Essential Cattitude: an insight into the feline world is much more than ‘just another cat book’. It combines fascinating information from leading cat behaviour experts with illustrations by some of the UK’s best cat artists and feline-friendly celebrities.
It’s a great read and will grace any bookshelf or coffee table. It might even prove the perfect ‘mat’ for your cat to sit on!
FAB Chief Executive, Claire Bessant, who edited Essential Cattitude, says:
'Most cats live with us very successfully and happily but sometimes we put them in positions where they cannot behave as we would expect or want them to and this can affect their health too. Cats are affected strongly by the environment in which we place them and are sensitive to things we may not even register as being an issue.’
FAB set up its behaviour expert panel at the end of 2006 – inviting a group of people, well known and well respected for their knowledge of and enthusiasm for cats, to get together to discuss behavioural issues. The idea for this book was generated very early in the existence of the behaviour panel. There are many things in the book which are not commonly known or understood about cats and how they live with us. Claire said: ‘Unfortunately we sometimes forget that they are indeed miniature tigers in our living rooms and not stuffed toys decorating the chairs.’
When FAB was founded 50 years ago the lack of information on cat health was an issue but, as far as living with people was concerned, the late 50s and early 60s were probably the best time for cats. Most had very independent lives, most people only kept one cat and the density of cats in our towns and cities was probably lower. We had no great expectations of our cats and respected their independence. Now we lead more frantic, crowded and sometimes needy lives and, in turn, often unwittingly put pressures on our cats.
If we want the relationship between man and cat (or woman and cat!) to continue to blossom through the next 50 years, we need to understand our cats better and acknowledge the pressures we put on them. Essential Cattitude: an insight into the feline world should help us all to do this.
Lyndsey de Paul |
James May |
Dermot Murnaghan |
Our feline-friendly celebrity contributors
Lynsey de Paul, singer and songwriter (pictured top left)
Elizabeth Emanuel, clothes designer
Celia Haddon, journalist
Steve Leonard, vet and presenter
Maureen Lipman, actress
Miriam Margolyes, actress
James May, journalist and presenter (pictured middle left)
Alexander McCall Smith, author
Dermot Murnaghan, broadcaster and presenter (pictured bottom left)
Sir Roy Strong, historian, writer, broadcaster
Marian Forster |
Jacqueline Gaylard |
Alex Johnson |
The feline artists
Paul Dyson, member of SOFA
Diane Elson, member of SOFA
Lesley Fotherby
Marian Forster, member of SOFA
Jacqueline Gaylard, member of SOFA
Alex Johnson, member of SOFA
Denise Laurent, member of SOFA
Janet Pidoux, member of SOFA
Celia Pike, member of SOFA
Louis Sykes, member of SOFA
For more information about SOFA, click here...
Principal feline photographer
 Jane Burton
Cat photographer extraordinaire who sadly passed away at the end of 2007. Jane was a great friend to FAB over the
years – her cat Cynthia is FAB’s logo cat. Jane had a love of animals
that was in no way sentimental. She knew the requirements of each
animal in her care and made sure their needs were met. She had a deep
understanding and knowledge of animals and was always ready to share
her knowledge with other people. For a number of years, she selectively
bred cats to produce a succession of beautiful kittens. Many of these are
now distributed in homes around the country, and have grown into dearly
loved – and much admired – cats.
About the authors - the FAB Behaviour Panel
Jon Bowen
Jon Bowen is a veterinary surgeon and behaviourist. He runs the behavioural medicine referral service at the Royal Veterinary College, where he also teaches. Jon carries out research into the biological basis of behaviour problems at the Imperial College London. He has contributed to several books, including the current and forthcoming BSAVA manuals, and the "behaviour problems in small animals". Jon is a regular speaker at national and international conferences and is a co-director, with Sarah Heath, of Sound Therapy 4 Pets Ltd, a company that produces behavioural therapy products for the prevention of problems such as firework phobia. Jon is involved in the RSPCA's firework campaign for 2008/09. For more information go to www.rspca.org/fireworks
Robert Falconer-Taylor
Robert Falconer-Taylor qualified from the Royal Veterinary College in London
in 1981 and is currently based at a busy small animal practice in West
Sussex where he divides his time between regular veterinary clinical work
and a behavioural referral practice as well as regular teaching, lecturing
and writing. He is also Veterinary Consultant to the Centre of Applied Pet
Ethology (COAPE) based in the UK.
Vicky Halls
Vicky Halls is a qualified veterinary nurse and has worked closely with cats since 1988 in rescue centres and veterinary practice. She started seeing cat behaviour cases in 1995 and three years later she became a member of the Association of Pet Behaviour Counsellors. She now visits patients and their owners, on referral from veterinary surgeons, all over the UK and Ireland.
Vicky’s books entitled Cat Confidential and Cat Detective have both appeared in the Sunday Times bestsellers list. Her third book, Cat Counsellor is now available in paperback and she is currently writing her fourth.
Her particular interests are feline geriatric behaviour, environmental enrichment for indoor cats and the complexities of the modern cat/owner relationship. When she is not seeing her problem patients she is tending to the emotional needs of her Devon Rex, Mangus!
Sarah Heath
Sarah qualified from Bristol University spent four years in mixed general practice before setting up a behaviour medicine referral practice in 1992. She is an Honorary Lecturer in small animal behavioural medicine at Liverpool University Veterinary school and an external tutor on the Postgraduate Diploma/MSc course in Companion Animal Behaviour Counselling at Southampton University. Sarah is President of the European Society for Veterinary Clinical Ethology and in 2002 became a Founding Diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Behavioural Medicine – Companion Animals and she is currently President of that College. Her research interests include canine and feline obesity, age related behavioural disorders and the interplay between behaviour and physical illness in dogs and cats. She lectures extensively at home and abroad on behavioural topics.
Kim Horsford
Kim Horsford is an FAB Trustee, cattery inspector and part-time cat
behaviourist. As a result of living with a ‘behaviourally challenged’ cat,
she was led to the COAPE behaviour course several years ago. For several
years in the 90s, Kim lived in Bermuda and was president of BFAB (Bermuda
Feline Assistance Bureau), running a trap, spay/neuter and release program
and shelter for feral cats
Jenna Kiddie
After graduating from the University of Aberdeen with a BSc (Hons) in Zoology Jenna Kiddie completed an MSc in Applied Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare at the University of Edinburgh. She was then awarded the Cats Protection Clinical Training Scholarship in Feline Behaviour and Welfare at the University of Bristol in 2005.
As well as seeing cases at the university’s behaviour referral clinic, Jenna teaches on the BVSc, VNPA and BSc Behaviour and Welfare courses. She also runs feline behaviour training days for the staff and volunteers of Cats Protection.
Daniel Mills
Professor Daniel Mills, became the country’s first specialist in veterinary behavioural medicine, to be recognised by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons and is now the country’s first professor of the discipline – at the University of Lincoln. Daniel was one of the founders of the biennial international meetings which have assisted in shaping the profession and has written extensive publications on a range of animals and exotic species. Among his recognised practical achievements he has developed the Lincoln stable mirror to assist horses with isolation problems and successfully used animal pheromones to control badly behaved pets.
Daniel combines both his behavioural and clinical knowledge to offer a referral clinic for animals with behaviour problems, which is open to student attendance throughout their period of study at the university. He also provides consultancy to a range of organisations in the animal care and science industries and co-ordinates independent trials of potential new products in addition to developing his own initiatives which focus on improving behaviour without compromising welfare. He lectures internationally on companion animal behavioural medicine, is principal author of the text Equine Behaviour, Principles and Practice and is co-editor of the BSAVA Manual of Canine and Feline Behavioural Medicine
Peter Neville
Peter Neville is a founding Director of the Centre of Applied Pet Ethology (COAPE) in the UK. In practice for the treatment of behaviour problems in pets for nearly 20 years, Peter established the behaviour referral clinic at the Dept of Vet Medicine, Bristol in 1990. He has been the Visiting Scholar in Animal Behaviour in the Animal Sciences Dept at Ohio State University, USA since 2002 and is a speaker in high demand at veterinary, behaviour and training meetings around the world.
Author of the internationally best-selling books: ‘Do Cats Need Shrinks?’ (and ‘Do Dogs Need Shrinks?’) and many other books, videos and papers, Peter is a behaviour consultant to Nestle Purina PetCare in the UK and the European licence holder for the patented Gentle Leader® Headcollar training system for dogs.
Peter also leads ‘behind the scenes’ special safaris in Africa and Europe observing the behaviour and studying the ecology of Cheetah, African Wild Dogs, wolves and elephants first hand with biologists and vets in the field.
Francesca Riccomini
Francesca Riccomini gained considerable experience as a small animal clinician in the south of England after graduating as a veterinary surgeon from the Royal Veterinary College, University of London in 1974. During this time her interest in companion animal behaviour and its impact on welfare and the human-animal bond deepened, leading in 2001 to a Post-Graduate Diploma in Companion Animal Behaviour Counselling from Southampton University.
Since then Francesca has specialised in behavioural medicine running a behaviour referral service seeing a variety of cases referred from veterinary practices over a wide area. In addition, she was one of the main authors of the FAB’s first ‘Cat Friendly Practice’ book, and writes companion animal behaviour related articles for a number of publications, including Veterinary Times, VN Times, The Cat (magazine of Cats Protection), Pet Focus and Your Cat magazine, for which she regularly addresses readers’ behavioural queries.
An enthusiastic speaker at seminars and lectures aimed at veterinary, behaviourist, rescue society and pet owning audiences, Francesca’s first book ‘Know Your Cat’ (Hamlyn) is due for publication in April 2008. She is also co-author of ‘What if my cat…?Interpet publications.
Roger Tabor
Roger is a television presenter, biologist, naturalist, behaviourist and award winning author. He is recognised as one of the world’s leading authorities on cats and has written and presented two BBC TV series – Cats and Understanding Cats. He is also acknowledged as the field ecologist who pioneered the study of urban feral cats, and has actively worked on the behaviour and ecology of cats for over 25 years. Roger is a regular contributor to a range of publications and TV programmes. He has written a number of books including the best selling 100 Ways to Understand Your Cat.
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