice Valentines film. One of the stars of 'Butterflies' is in fact
a chubby girl cat, who is a bit of a love interest for Simon's Cat.
[Do cats fall in love?]
Unfortunately cats aren't really that romantic so it's quite a contrast to the Simon's Cat Valentines Day videos.
Cats can actually mate with quite a few different partners
and they are not really fussy with who they choose to breed with,
and they don't really choose a mate for life like birds do.
Female cats are also known as queens
and a queen can be only receptive to mate, when she's hormonally ready.
Prior to that she may swipe her paw at a male.
When a female cat is in season she'll call quite a lot or meow
and it's a very different sort of meow to what owners are normally used to.
It's quite a persistent noise and, in fact, some owners that aren't familiar with this sound
may actually think that their cats are in pain, but this isn't true.
They'll also get themselves into what's called the lordosis pose,
this is where they actually go down on their front legs, and put their bottoms in the air
and sometimes put their tail to the side as well,
and they kind of, like I said, getting ready for mating.
Owners will also notice cats will be a lot more affectionate
they may be doing a lot of rolling around
and they'll sometimes be grooming their back end a lot more than usual.
[How can we help our cats?]
Cats can actually start mating as young as four months of age,
which is why I recommend neutering from four months.
There are actually many health benefits of getting cats neutered
For both female and male cats, it can prevent certain cancers,
there are many behavioural benefits, it can cut-out sexual spraying,
they are much less likely to roam, they are also less likely to get into fights.
One queen or female cat, that is not neutered
can be responsible for as many as 20,000 kittens over a five year period
if all of those kittens weren't neutered! That's a lot of kittens!
So that's why, here at Cat's Protection, we do a lot of neutering,
because we have so many cats and kittens all looking for good homes.
[Did you know?]
Females can actually mate with multiple males and in fact, one litter of kittens
can have each kitten having a different father.
This can therefore throw in a lot of different, interesting coat colours in the litter
as well as different behaviours.
The trait for boldness or how outgoing the cat is, comes from the father.
So here is Chloe. With her little ears. A tiny little mouth
and I've given her a great big fat, sort of, face and a little love heart collar.
The thing I love most about Chloe is her huge, great, big tail.
She is based on my second cat.
She was such a lovely cat, had a lovely temperament and very affectionate.
You know, as a little boy growing up we were very close.
So it was nice to get a bit of that memory into this film.
This little beautiful girl cat who is a bit of a snob,
but that's only in the Simon's Cat world, not in real life.
Hello, I am Simon! Welcome to Simon’s Cat Logic. We’ll be finding out from a cat expert
why cats behave, the way they do! Today we are exploring “Let me In! Let me Out!”.
Well, the thing is, it’s fair to say that if you are a cat owner, then you can basically
say goodbye to privacy, because they will follow you everywhere, especially if they
are an older cat or sort of a lap cat, they want to be with you 24/7.
[Why do cats do this?]
Cats are renowned for having a natural curiosity, and so it’s understandable,
that they’d want to know what’s on the other side of the door. Cats are natural control freaks,
so they’d rather have choice over their access.
In the Simon’s Cat video ‘Let me In’,Simon’s Cat would be less reliant on Simon,
if he had exclusive entry cat flap, such as a microchip cat flap or a magnetic one.
This would allow Simon’s Cat to have the choice of when to come in and out.
One of the benefits of having exclusive entry cat flap, is that it would only let in Simon’s Cat
for example, and not the other cats in the neighbourhood.
[Did you know?]
It’s popularly believed that Sir Isaac Newton, long with his many other achievements, invented
the cat flap or the cat door.
If owners have lived with their cats for quite some time, they can build up quite a repertoire
of communication with their cat. This is where cats will try different things through trial and error
so therefore the cat is more likely to do this next time to get that response.
So over time, cats may learn that if they do a particular type of meow, that their owners
will respond and know what it means. So they might do a particular cry to say “Let outside!”
and a different cry to say "I want some food!"
and a different one again to say that they want some attention.
Recently, researchers have found that cats have got two types of purr including the solicitation purr,
which is basically a different purr that’s a bit more intense, when they want
something from you and they found that humans respond to this.
Many owners think that cats train us, but really we are reinforcing these behaviours.
It’s a two-way form of communications between the cat and their owner.
Cats have excellent hearing, between 55 and 77 000 hertz, this is actually at a higher
frequency than dogs can hear.
Well ‘Let me Out’ is basically a bathroom idea, where whenever you go to the bathroom,
to have a shower or … yeah… sorry… whatever you do.
The story of this comes from my oldest cat Jess, who is a real lap cat, and she wants
attention 24/7, so she’ll follow me around meowing and meowing, and she actually changed
her meow now, so she goes… [Simon makes the sound], like it’s really quite impatient,
and she starts to let me know in her voice. But she will follow me around demanding attention,
and, of course, if you go to the bathroom, she sits outside and just calls and calls and calls,
until you finally come out.