Cat Scratch Fever

What do cats do home alone? Cat cams have answers
By SUE MANNING, Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES – What do cats do when their owners are away? There was one way to find out — "cat cams."

Fifty house cats were given collar cameras that took a photo every 15 minutes. The results put a digital dent in some human theories about catnapping.

Based on the photos, about 22 percent of the cats' time was spent looking out of windows, 12 percent was used to interact with other family pets and 8 percent was spent climbing on chairs or kitty condos. Just 6 percent of their hours were spent sleeping.

"What surprised me was how active the cats were. I believed my three cats were sleeping during the day," said Jill Villarreal, an animal behavior scientist who collected the data for Nestle Purina PetCare's Friskies brand of cat food.

The 777 photos studied by Villarreal showed the cats looking at a television, computer, DVDs or other media 6 percent of the time and hiding under tables 6 percent of the time.

Coming in at 5 percent was playing with toys; eating or looking at food finished at 4 percent.

Will the cats get movie cameras next? "We are in the think tank now," Villarreal said.



I think between "Kitten Mittens" and Cat Cameras we have all grossly underestimated the impact of cat related products. This niche market could be the one to drag us out of financial paril. Forget legalizing weed, gambling or hookers, all we need to do is start staring at our cats and figure out some new ideas.

In all seriousness it ridiculous how some people treat their pets. Who gives a damn what your cat does when your gone? As long as it isn't destroying the couch it shouldn't matter. And I would have thought that licking its own genetalia would have come in ahead of playing with toys in percentage.