Ensuring your cat’s well-being does not stop at its physical health but it also encompasses mental welfare and their emotional well-being. We care for cats by not only giving them vaccinations and regular visits to the veterinarian, but by also ensuring that they are well socialized with other cats. They must be able to encounter nature be in touch with their cat-like instincts. They should be able to just be a cat. They should be allowed to chase mice, to marvel at birds, to chase those birds, to pounce on a grasshopper, to roll on the grass. At the end of the day, as much as we may desire to offer our cats as much comfort and love as we accord children, we have to remember at the end of the day that they are animals of a different species than our own.
Our love has to be tailored to giving them what is best for them, not ourselves. We humans have been accused of many things such as being the major cause of global warming and the earth degenerating. Could we also be the reason as to why cats are losing their agility, becoming so lazy and obese in large numbers. Why don’t our cats see the sun? How are we comfortably allowing them to spend their whole lives in our apartments sleeping on the couch all day and in bed all night. Their reflexes have been dulled. Where not even giving them a chance to rear their young ones. As soon as they give birth we instantly ship them off of our homes and give the babies away to somebody else separating them from their mom’s before they even finish suckling.
It’s a bit cruel to be honest. Could we be a little less selfish in our role as cat caregivers. Could we care for these cats the way they ought to be cared for and not how we would like to be cared for ourselves. Let us not pamper them away with spa dates just because we ourselves would like a spa date. Let as grant them a date with nature. Let us allow them to have another cat as a playmate. Let them run around, fight by each other, play with each other. Allow our cats to just be cats. Let this be the definition of responsible cat ownership rather than a fat cat sitting on our couch and sleeping in our bed, engorging them with food. I know you love them but that doesn’t make it responsible.
The same way you would guard your child’s overall wellness, by not only granting them their desires but by regulating them and ensuring their health, by ensuring they go to the right school and eat the right foods, and enroll in a sport, go to church. Let’s not be lazy with blind love. Let us love our pets actively and care for them in a responsible way, being respectful of the fact that they are a different species, with different needs from us. Allow our cats to be cats .
And this is the heart of The Cat Habitat, the reason as to why it was birthed. Our founder Dr. Elizabeth (a licensed veterinarian) just grew sick of seeing this phenomenon become an acceptable norm in our society. Where even our common boarding facilities would basically consist of a cage where they cat would stay till they are picked up by their owners. So she created an alternative space where cats can stay in a stimulated environment surrounded by nature and birds. The Cat Habitat has each unit equipped with ample room both indoors and outdoors and cats can mingle with carefully selected playmates that are matched to their personality.
Cats overall well-being is at our heartbeat. It’s why we do what we do. So allow your cat to experience nature with us every so often, let them play and interact with others, even make a friend. I am sure that it will accord them a much more wholesome life, and you would have a much healthier cat.