Cats and children

In our earlier blog we discussed preparing your cat on a baby’s homecoming. Now I want to talk about children and cats and how to have a more harmonious environment.

Here are some things you can consider:

Fill up the cat’s bank with positive experiences

This will be different for every cat as they are individuals and have different preferences on what they like. You know your cat best so you can choose the toys that they like and enjoy. As a child becomes older they can play with cats. A really long piece of string (I emphasise really long so that no claws go on the child), with a hairband attached can be fun for the cat to chase.

Copy cats

A child will imitate so being mindful of your behaviour is important (they may attempt to carry and pick a cat up) so avoid doing things around your child where possible.

Avoiding chasing

Baby gates can be a great tool as it means you can have a safe space for your child to run around but not chase after your cat. Just like children in a home where there are older people, giving them something to do such as a puzzle or reading a book so they can sit quietly when the cat is around and read them a story!

A cats environment

A cat who has lots of options such as cardboard boxes and hidey holes will help them. A sterile environment where there are no things for the cat can lead the cat to be bored and become self employed and find their own fun! This can lead to attention behaviours such as meowing or scracthing.

Kind hands

Teach children consent petting where they stroke a cat on an area they like for 3 seconds and then take their hand away to see  what the cat likes. This can be a great way of building up trust between the child and the cat. Obviously toddlers can engage in rougher handling and end up pulling tails or prodding cats so making any childminders mindful of this is important.