Low-maintenance pets: Cats

CEBU, Philippines - Pets are great companions to have at home, sure to lead to countless hours of fun with their silly antics and quirky quirks.

But as wonderful as having a pet can be, keeping a pet is a huge responsibility, one which requires a lot of devotion from masters, a lot of time, and even a significant amount of money.

Fortunately, there are quite a number of “low-maintenance pets”, pets which don’t really demand a lot of time and effort in their care from owners.

Cats would be one good example, being the self-sufficient animals that they are.

The low-maintenance cat

As pets, cats are different from dogs, in the sense that cats don’t require a lot of attention.

For one, you don’t have to regularly give cats a bath, nor do you have to frequently groom them. They can do both by themselves.

Also, feeding a cat is pretty simple and straightforward, requiring pet owners to provide them with food and fresh water at once or twice a day intervals (at the very least).

Though training a cat to do tricks is nearly impossible, “training” them to be clean and not make a mess in the house is not an issue with cats, since they are naturally clean animals.

Exercise is also not an issue with cats. Just as they are capable of grooming themselves, they are also capable of keeping themselves fit, though overfeeding a cat would tend to add more pounds into his or her small frame.

The thing with cats though, as many cat owners have come to learn, is that their personalities tend to be “fickle” when compared against the personality of a dog’s.

Unlike dogs, cats won’t “come” to their masters when they are called, nor do they follow orders when they are given.

The cat’s inability to follow commands is essentially a part of its self-sufficient nature, with cats being independent creatures who “come” to their masters when they feel like doing so, and not when they are told to.

This may not sound like an attribute which one would want to have in a pet, but given that cats are also affectionate creatures, it is not really a huge downside that comes in between cats and their masters. (FREEMAN)