Aloof. Indifferent. Diabolical. Plotting. Cunning. Manipulative. Self-interested. Unphased.
No, I’m not describing your toxic family members (this time.) These labels represent some of the prevailing beliefs about cats, and I’m here because I have a bone to pick with them.
We all know people who firmly believe that felines exist purely to get their own needs met, humans be damned. These same people think it’s perfectly fine to leave cats alone for days on end with nothing but a little food and water to sustain them.
But peruse social media and you’ll find countless stories about cats that know their own names (plus a variety of other words), fetch their toys, can be trained to give high fives or sit, require inordinate amounts of love and affection—and pout when they don’t receive it in a timely manner.
Recent research has shown that cats benefit their owners’ mental health as much as dogs do, something cat lovers know well. Some have even credited their feline friends with saving their lives by detecting the symptoms of a heart attack or other potentially fatal event.
To be sure, neither of my cats has saved my life (yet) and only one seems to know their name. For the purposes of this highly academic discussion, I’ll focus on our 5-year-old, a Siamese mix named Alfred.
Alfred has favorite toys (usually his fishing poles with feathers attached to the end) and favorite snacks (freeze-dried chicken). He enjoys consuming malt-flavored feline toothpaste and looks forward to being brushed every evening. He loves going for walks on a leash and chasing sticks and bugs in our backyard. He sleeps through the night in our bed. He “makes the biscuits” on my spouse’s chest when it’s time for breakfast. When we’re off kilter, he feels it, and when he’s out of sorts, we feel it—and jump through any number of hoops trying to figure out what’s going on with him (information that he smugly withholds, sometimes necessitating an expensive vet visit).
Alfred is also very social, which means that he does not enjoy being left home alone. When my spouse and I dare to step out for a few hours (sometimes we have the nerve to replenish household items like toilet paper or tend to our grocery list), Alfred brings his favorite toys to the door, much like a dog might. When we’re not in view, he yowls around the house as though he’s on the verge of death until he finds us, at which point he makes demands for food or fun. He gets bored easily and has perfected his sneer and guilt trip for just those moments. Alfred has brought a level of expertise, talent, and skill to his emotional manipulation that, prior to becoming a cat mom, I’d only ever experienced from my mother.
For those who’ve read this far, I’ll simply point out the obvious: Our social boy is high-maintenance, and we knew we needed to find a way to stimulate him in our absence. Thankfully, we’ve discovered that Alfred is an avid fan of streaming media.
Now when we leave for the day, we put the TV on for him and set it to YouTube channels that stream squirrels, birds, and other wildlife. He happily engages with nature on the screen, and we feel better knowing that he’s occupied. He even has a favorite channel (he recognizes the opening theme). Without further ado, these are a few channels that have sustained Alfred when my spouse and I dare to run errands or allow ourselves a date night.
The YouTube channel Birder King boasts more than 100,000 subscribers and—at the time of writing—147 eight-hour, high-definition videos of birds, squirrels, bunnies, and ducks cavorting with each other.
According to the creator’s About section, the inspiration is simple: “I love cats. I love birds. Cats love watching birds. I created this dedicated Cat TV channel for cats to watch. Cat-approved around the world.” The channel has been posting nature videos weekly since 2018.
Claims about cats’ seal of approval might seem overblown (particularly to those who believe that cats are incapable of joy), but the proof rests in the view count: Nearly all of the channel’s content approaches (or surpasses) 100,000 views, with some videos exceeding 2 million views. That’s a lot of happy cats—or nature lovers in general.
Unlike many other channels we’ve explored, each of Birder King’s videos opens with a signature soundtrack that consists of a short series of bird whistles Alfred can recognize from several rooms away. This was a shrewd choice on the creator’s part—Alfred doesn’t respond to theme music geared toward human tastes. I’m forced to wonder whether cats the world over recognize when a Birder King video has been queued up for them, thanks to those distinctive whistles.
Alfred comes running when he hears Birder King’s signature whistle and doesn’t seem to notice if we leave the house. Whether he watches for the entire two or three hours that we’re gone is anyone’s guess (we have not yet planted pet cameras around the house, as we’re still trying to determine whether that’s a bridge too far).
Given the way he responds to the soundtrack, my hunch is that Birder King is Alfred’s favorite, but he’ll watch any video of birds and squirrels doing bird and squirrel things. We’ve learned, however, that he seems a bit terrified of chickens, so we avoid videos in which chickens are the star of the show.
Thankfully, fish and mice don’t scare the ever-loving crap out of our odd feline, and he does sometimes get bored of content starring birds. This is where YouTube channels like Cat Games and Cat Trumpet come in handy.
Cat Games boasts more than 300,000 subscribers and has been in the cat entertainment game since 2016 (ha, see what I did there?). They specialize in mouse hunts, antagonizing laser toys, and fishing. This channel might be best for short trips out of the house, as their videos range from a couple of minutes to two hours.
Cat Trumpet has more than half a million subscribers, but it isn’t exactly targeting cats with its content. Instead, the creator describes the channel as containing “relaxing videos for sleep, study, and meditation.” But the 12-hour content featuring brightly colored fish is enough to entertain cats who enjoy a bit of TV. That it seems popular with humans is a bonus.
I sometimes worry that Alfred’s media consumption does more harm than good, particularly when nay-sayers suggest that the wildlife on the screen is agitating or frustrating to him, and perhaps they have a point. The downside to streaming birds and fish is that cats cannot “catch” them, and hunting is basically the entire reason for a cat’s existence. It’s a fair concern, but when we need to leave the house, I’m sure some nature-based TV is better than no stimulation at all.
I looked to Jackson Galaxy, the popular cat behaviorist, animal advocate, and star of Animal Planet’s My Cat From Hell to get some insight into Alfred’s preferences. Thankfully, Jackson Galaxy approves of TV for cats. According to the self-proclaimed Cat Daddy’s video on this topic, which has been viewed nearly 100,000 times, having cat TV on, especially when you’re not around, “can do nothing but help.”
Thanks to the experts, we’re confident in our decision to give Alfred an old iPad to watch in bed with us. We also feel much better about leaving the house when we need—or want—to. We deserve to have something of a life outside of our cats—a philosophy with which many of our feline friends vehemently disagree.
