RESEARCH Science Veterinary Medicine

New book focuses on all things known about domesticated cats

Jim Barlow, Life Sciences Editor
(217) 333-5802; b-james3@uiuc.edu

2/7/03

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Listen inside 34 percent of all U.S. homes and you’ll hear some 75 million domesticated cats purring, some quietly, some loudly. Outside those homes, however, just as many such cats (Felis catus) are hungry strays.

"In many respects, we have become a nation of cat lovers, spending billions of dollars annually on cat food, toys and health care for our cherished household companions," writes Linda P. Case, coordinator of the undergraduate companion animal program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "However, an equally large proportion of cats roams freely and reproduces with little or no control, leading to feral and stray populations of neglected and unwanted cats."

Her comments are in the chapter "The Human-Cat Relationship: Benefits and Responsibilities" in her new book "The Cat: Its Behavior, Nutrition & Health" (Iowa State Press). While the book focuses on all things known about domesticated cats, responsibility is an underlying message, Case said.

"We’ve come a long way in battling the problem of dog over-population," she said. "It’s still a problem, but we haven’t come very far at all in addressing the problem in cats. It is a paradox that while the cat has become a cherished animal, so many additional cats have to die needlessly because they are unwanted and their breeding is uncontrolled."

The almost 400-page book can be a textbook, a reference for companion-animal experts such as breeders, groomers, pet-sitters and veterinarians, or a comprehensive resource for cat owners. It covers the domestication of the cat, breeding, special senses, genetics, behavior, communication, diseases, parasites, first-aid and nutrition.

"Many of my students want to go to vet school or be involved with companion animals in other ways, so I focus my classes on the biology of dogs and cats," Case said.

"I wanted to write a comprehensive book that looked at health and disease, behavior, evolutionary history and domestication of the cat," Case said. "I tried to cover all this at an academic level but also make the book readable to cat owners or others who are very involved with their cats. I wanted the book to capture who the cat is."

Her professional specialties are in behavior, training and nutrition of companion animals. Case teaches in the department of animal sciences and owns a dog-training center in Mahomet, Ill. She also wrote "The Dog: Its Behavior, Nutrition and Health" and "Canine and Feline
Nutrition: A Resource for Companion Animal Professionals."

While the dog has long been considered man’s best friend, Case said, cats now outnumber dogs. There are more than 80 different breeds and numerous "garden variety mixes" that have found their way into human hearts.

"Many people now think of the cat as a little dog, but once you really look at a cat you realize how unique the cat is," she said. "A lot of this uniqueness can be explained by learning about the cat’s history, especially the fact that cats evolved from being a non-social carnivore to basically become a parasite of civilization prior to domestication."

Today’s housecat contains 245 bones but remains quite similar to its ancestor, the African wildcat (Felis silvestris lybica). The cat has retained the keen eyesight and its ability to hear and smell that served it well in the wild.

Cats today interact with their human caretakers much the same way they do with other cats in their social group, Case said. It is the humans’ acceptance of cats that has altered the living relationship, especially, in American homes.

The book – dedicated to Case’s first cat, Mac – features illustrations by Kerry Helms, coordinator of graphic design in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Illinois, and Bruce MacAllister, a free-lance artist in Urbana, Ill.