September is Happy Cat Month , an event created by the nonprofit CATalyst Council to highlight the value of companion cats and why we should prioritize their health and welfare.

It’s fitting because research shows cats offer many benefits to humans, like boosting the love hormone oxytocin and reducing the stress hormone cortisol while we’re interacting with them, according to Steven Feldman, president of the nonprofit Human Animal Bond Research Institute (HABRI) in Washington, D.C.

In fact, cats have proven beneficial in a variety of settings. For instance, HABRI funded a study on the benefits of cats for children with autism and found cats helped elevate empathy in the children and decreased separation anxiety and hyperactivity.

“These were temperament tested shelter cats that were adopted into these homes,” Feldman said. “Not only did these cats show benefit for the children on the autism spectrum, they showed benefit for the parents, for the caregivers. And there was significant testing on the welfare of the cats. How did they adjust to this situation? And they adjusted well. So we’re able to show that it’s not just dogs, but it can be cats that are beneficial for people in those situations.”

HABRI also funded a preliminary study of the benefits of placing shelter cats with older Americans living alone. Fostering the cats led to improved mental health and loneliness scores.

“At the end of that preliminary study, 97 percent of the people chose to keep the cats,” Feldman said.

Now HABRI is funding a larger clinical trial to measure the physical wellness of the seniors and formally measure the welfare of the cats.

“I’m really excited about this study based on the preliminary data,” he said. “Social isolation and loneliness are really an epidemic in our society.”

Another HABRI-funded study is just getting underway at Oregon State University with teens and pre-teens learning to train cats, according to Feldman.

“It’s going to measure the strength of the bond between the people and the cats, and it’s looking at the benefits to kids’ emotional wellbeing, pro-social behavior, things like that,” he said. “The thought it that some of these kids will go on to train these cats to be therapy cats.”

A Personal Cat Connection

Feldman considered himself a “dog person” until the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, when his college-age children moved back home with him and his wife during lockdowns — and his daughter started agitating for a kitten.

So the family welcomed a grey kitten named Winnifred into their home.

“She’s fantastic,” he said. “She was my first cat, and it turned out I am a cat person.”

Feldman appreciated the chance to learn all about cat behavior. He’s particularly partial to the “slow blink.”

“The slow blink is the cat smile, right? When they’re smiling at you, when they’re very happy with you, they look at you and they slow blink at you and you’re supposed to slow blink back. That’s a really great way to communicate with a cat,” he said, adding with a laugh, “I got good at doing that and then I found myself slow blinking at colleagues on Zoom.”

Feldman hopes that during Happy Cat Month and beyond, fellow cat lovers will strive to enhance their cats’ physical and emotional wellbeing, from developing routines for play and exercise to helping cats overcome the carrier barrier so that they can get regular veterinary exams.

“One of the things to really focus on with training is to make sure that a cat can go into the carrier and that a cat can be handled in a low-stress way. A veterinarian has to lay hands on your cat and you want the cat to be comfortable with that,” he said. “Cats don’t always show when they might be in pain, so it’s really important to have those regular visits to pay close attention and to be able to get them there.”

Ultimately, he hopes people will use resources from the CATalyst Council to help improve their cats’ wellbeing while also strengthening the bond with their cats since feline family members can bring so many benefits to our lives.

“Investing time in the relationship with your cat is one of the best ways to make sure they’re happy and to make sure that you get the maximum benefit from the human-animal bond,” he said. “You can have a bicycle that sits in the garage. It’s not going to make you healthier. So you need to really invest time and effort into your cat’s welfare.”