Paws for thought

YOUR pet cat Fluffy rolls over and waggles her feet in the air, purring loudly. "Ahhhhhhh, what a sweetie" you sigh softly, bending over and tickle the tabby's stripy tummy.

Fluffy plays along for three seconds - mostly because she's just woken up from a five hour nap.

Then she clamps her jaws around your hand and digs her claws in too for good measure.

Righting herself, Fluffy (not perhaps the most apt name in retrospect?) delivers a Paddington stare of distaste, stretches her legs, and stalks off to slay a robin.

You meanwhile are left trying to stem the blood now leaking profusely from your hand.

Perhaps Fluffy is having a bad hair day.

Perhaps Fluffy's fur ball is playing up.

Perhaps Fluffy is giving you a reminder that she is, in fact, descended from the African wild cat and much prefers shredding expensive curtains and chomping sparrows in front of neighbours to having her stomach stroked.

We can only apply the plasters and wonder.

But working out just what the heck really goes on between their pointy ears, is the task that awaits Rachel Casey.

She's gained the cats' protection lectureship in feline behaviour and welfare at the University of Southampton - the first post of its kind in the country.

In between teaching biological sciences students, Rachel's job is investigating what makes kitty tick.

As she walks over to her computer, the vet's every move is followed by a dozen pairs of eyes belonging to her feline visitors.

Rachel, 32, explains how wild cats first came into contact with humans on discovering just how good the rats in Ancient Egyptian grain stores tasted.

The species have rubbed shoulders ever since.

"Cats are very different from us. They're solitary nocturnal predators and are very misunderstood by the people who keep them," says Rachel.

"Whereas we're very visually orientated, cats are much more scent orientated. So if you change the furniture around in your home, you are changing their environment.

"They can't associate objects with ideas - they can't associate being told off with the idea that they're wrong. They can't understand any moral idea."

(Why does that come as no real surprise?).

Rachel tells how when your little lion rubs against your leg he's actually depositing a scent signal all about his feelings at that time.

It's a sort of smelly sign post, which can be referred back to later.

And when kitty sprays, he's normally upset because, say, a rival has come near the house.

This too is a scent signal.

A domestic cat's deep-seated instinct - inherited from its Egyptian forefathers- is to maintain a solitary territory from which it can draw a constant source of food.

Therefore a high-density of cats in any one street can have dramatic consequences.

Stick your head out of the window at night and the MEEEAARRs that accompany hectic feline scrapping can be heard, followed by the flick-flack of the cat flap, as your mouser saunters in with a torn ear and large chunks of fur missing.

The bites received from the opponent will (obviously) become infected within days.

And the only cure is a wallet-rattling trip to the vets, followed by days trying to ram pills down the throat of your moggy - causing yet further lacerations to your, as yet, unhealed hands.

Rachel is interested in doing cat consultations with owners of cats which might be suffering from stress caused by over population.

When anxious, not only can their heart rate and blood pressure rise but their behaviour change to include over-grooming or claw biting.

In serious cases of stress, they can also suffer from physical ailments, such as cystitis.

In terms of humans, kittens learn their preferences for types of people when aged between two and seven weeks of age.

For example, if they are brought up in a house where there is a female owner, then that cat will always have a predisposition for female company.

"If you have a cat that's not very happy about men but a man comes in and ignores it, the cat is more likely to dare to approach them. If you have a man that dares to approach it the cat will think it's a threat and run away."

Rachel has done numerous cat consultations in the city with owners who have problem pets.

She spends hours talking through the animal's behaviour before offering possible corrective action.

"The important thing is to find out the cat's emotional reason for doing something, then tackle it.

" I think cats and humans are very suited to living together. They are excellent pets as long as they are socialised to people when they are young.

"They are very affectionate. We're not very good at expressing ourselves. They are a great non-judgemental social support. In cities where people don't talk to each other, we tend to go for the alternative of having a pet.

"And most cats have a life of Riley."

So the next time Fluffy yawns widely as you tap a rubber ball encouragingly around the kitchen floor, it might be an idea to stop, put your feet up and have a nice, refreshing cup of tea instead.

She's born to be wild - and has important business on her mind.

Fluffy's Egyptian genes have probably been forcing her to repel invaders from the garden for half the night.